Brother hungers for homeless help

By Timothy Pratt

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003 | 11:20 a.m.

A man in a ponytail and a brown robe who has brought Scripture to City Hall and poetry to politicians over the last six years began his last tilt against the valley's windmill of indifference Tuesday with an appeal for winter shelter for the homeless.

He then launched a weeklong hunger strike, or as he prefers calling it, "spiritual fast."

The man, David Buer, a Franciscan brother and fixture on the Las Vegas Valley's political map since being posted here in 1997, spoke at the Clark County Commission meeting Tuesday, seeking to offset a shortage of about 200 emergency shelter beds compared with last year's winter months.

The short speech began the last series of appeals for winter shelter for the homeless before his transfer in January to an Apache reservation in Arizona.

After the meeting, Buer began his fast in preparation for a vigil that was to begin Tuesday night on Wilson Street between D and F streets to call attention to the issue. The fast, and the vigil, will continue until Monday. He was also expected to make his pitch to the Las Vegas City Council today and to a valley-wide body of planners Thursday.

That will end what have become annual pleas, interspersed with Bible quotes, that Buer has made since arriving in the valley, guided by what he calls "a political strategy with prayer as the central part."

In his time in Las Vegas Buer also helped set up day-time drop-in centers in Las Vegas and Henderson for the homeless called the Poverello Houses. The centers will remain open after Buer is gone, run by a board of trustees.

He also helped put together a book of poems and stories written by the homeless and gave it to the same politicians he had pleaded to every winter, hoping, he said, that it would be "an antidote to ... harsh policies."

Darryl Martin, director for Clark County Social Service, said Buer's voice will be missed on the issue of homelessness. "When he walks toward you with that brown robe you know what he's coming for," Martin said.

"You might not agree with him, but you have to agree that what he's talking about is an issue ... (it's) people dying in the streets."

Tuesday Buer asked the county to consider leveraging a delay in plans to renovate a shelter that Catholic Charities ran until April in order to use the building for housing up to 200 beds.

But Frank Richo, executive director for homeless services for the agency -- who was not at Tuesday's meeting -- said the delay would jeopardize plans to turn the building into a one-stop center for public and private agencies offering services to the homeless. The county, United Way and Catholic Charities are working together on the center. Renovation is expected to begin January, he said.

Further, Richo said the idea behind the center is more in line with what his agency stands for -- preventing homelessness, not giving the homeless a free bed.

Richo said he "understands (Buer's) passion -- and hope he understands ours."

Martin said he thinks a more feasible solution to this year's problem might be for the county -- and, he hopes, local municipalities -- to come up with nearly $200,000 to pay for a total of 167 beds shared among three downtown agencies -- Catholic Charities, Shade Tree and Salvation Army.

A second proposal Martin presented Tuesday was to put the beds in a National Guard Armory building on Range Road or in the county's bomb shelter off Blue Diamond Road.

A decision on those proposals will be made Dec. 2, he said.

Meanwhile, Buer will continue his last stand for those "stuck in the cold."

He and Martin both said they hope that his annual pleas won't be missed too much in the future, since the county will be hiring a regional coordinator on homelessness in the coming months who they trust will help engineer a long-term source of summer and winter shelter.

Martin said Buer took on "a political role ... (with) a religious issue.

"The Bible says, 'The poor will always be among us,' but it's our responsibility to take care of them," he said.

"Brother David reminded us of that."