MASH Village continues departure from Las Vegas

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, July 12, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

The operators of the MASH Village shelter take a step closer Monday to their exit from Las Vegas: Families no longer will be accepted into a program that gave them a roof over their heads while getting back on their feet and into permanent housing.

The program's shut doors are part of an ebb and flow of homeless services in the Las Vegas Valley that has been particularly dynamic in the past year or so, with hundreds of beds lost and hundreds more soon to be added.

MASH Village's current move is part of the San Diego-based nonprofit called SVDP Management's plan to stop running the shelter on Sept. 30. MASH needed time to find places to live for the 77 people currently in the program, said Ruth Bruland, executive director of the shelter.

As a result families without a place to live will now have greatly limited options at a time when homeless advocates say more families are showing up on the valley's streets.

"What seems to be the case is that families come here ... looking for a job -- especially since Las Vegas has a reputation around the country as having jobs in the casino industry -- and then they get here and it just doesn't work out," said Ryan Hall, a staff member of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, one of the few nonprofits in the region that gives shelter to nuclear families.

The nonprofit gets up to four calls a day from families it can't help, he said.

"This is definitely on the rise in recent years," Hall said.

The 28-month program at MASH currently has 30 parents and 36 children, in a mix of single-parent and nuclear families. Eight single women over 50 were also added to the program in recent months.

Only one of the families has lined up a place to call home, while the rest face uncertain futures, Bruland said.

"We will be working on finding them some sort of transitional or permanent housing until the end of September, since there aren't many options out there," she said.

One option -- at least for the single mothers at the MASH Village program -- may be the Shade Tree shelter right next door.

The Shade Tree has 164 emergency shelter beds -- 80 for single women and 84 for women with children. The shelter also has 124 transitional housing beds -- 40 for single women and 84 for women with children. The transitional program, fully operational only recently, has spaces available, shelter director Brenda Dizon said.

A block away Catholic Charities is putting the finishing touches on a $12 million expansion scheduled to open its doors next month. It will provide 959 more beds to the homeless, including 204 emergency beds, 188 transitional housing beds, 447 beds tied to different work programs and 120 apartments -- all for single men or women.

These beds will be added to the 400 Catholic Charities currently offers.

"Unfortunately, families are outside all this, although we can help working families with different social services and food if they need it," Ed Skonicki, executive director for the shelter, said.

The expansion hasn't been without a cost, beyond the money. The nonprofit had to close 200 shelter beds when construction began a year ago.

To the west of MASH Village, the Salvation Army has just gained 130 emergency shelter beds -- or mats -- in the past month, after Las Vegas and Clark County gave the shelter a three-month grant of about $50,000. The grant covers the period between MASH Village's June closing of its 250-man emergency shelter tent and Catholic Charities' August opening.

The mats are used for single men and women, although some single mothers are allowed to stay with their children. Since it has opened, all the mats have been used every night, said Charlie Desiderio, spokesman for the shelter.

They help replenish 130 emergency beds lost last September because of a lack of funding.

The Salvation Army also has 70 transitional apartments tied to a training program for single men and women, 42 apartments for the mentally ill and a total of 122 beds for drug addicts kicking the habit, many of whom are homeless.

The other major shelter in the valley, the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, has 62 emergency shelter beds and 113 beds tied to a residential program, unevenly divided between men and women. Some of the women in each program have children, Rev. David Blacksmith, director for the shelter, said.

Blacksmith said his program is currently filled to capacity, but the mission will open a new building at the end of the year with 152 additional beds for men -- including three apartments for men with children.

The remaining options for homeless families in the valley come from smaller nonprofit programs.

With 27 apartments scattered throughout the region, the Women's Development Center offers transitional housing for single parents with children. The center may help some of the families remaining at MASH Village, Director Candace Ruisi said.

The Economic Opportunity Board has nine transitional apartments for families who are homeless or on the verge of homelessness.

The Interfaith Hospitality Network places three to four families at a time in houses of worship around the valley, where they're allowed to stay one to two months -- "depending on when they find another place to go," Hall said.

Finding a place to go is what Ruth Bruland will be doing for several dozen families during the coming months.

"There are no easy answers to finding places for these people," she said.

"Our worst nightmare is that one of these families will wind up back on the streets."