City OKs money for crisis center

Dan Kulin

Thursday, May 22, 2003 | 9:31 a.m.

The financial future of a downtown Las Vegas center for homeless services looks a little brighter after the North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved $40,000 to help fund the center.

"This means we can keep the Crisis Intervention Center open if we can get the rest of the funding," said Paul Brown, a member of a group working to secure the $480,000 needed to keep the Crisis Intervention Center open for another year.

"We also need Henderson to pitch in," Brown said.

Brown and other members of the Southern Nevada Advocates for Homeless People plan to meet with Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson next week in an effort to get roughly $40,000 from the Henderson government.

Already Brown said Clark County officials have tentatively agreed to give $240,000 toward center operations, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has pledged about $144,000 in city funds.

United Way officials have also promised to help find enough money to keep the center open.

"It's very doable now," Brown said.

Without $480,000 for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, the center would have to close at the end of June, Brown said.

North Las Vegas and Henderson leaders had long bucked criticism their cities haven't done enough to help address the area's homeless problem. Both the funding commitment from North Las Vegas and coming meeting with Gibson are good signs, Brown said.

The North Las Vegas council voted 4-1 to give $40,000 to Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada to run the Crisis Intervention Center, provided the rest of the necessary funding is secured.

Mayor Michael Montandon said the city has helped the homeless by providing low-income housing opportunities through the city's housing authority and programs supported with federal funds the city disperses.

But Montandon said the Crisis Intervention Center is still necessary to help area homeless.

"All the pieces still don't work without the Crisis Intervention Center," Montandon said.

Montandon said he expects the city will have to help pay for the center in future years, but exactly how much money will be needed is unknown.

City Councilman Robert Eliason was the lone vote against the center funding.

Eliason said he thinks the city helps the homeless enough through the housing authority and grants to nonprofits that work with the homeless.

He said the center should apply for city grants in the future.

The Crisis Intervention Center is the last remaining building in the former MASH Village campus along Main Street near Owens Avenue.

Catholic Charities has run the center since October.