Letter: Las Vegas unkind to the homeless

Friday, May 2, 2003 | 9:11 a.m.

It has been 17 months since the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition/HUD summit, which supposedly was held to develop a plan to more comprehensively address the homeless situation.

Instead there has been a steady onslaught against the homeless, which in essence has criminalized mental illness and addictions by selective enforcement of laws.

MASH Village, an essential part of homeless services, has been closed. This provided health services and employment programs and up to 300 transitional beds. The winter shelter program was canceled, which was inhumane. Yet the city of Las Vegas, in an attempt to force regional cooperation, has used the homeless as political pawns. When elected officials are approached by homeless advocates, they claim that they care about the homeless.

The city of Las Vegas is attracting much negative publicity, on a national level, with the assault on the civil rights and the inhumane treatment of our fellow citizens. What has happened to the religious tenet of helping the neediest among us?

FRANK PERNA

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