Book of poems may put faces on homeless

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

The poet William Carlos Williams wrote, "It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."

This week David Buer, a Franciscan friar and founder of the daytime drop-in center called Poverello House, handed a collection of poems and first-person accounts written by homeless people to the Las Vegas City Council, hoping to influence the policymaking that is often the news of the day.

Called "21st Century Street Stories," the book was compiled earlier this year at Poverello House and on the streets of Las Vegas. About 700 copies of the book, which are not for sale, were printed, Buer said.

The slim volume hit the hands of Las Vegas officials Wednesday, a day after the city was named the nation's "meanest city" to homeless people in a report by the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless.

On Thursday Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman recited his favorite poem from the book: "Friends."

Written by a homeless man named Alan Smith, the poem spoke of "opening ... hearts/To those in need" and "Turning sorrow/Into joy."

"That's a great poem," Goodman said. "All they have to do is leave their drugs and booze behind, and we'd be glad to turn their sorrow into joy," he said.

The book's back cover says it is intended as "an antidote to the harsh policies and rhetoric that attack" the homeless. Buer gave it to Las Vegas officials -- as well as to the North Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commission in previous weeks -- hoping the officials would "see the suffering and ... help relieve (it)."

Clark County Manager Thom Reilly called the project "compelling" and said he was particularly touched by some of the accounts of men and women who are on the streets with their children.

"This reinforces that they're not a homogenous group. They're individual people with individual stories," said Reilly, who once worked with a New York nonprofit that helped homeless families.

"It's hard to read stories like this and not be moved by them," he said.

Reilly also said that poems and stories are an effective way of influencing policy, since they "highlight the struggles in this population."

North Las Vegas Councilwoman Stephanie Smith -- who serves on a regional homelessness task force Goodman chairs -- agreed.

"This book personalizes the situation," Smith said. "It shows we need to be active in preventing people from going over the edge ... and becoming homeless -- particularly families."

Goodman said he thought "some of the poems are full of pathos and deserve to be read" -- but that they didn't change his basic position on homelessness, which he said is based on helping those who want help to get off the streets and into housing.

"I can't think of a more enlightened approach," he said.

The mayor also noted that the middle section of the book differed from the rest, being a series of quotes taken from local and regional newspapers that seemed to be his, but lacked attribution.

The quotes included: "Las Vegas has a reputation as being a haven for the homeless, and I'm going to put an end to that reputation."

And, "Run them out of town like the old Wild West sheriff."

"It looks like all these quotes came from me, and there's a lot of people who would agree with me," Goodman said.

"They weren't said in secret and they were shouted out," he said.

"I'm entitled to at least a footnote in the book."