No takers for MASH Village

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, July 16, 2002 | 11:03 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas received only one answer in its call for a nonprofit to run a downtown homeless shelter when the shelter's current operator pulls out Oct. 1 -- and the answer was not yes or no, but a maybe.

Monday's deadline came with Catholic Charities -- a big player in the "homeless corridor" downtown -- submitting a plan to run MASH Village's Crisis Intervention Center, a one-stop collection of social services agencies that help the homeless. The charity said it would step in only on the city's tab and not take on other programs at the site.

City officials welcomed the proposal, even if it didn't address all of the issues laid out in the city's request for a new operator.

"I'm really gratified that an organization with the historic success of Catholic Charities is even considering operating the site," said Sharon Segerblom, director of the city's Neighborhood Services, which will evaluate the proposal.

She noted that the Crisis Intervention Center, which offers the services of about 20 agencies, was the one program that most needed continuity.

"It's difficult to reassemble that many participants, and we wanted to keep all of those people together," she said.

The city's original request was for an agency that would run MASH Village's shelter for families, Crisis Intervention Center and other programs when San Diego-based S.V.D.P. Management ends its contract this fall due to a lack of funds.

The search's outcome, which would leave the shelter closed in October, caused concern among homeless advocates.

"We're hitting a brick wall here, where there's got to be a search for alternatives ... or we will have a tremendous deficit in the valley," said Gus Ramos, chairman of the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, a broad-based umbrella group of 70 public and private agencies.

Catholic Charities said the city's request was beyond its scope.

"We had no appetite to take over the entire project as proposed by the city," said Ed Skonicki, executive director of the nonprofit.

"I don't think anybody will accept their proposal as is," he said.

Skonicki said problems he saw in the city's request included the cost of repairing two buildings in MASH Village and the need to raise matching funds to go along with a federal grant linked to the site.

"We just don't have that kind of money," he said. The charity is currently finishing an expansion to its facilities across the street from MASH Village at a cost of at least $12 million.

As for the rest of the property: "Unfortunately, the city has a chunk of land they have to find a use for, it seems."