God in Me ministry trusts LV to allow it to stay open

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.

Anthony Mosley trusted in God to help him keep the doors open at his Las Vegas ministry and shelter for homeless men while trying to resolve zoning problems.

Now he has also decided to trust in Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Goodman and a group of city officials, in an hourlong meeting Monday, told Mosley that the zoning change he has requested for the God in Me ministry still would not allow him to offer lodging to the homeless, according to Mosley and officials who attended.

The Planning Commission on Thursday is scheduled to consider the request to change the zoning of his property from residential to a category that covers churches.

Mosley said Tuesday he would ask that the item be pulled from the agenda.

He said Goodman also promised to help him find a new home for the ministry if he chooses not to stay at the present address.

A city official who also attended the meeting said she never heard the mayor make such an offer, though the city does want to continue seeking a solution to the problem.

"The mayor told him a million times that he wants to help him, but I don't remember him offering anything specific at all," said Sharon Segerblom, director for the Neighborhood Services Department.

Mosley has been seeking a change in the ministry's status in order to stay at its address near Lake Mead Boulevard and Revere Street after the city discovered several months ago that it was not zoned to house dozens of men -- although the ministry had been doing so for more than a decade.

Mosley, who has been at the helm of the ministry for about three of the 14 years it has been at its present address, said Tuesday he believes what he heard and hopes the mayor's help will keep the dozens of people in his ministry from hitting the streets.

Goodman said through a spokeswoman that Monday's meeting "was productive ... and not the final discussion."

On the wall of one of the ministry's four houses, a 1994 proclamation from Goodman's predecessor, Mayor Jan Jones, seemed to speak of better times. It recognized the ministry's "untiring efforts on behalf of the less fortunate in the Las Vegas community."

"Everything is now so bureaucratic, and we've been here so long and didn't know we didn't have the zoning," said Steve Levin, who was once homeless and now works in the ministry's office.

But a neighbor who has lived in the area for three decades and preferred to remain nameless said the ministry used to house about 20 instead of 60 men, and suggested the change has been noticed by others in the neighborhood.

Across the street from the ministry, Aubrey Baker, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years, said he doesn't think families and the homeless make a good match.

"You can't just put homeless people here," he said. "We got kids here. How are we going to know who they put in there?"

On the other hand, Segerblom said, the city doesn't want dozens of homeless men on the streets.

"They're not going to be kicked out as far as I'm concerned," she said.

Gus Ramos, chairman of the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, an umbrella group of about 80 public and private agencies, said that losing services to the homeless when services are already in short supply would be "an unfortunate outcome."

Ramos, who is also deputy executive director for the Clark County Housing Authority, said the coalition will write to Goodman seeking a solution that will keep the ministry open.

"When something doesn't comply and comes to the attention of the government, the government has an obligation to handle it, but by the same token there has to be some heart involved in the decisions," he said.

Ramos also pointed out that the ministry relies on no local, state or federal funds.

"In these times, with less and less money available for social programs, this is exactly the kind of program that should be supported," he said.