More study sought on homeless plan

Friday, Jan. 18, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

A five-point plan for reducing homelessness in the Las Vegas Valley will not be put into action by the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition until more study is done, a task force decided Thursday.

Though the coalition's year-old Homeless Task Force approved the plan in a public meeting Thursday, the task force voted not to act on the plan until it figures out how state and local governments, nonprofit groups that serve the homeless and local businesses will work together to implement the plan, as well as how much the plan will cost.

The plan, written by a California-based nonprofit organization called HomeBase, is based on priorities set in Las Vegas last September during a summit of more than 100 elected officials, nonprofit organizations and homeless people.

The plan's five recommendations:

The task force includes officials from the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson and from Clark County, as well as the chairman of the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition and representatives of the community and business.

Members of the year-old task force, though pleased with the plan, recognized the obstacles to making it work.

"Though we've developed a detailed plan, it's not clear what the relationship between the region's different jurisdictions will be in implementing the plan, how to make decisions about implementing any part of the plan, or who will be responsible for these decisions," said Marty Fleetwood, executive director of HomeBase and the study's author.