Editorial: Homeless issue needs leadership

Tuesday, March 26, 2002 | 8:26 a.m.

Will dozens of homeless people huddling in and around their makeshift shelters at a downtown intersection disappear if city officials approach at dawn with orders for them to move along? Is there a guarantee the makeshift shelters and attendant waste will never return if officials follow up with front-end loaders and high-pressure hoses? The city of Las Vegas must think so, since that's what happened early Sunday morning as Mayor Oscar Goodman carried out his promise to break up the homeless camp at Foremaster Lane and Main Street.

But the city has had three years now -- ever since Goodman's election -- to learn the consequences of that policy. Forcing homeless people out of one area pushes them into another, meaning Goodman's futile and callous "move 'em out" policy repeats itself over and over. The mayor's long-term solution, to label homelessness a regional problem and persuade all Southern Nevada governments to pool their resources, neglects the need for the city to offer a plan now. There is nothing any city can do to make homelessness go away, which is what Goodman seems to be counting on. The best approach for the city would be to acknowledge its responsibility, determine the scope of the problem, and provide adequate shelter and sanitary facilities.

Goodman instead wants to blame the homeless, by saying they are willfully rejecting accommodations -- when we all know that area shelters are overflowing. And so on a rainy Sunday morning, the tactic of "legally and humanely" booting the homeless was used once again. Goodman should appoint a homeless coordinator and begin showing some real leadership on this issue.