Plan for homeless database faces drop-off in funding

Wednesday, June 12, 2002 | 9:09 a.m.

A database meant to track homeless people through the Las Vegas Valley's dozens of social service agencies was struck from a list of federal grants for 2002, Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition officials said Tuesday.

A database of some sort has been discussed for years among those who work with the homeless, in order to gather information for policymaking and to better serve those who seek help.

This year, the coalition, an umbrella group of 70 private and public groups that work with the homeless, developed a proposal for the annual Department of Housing and Urban Development grants. But the community-based committee that evaluates the proposals would only recommend the project for one year, instead of the three originally sought -- and for $189,706, instead of $405,482.

The committee made the decision based on what it said was a need to recommend projects that would deliver services directly to the homeless.

But coalition officials said that the database wouldn't be viable with so little funding.

"Investing in a bunch of computers and software that would be useless in two years seems like a bad idea," Bridget Claridy said. "At this point, the project is dead."

Still, Gus Ramos, coalition chairman, said he wasn't giving up on trying to set up a tracking system for homeless services.

"I thought it was little shortsighted of the committee to cut back the proposal, since a database would greatly help all of us who work with the homeless and local governments that fund services," he said.

Ramos said the need for better information will only become greater as the region's population increases, bringing with it an increase in homelessness.

"I guess it's human nature to wait until the water is coming under the door to notice that there's a flood," he said.