Weekly comes out in favor of low-income housing plan

Tuesday, July 15, 2003 | 8:56 a.m.

Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly on Monday became the second elected city official to speak out publicly for the old MASH Village Transitional Living Center being turned into low-income housing for homeless veterans.

Weekly joined Councilwoman Janet Moncrief -- the pair serving as the City Council Real Estate Committee -- in giving a "do-pass" recommendation to a proposal allowing the city to negotiate with USA HELP, one of the nation's largest builders of transitional housing, to construct low-income apartments on the old MASH Village shelter site.

The full council will take up the issue Wednesday. The item is on the consent agenda, a group of items considered to be routine that can be approved by a single vote. To make way for the new apartments, should the negotiations be successful, the old shelter would be demolished.

Mayor Oscar Goodman at a weekly press conference last month called for the abandoned city-owned property at 1559 N. Main St. to be used primarily as transitional low-cost veterans housing.

However, both the city staff and the New York-based HELP USA, which has more than 2,300 transitional housing units nationwide and nearly 200 in Las Vegas, say that is not a sure thing.

"That is the vision, but it's just too soon to tell," City Neighborhood Services Director Sharon Segerblom told the committee.

Vincent Ravaschiere, president of the HELP Development Corp., said Monday that unless federal funding earmarked for veterans is available, his company could not guarantee veterans housing.

Weekly said Monday he would like "to see more" done for veterans, specifically at the MASH site.

Outside the hearing he said that while the project would not necessarily be killed if veterans housing funds could not be identified, he said the city needs to act now to help future veterans who are fighting today's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Every day on CNN when see reports of soldiers killed and wounded defending our nation -- we need to do something for them for their future when they may need our help," Weekly said. "I don't want to see them in slums. I think the money to build veterans housing can be found."

Weekly said he recently toured one of HELP USA's two local projects, the 75-unit Bonanza View Apartments, at 640 McKnight St., near Bonanza Road and Eastern Avenue, and was impressed with the work being done not only in veterans housing but also in keeping tenants off drugs and helping them get back into society. The Bonanza View apartments are required to have 75 percent veterans occupancy.

USA HELP entered Las Vegas in 1999, building 120 transitional housing units at Catholic Charities' Main Street campus, which has no restriction.

Last month the City Council approved spending up to $200,000 to bulldoze the pink prefabricated building on the 10-acre MASH site. The adjacent Crisis Intervention Center, which closed June 27, would not be part of the demolition, city officials said.