Body of homeless man found

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, Jan. 3, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

A man was found dead under a bridge Thursday morning, prompting people who work with the homeless to repeat recent warnings that the coming cold months will bring more casualties among those who live on the streets of the Las Vegas Valley.

Metro Police found the dead man in a wash that runs along the south side of a shopping center near Nellis and Charleston boulevards, in a spot where small groups of homeless men sometimes camp, officials said.

"He was underneath the bridge all wrapped up in his bed," Metro Sgt. Mike Thompson said. The man's identity and the cause of his death remain unknown pending an autopsy, but exposure may have been responsible for the casualty, advocates said. Overnight temperatures dipped to 37 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The casualty -- the year's first homeless death -- is bound to be followed by more, advocates said, as the cold weather, unmet needs among the homeless and the scattering of the population make for dangerous conditions.

At the same time, they said, the danger could be reduced, if more professionals were sent to the streets to help the homeless and more services were made available to them.

"Unfortunately, we'll continue to find cases like this," said Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight from the Streets, a homeless outreach program. Lera-Randle El organized a vigil on Dec. 20 for the 47 homeless people who died during the first 10 months of 2002, an event she has worked on with the help of the county coroner's office since 1997.

"People have moved deeper out into more remote areas because of police sweeps in the last year, and that together with a continuing lack of services will just create conditions for more deaths."

The advocate had spent Tuesday morning at a Boulder City funeral for a 55-year-old homeless man named David Houdyschell, a Vietnam veteran who was probably the last man to die on the streets here last year.

Gus Ramos -- deputy executive director for the Clark County Housing Authority and director of the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, an umbrella group of 80 private and public agencies -- said that Thursday's news was frustrating.

"It's again an indication that affirmative action has to be taken instead of reacting, which is what always happens," Ramos said.

The official said that every winter brings cries for more emergency shelter, but that saving lives requires more than adding beds.

"There has to be more outreach into the streets, reaching these people where they are and bringing them into supportive services and affordable housing," he said.

"The bottom line is the basic needs of people are not being met in this society ... and it frustrates and angers me that we put so little value on human life."