Editorial: Low priority lingers for city’s homeless

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 9:32 a.m.

The MASH Village homeless shelter has received diminished priority over the past three years from the Las Vegas City Council and Mayor Oscar Goodman. One consequence is that the Rev. Joe Carroll's San Diego-based nonprofit group in October will end its eight-year run as the shelter's inaugural manager.

On Wednesday the city began soliciting proposals from other management groups. The careless way in which the solicitations were handled suggests that the Las Vegas City Council's low priority for the homeless may continue. The request for proposals was written so vaguely that likely applicants -- Catholic Charities and The Shade Tree shelter for women among them -- were discouraged from even applying. The request made no guarantees after February, when a federal grant propping up the shelter expires. It didn't say how much was left in the grant and it didn't say who would be responsible for necessary repairs at the shelter. Brenda Dizon, The Shade Tree's executive director, said the request left "too many unanswered questions" for her agency to even consider applying.

If this request for proposals is an example of the city's post-Father Joe commitment to the shelter, the despair associated with homelessness will only grow in Las Vegas. The city still has time to provide applicants with specific answers to their questions and we encourage it to do so.

Meanwhile, the city should oversee, in detail, the application that Father Joe's group is preparing in order to renew, for 2003-2005, the $1.57 million federal grant that sustains the shelter. Given the lack of local support, that grant is crucial to MASH's future and the city attorney's office should read every word before it goes out, to ensure that 100 percent of any grant money comes to Las Vegas and none of it follows Father Joe's management group back to San Diego.