Editorial: Wrong to use people as pawns

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 5:19 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: April 27, 2003

When Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman took office four years ago, homeless people were adequately served through MASH Village. There was a shelter for families, a tent offering winter shelter, a medical clinic and a Crisis Intervention Center where homeless people could seek help from a multitude of agencies. After MASH Village's management team left town last fall, only the crisis center survived, albeit in severely stripped-down form.

The crisis center, too, would have folded except for donations of $80,000 apiece from Las Vegas and Clark County, money that will be exhausted by June 30. Its continued survival is now in doubt. In a letter to Clark County Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, Goodman stated, "The city of Las Vegas and Clark County will not proceed with funding the Crisis Intervention Center without the cooperation and contributions from (Henderson and North Las Vegas)."

Goodman has been right over the past several years in calling upon those two cities to help financially with what clearly is a regional issue. The two cities argue that their programs aimed to prevent homelessness obviate their responsibility to provide direct assistance. In our view, local governments, all of them, have the responsibility to help meet the basic humanitarian needs of homeless people, whose ranks include many children.

This does not, however, justify Goodman's threat, which is tantamount to gambling with the lives of people to achieve victory in a policy dispute. Fortunately, although Goodman invoked the name of Clark County in his letter, county spokesman Erik Pappa confirmed Friday that the county will continue to support the crisis center regardless of any action or inaction by Henderson and North Las Vegas.

The management team's reason for abandoning MASH Village after seven years was that it could not raise sufficient money from the community. Goodman, who in the past has verbally debased homeless people and who is now threatening to cut off funding for them, has done nothing to foster a community where fund-raising for the homeless will improve. Recently, the privately funded Las Vegas Rescue Mission opened three rooms for homeless fathers. We've yet to hear any such positive news from Goodman about serving the homeless.