Homeless task force concerned about lack of gaming interest

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 11:55 a.m.

More than a year after Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman created a task force to devise a regional plan to address homelessness, the board's members are concerned that a seat at the table set aside for the gaming industry remains empty.

Goodman got the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition's go-ahead to form the task force on homelessnes in February 2001, and subsequently sought the industry's input toward developing a regional solution.

But six meetings and three drafts of a plan later, although two gaming industry representatives have been invited to serve on the task force, neither has showed.

Their absence has not gone unnoticed.

"Solving this critical social problem is going to take partnership from the community as a whole, and gaming is an important part of the community," said Gus Ramos, assistant executive director of the Clark County Housing Authority and a member of the task force.

Bill Arent, task force coordinator, and Punam Mather, vice president of community affairs and government relations for MGM-MIRAGE, say it's likely a misunderstanding.

Henderson Councilman Stephen Kirk, also a member of the task force, said the plan to deal with the homeless issue will be lacking if done without input from the gaming industry.

When the body was created in a February 2001 planning coalition meeting, membership was to be "inclusive of community members who have a vested interest in the delivery of homeless services," according to the coalition's minutes.

Suggested members included elected officials from Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Clark County, as well as a homeless advocate, a nonprofit agency, a faith-based agency, a financial institution, a private citizen and a business representative. The last suggested member was a person from a gaming company who later said he could not serve.

The task force held its first meeting in July 2001. The next month Mather's name was suggested to the regional coalition and unanimously approved.

The task force met again three times in 2001 and in January 2002, but Mather never attended the meetings.

When the task force reported back to the regional coalition in February 2002, minutes of the meeting show that Mather was again nominated to serve on the task force, and again the motion was unanimously approved.

After Mather's absence at the most recent meeting March 21, Arent sent a message to her office asking about the issue.

"I thought my office had communicated to the mayor's office from the very beginning that I would be unable to participate in the task force due to other commitments," Mather said.

"We didn't want to create an expectation that couldn't be fulfilled."

Mather also said that she understood the added value of her company's participation, but she deferred to homelessness experts when it came to planning on the issue.

"There are 3,000 nonprofit organizations in this community," she said.

"We are asked countless times to participate in and shape what they're doing, but we're not always able to do so."

She said that her company is concerned about the issue and helps many families in the Las Vegas Valley -- that would otherwise be on the verge of homelessness -- by creating jobs.

"I think our efforts are better placed in job creation than in deciding where to place a homeless shelter," she said.

She also said that her company gets 350 to 400 requests for charitable donations weekly, and will carefully evaluate any request for financial support of the task force's plan.

Meanwhile, Goodman said Thursday that his staff was searching for a replacement from the gaming industry to serve on the task force.

"If we're able to create the environment where the homeless are being taken care of to the degree that they're not on the streets, then it's better for the gaming industry as well as the rest of the community," said Ramos.

"Unless we deal with this problem now it could get to the point where they're sleeping in front of the casinos as well."