Las Vegas OKs funds for homeless center

Judy Odierna

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

After pledging to contribute an additional $80,000 to keep the Crisis Intervention Center for the homeless open, several Las Vegas City Council members chided the governments of Henderson and North Las Vegas for not anteing up.

"They need to do their part also," Councilman Gary Reese said Wednesday. "I don't know why it always falls on our head."

Mayor Oscar Goodman said even though the center is within the city, the the center serves the needs of all of Southern Nevada.

"Henderson sends (the homeless) down to us," Goodman said. "I want to appeal to the other jurisdictions that it is unfair for us to carry the brunt of this."

Henderson officials deny the accusation they ship their homeless westward.

"We concentrate on homeless prevention programs as opposed to shelters that do not necessarily promote self-sufficiency," Danielle Turner, grants program coordinator for the city, said. Henderson funding goes to the Salvation Army food bank, emergency rental sources, Safe House for domestic violence and the county's Women's Development Center, she said.

She added that none of the agencies in Las Vegas that serve the homeless have applied to Henderson for money.

Henderson officials noted that a 1999 count of the homeless conducted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found 4.8 percent of the valley's homeless live in Henderson, compared with 58.6 percent in Las Vegas, 19.8 percent in unincorporated Clark County and 17.2 percent in North Las Vegas.

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon said Las Vegas officials have voiced similar complaints in the past and their criticisms then and now are unjustified.

"It's just simply not the case. We more than foot the bill for all the homeless they put on our doorstep," Montandon said.

He declined to further respond to Goodman's comments Wednesday. In the past Montandon has complained that many of the homeless services offered in Las Vegas are located just across the North Las Vegas city line, which has led many homeless to frequent parks and vacant lots in North Las Vegas.

Until recently the Crisis Intervention Center was part of a complex of homeless services called MASH Village, which also included shelters for men and families as well as transitional housing and a medical clinic. The center provides a variety of social services in a single location.

The San Diego-based nonprofit that ran MASH Village pulled out of Las Vegas last fall, and the city sought another group to provide the services at the site, which the city owns. Only Catholic Charities submitted a proposal, and it was to run only the Crisis Intervention Center.

The city's five-month agreement with Catholic Charities included almost $227,000 to run the center. Of that, almost $160,000 was from federal funds that MASH Village did not use, $25,000 from United Way, $15,000 from Clark County and $40,000 from Las Vegas.

That agreement expires Feb. 28. Catholic Charities said it would need an additional $160,000 to run the center through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. It sought $80,000 from the city and $80,000 from Clark County.

Clark County commissioners will review the item in March.

David L. Brown, who operates the Crisis Intervention Center for Catholic Charities, said he, too, thinks all local agencies should help fund the center.

"Homelessness is an issue that faces everyone," Brown said. "We all know it's there and we choose not to see it. I don't believe (Las Vegas) should bear the responsibility of addressing the issue of homelessness on its own. It faces Southern Nevada as a whole, and that does include Henderson and North Las Vegas."

The city is identifying several other options to keep the center running after the end of June.

One proposal is to continue operating the center with a nonprofit like Catholic Charities handling the administration. Las Vegas and Clark County would have to foot the bill.

Another option would also keep the administration under a nonprofit and have all local entities contribute to cover the costs using a formula based on population.

Brown said Catholic Charities would remain as administrators if the city chose either of those options.

"If we were approached, we would have to look at what it would take to operate this long-term," Brown said. "We would have to look at the financials."

A third option would have Clark County Social Services operate the facility, and Las Vegas and possibly other agencies pay for overhead such as utilities and maintenance. That option would cost more than $750,000 annually.

Another possibility, supported by Reese, would be to change to the function of the facility to an in-house mental health triage and outreach center.

Sun reporters

Dan Kulin and Ed Koch contributed to this story.