City may lease crisis center to Salvation Army

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2003 | 11:04 a.m.

Las Vegas could soon begin negotiating to lease the closed Crisis Intervention Center to the Salvation Army so that it can be the short-term home for the agency's family services department and other operations.

The lease proposal has been in the works for weeks, but Monday night's fire at the organization's North Las Vegas warehouse made the need for additional space an even more pressing issue, Charles Desiderio, spokesman for the Salvation Army Clark County Command, said.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly and Councilwoman Janet Moncrief, acting as the Las Vegas City Council Real Estate Committee, on Monday recommended that full council vote on moving forward with the lease. The item is on the consent agenda for Wednesday's meeting, which means it is considered routine and is expected to be approved.

Before Monday night's fire, Salvation Army officials said they needed the center for just 18 months while their 35 W. Owens Ave. campus is torn up because of construction of the $4 million Lied Vocational Training Center and new dining room. They also said they hoped to eventually make the crisis building a permanent home for family services, a year-round Christmas project and additional vocational training classrooms.

The Salvation Army proposes to pay the city $1 a year for the use of the building that once was a one-stop center for dozens of social services but closed on June 27 after three local municipalities, including Las Vegas, declined to co-finance the center as part of a plan to address homelessness as a regional issue.

The Salvation Army, which would provide maintenance for the property, says the crisis building, is ideal for services that are primarily used by its clients who have homes but want to improve their status in life. The building is around the corner from the organization's Owens Avenue shelter operation, The agency wants to reach a deal and move into the center before the end of the month.

"This is all part of our goal to help people become self-sufficient and not just warehouse them," Desiderio said. "Part of our business will always be sheltering some people. But if all we provide is just a bed and meals, what will we have accomplished in 20 years?"

The city of Las Vegas also has begun identifying permanent low-cost housing to reduce the homeless dilemma, officials said. The city is negotiating with one of the nation's largest developers of low-cost housing to replace the old MASH Village Transitional Living Center on property adjacent to the old Crisis Intervention Center.

Richard Motta, president of New York-based USA HELP, was in Las Vegas last week to talk to Mayor Oscar Goodman and other city officials about turning the former MASH site at 1559 N. Main St. into low-income housing primarily for military veterans.

"We are talking about first-class apartment units," said Motta, whose organization has built two other low-cost projects in Las Vegas that offer temporary transitional housing. "This will be the next step -- permanent private housing where people can stay as long as they want."

HELP USA has built more than 2,300 transitional housing units nationwide and nearly 200 in Las Vegas. Its two local projects are the 75-unit Bonanza View Apartments, at 640 McKnight St., near Bonanza Road and Eastern Avenue that opened last year and the 120-unit transitional housing project built in 1999 on the Main Street campus of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, across the street from the old MASH shelter.

Desiderio said that after 18 months, the Salvation Army would like to have the option to petition the city to permanently take over the Crisis Intervention Center.

Weekly, however, said the city is not sure it wants to tie itself down to a long-term commitment.

"The use of the center for 18 months will help the Salvation Army while it is building its new facility," Weekly said after Monday's meeting. "Right now, that is all we are concentrating on. We want to keep our options open if a better use comes along."

Desiderio believes that during the next year and a half the Salvation Army can show the city that it is "a good neighbor and a good partner" and is the best client for that property.

"Right now our Family Services helps more than 1,000 families a month, and this building is the perfect size for that purpose," said Desiderio who did not attend Monday's meeting. "Also, for us, Christmas is a year-round project. This year, we expect to have 15,000 kids in need and each child getting three gifts. We need the space to store gifts and wrap them."

Earlier this year, the City Council approved spending up to $200,000 to bulldoze the pink prefabricated MASH shelter building on the 10-acre site. The adjacent Crisis Intervention Center was not made part of those demolition plans.