State to release frozen funds for homeless pilot project

Monday, July 8, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- After a firm push from state legislators, Gov. Kenny Guinn's administration has decided to release $500,000 for a pilot project to find and treat the mentally ill homeless in Southern Nevada.

The state Human Resources Department initially decided to freeze the money to help cure the $200 million deficit facing the state this biennium.

Department Director Mike Willden said a request for proposals will be released this week so companies and organizations can bid for the contract to provide services for the mentally ill homeless.

The 2001 Legislature, which provided the $500,000, estimated there were more than 7,000 adults homeless in Southern Nevada and that more than 31 percent of them "have severe and persistent mental illness."

The state announced it would not start the program as scheduled in July because of the budget shortfall, but the Legislative Interim Finance Committee last month told Guinn it wanted the project to go forward.

"The IFC sent a message," Willden said. "I don't know that the message was needed. The governor is sensitive to the homeless issue."

Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, said the program would "focus on the severely mentally ill and the chronic inebriate," people, she said, who are "clogging the county jail and the emergency rooms."

It is not intended for people who have temporarily lost their jobs, said Tiffany, who led the charge to get the $500,000 released.

"We're focusing on those who are sleeping behind garbage cans and living under the bridges."

It is not intended to replace regular shelters, she said, rather to get these people on medication and then find a place for them to live.

Clark County, she said, has only one person working to find and help these mentally ill homeless. The state has only one such employee as well.

"We've had a heck of a time getting this through the executive branch," said Tiffany.

Willden said he hopes to get approval for the contract from the state Board of Examiners by its Sept. 10 meeting

The company that wins the contract will be responsible for everything, said Willden -- finding housing, getting medications and directing those eligible to appropriate programs.

If the state has a bed vacancy in its program in Southern Nevada, it will accept those who are found by the contractor. But Willden said that was unlikely.

"We're already bursting at the seams," Willden said.

Willden said he wants to get the project off the ground so it can gather information to present to the 2003 Legislature, which convenes in February. The pilot project won't generate enough information for Guinn to include in his budget, Willden said.

But Willden said the department is working on some new programs.

He also said Tiffany has indicated she may sponsor her own bill in the 2003 session. He said she is interested in data from the pilot program because of the question on the Clark County ballot about increasing the property tax to take care the homeless. The information gathered in the pilot project could help in deciding where that money might be spent.