MASH site considered for veterans’ housing

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

A downtown plot of land that was once the site of temporary housing for homeless families should be used to house homeless veterans, the Las Vegas City Council's real estate committee said Monday.

The committee voted to recommend that the council decide in its meeting Wednesday to negotiate with a nonprofit organization called HELP USA to build low-income housing for veterans on a 5-acre parcel downtown.

The proposal would hand over the land for a nominal fee and to give $100,000 to the group to help it "decide what can be built" on the land, said Faye Johnson, who made a presentation on behalf of the city's Neighborhood Services Department.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, filling in for Councilwoman Janet Moncrief on the real estate committee, said the project, if built, would be "one piece of a puzzle being put together" on the city-owned land in the heart of the so-called "homeless corridor."

The parcel, near Main Street and Owens Avenue, was part of what was once MASH Village, a 10-acre collection of buildings offering services to the homeless that closed in October 2002 after nearly eight years on the site. The parcel had a building offering what is known as transitional housing to families.

After MASH closed, the Las Vegas Valley was left without shelters or transitional housing for families with two parents.

MASH was the center of controversy in its final years, including flip-flops by the City Council on whether to give it the land free as a boost to fund-raising. The council finally decided to do so, but MASH closed anyway because its directors said cash was short.

Johnson said HELP USA would do a project "totally different than MASH and would provide an important need to veterans."

The project could end up including 300 apartments -- efficiencies, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms -- for individuals and couples at 30 percent to 40 percent of area median income, according to materials provided to the committee.

That would mean a veteran earning between $11,490 and $15,320 would be eligible for the apartments, according to the project description, prepared by New York-based developer KLK Development Consultants.

Brenda Dizon, executive director for the nearby Shade Tree, a shelter for women, said that affordable housing is one of the main barriers to ending homelessness, along with employment at livable wages and affordable day care.

"If the eligibility requirements are structured to meet the need of affordable housing, then it could be a good project," Dizon said.

At the same time, she said, offering affordable housing to the homeless without services for problems such as drug and alcohol addictions or mental illness is not a good idea, she said.

"Just a roof over their heads is not enough," she said.

Linda Lera-Randle El was the first director of MASH Village when it opened in 1995 and now runs a nonprofit called Straight from the Streets.

She said that leaving the valley without a helping hand for homeless families was a bad idea. While the veteran population also needs help, there is already housing in the area for them, she said. HELP USA runs one of those projects, a 75-unit development called Bonanza View near Bonanza Road and Eastern Avenue that is home to dozens of veterans.

"The MASH Village transitional living center for families opened because there was a need for it back then, and there still is now," Lera-Randle El said.

"When there's not enough adequate shelter for families with children, that's wrong," she said.

Lera-Randle El also said the 10-acre site could accommodate housing for both families and veterans, and the push to work with HELP USA was an example of the pell-mell approach to dealing with homelessness seen in local politics.

Helping veterans was easier because of ready sources of federal funding, she said. The Department of Veterans Affairs is listed as a possible source of funding in the KLK description.

"All they do is jump from one thing to another ... and homelessness seems to go to whoever the highest bidder of the day is," she said.