Las Vegas pulls out of center that helps homeless

Timothy Pratt and Ed Koch

Thursday, June 5, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

In a unanimous decision that surprised Clark County officials and homeless advocates, the Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday to yank its funding for a one-stop center that helps the homeless.

Funding for the Crisis Intervention Center runs out June 30. The center has been controversial in recent months after Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said other municipalities were not paying their fair share of the center's costs.

Wednesday's vote came after Goodman made a proposal that, in effect, would shift the full responsibility to keep the center open to the county, which in the past had split the cost with the city. Council members Michael McDonald and Lynette Boggs McDonald were absent.

The decision will probably force the center's closing on June 30, since the county is not able to pick up the tab for the city, a total of $167,000 to $243,900, County Manager Thom Reilly said.

Reilly said he was "caught off guard" and was "confused and disappointed" by the decision. Recent talks with the city had led him to believe the city would continue to be the county's main partner in funding the center after recent efforts at getting additional help seemed to be panning out, he said.

"We bent over backwards to make this happen ... and this is not in line with the dialogue we have been having," Reilly said.

Paul Brown, Southern Nevada director for PLAN, a nonprofit that works on social issues, said he was also disappointed. Brown is a member of a group of advocates that met in recent weeks with Henderson and North Las Vegas seeking additional funds for the center.

After Brown and others met with North Las Vegas, that city voted two weeks ago to give $40,000 to the center if other funding comes through.

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon said he was surprised by Las Vegas' decision.

"I kind of thought we were following their lead," Montandon said.

Montandon said it is too early to say whether North Las Vegas will still follow through with its contribution.

North Las Vegas City Manager Kurt Fritsch recommended the council hold on to the $40,000 until county officials decide how to handle the situation.

The United Way recently had announced it would give $61,000 to the center. Henderson had not reached a decision, but officials have said the city provides similar services and probably would not support the Las Vegas center.

"I guess there were too many ifs around the center for it to survive," Brown said.

The center is the last building on what once was a sprawling campus downtown that included a shelter, a clinic and housing for families. The other services shut down last fall. Though it once held more than 40 public and private agencies, it now has only eight, plus Catholic Charities, the agency that currently runs the center at a cost of $480,000 per year.

Frank Richo, director of residential services for Catholic Charities, said he would walk the Catholic Charities campus today to see where space may be available to house some of those services when the intervention center, which is across the street, closes.

Maurice Silva, a social worker with Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, sees about 100 people a week in his office at the center and on the streets of the valley. His program was going to receive at least six additional staff members at the center and money to help with costs, after the Legislature recently approved additional funds for the state's mental health services.

Silva said he was surprised the additional money was not considered in Wednesday's decision. "I guess it got lost in the shuffle," he said.

"I don't know what the individuals who come in here on a daily basis will do or where they will go," he said. "I guess we'll find out."

The council's decision included an offer to lease the land to the county for $1 a year.

"(The center is) an important facility, thus the offer to lease the city-owned building and land for minimum cost," Goodman said.

But county officials said the offer was not enough to keep the center open.

"What the city put on the table is not acceptable," Reilly said.

"If nothing changes in the coming weeks, the city has made the decision to close this."

Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said Wednesday, "This is a huge step backward for helping deal with the homeless problem in downtown Las Vegas and across the valley. The CIC is an important tool for getting homeless people's lives back on track and today they've been let down.

"Mayor Oscar Goodman and the city of Las Vegas have indicated for years that the problem is a regional one but today lost an opportunity to back that up by being a meaningful part of the solution."

Goodman was not available Wednesday afternoon or this morning for comment.

Linda Lera-Randle El -- who was the center's first director when it opened in 1994 and now runs her own nonprofit -- said a lesson should be learned from Wednesday's vote.

"It scares me that the center was so tied to government dollars," she said.

"If these kinds of projects don't become more self-sufficient, they're destined to fail."

Sun reporter

Dan Kulin contributed to this report.