Shelters to provide emergency beds

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, Nov. 21, 2003 | 9:04 a.m.

There will be emergency shelter for hundreds of homeless men this winter, and, for the first time, long-term plans will be made to deal with the Las Vegas Valley's chronic lack of beds every winter, a new regional committee on homelessness announced Thursday.

The three major downtown Las Vegas shelters -- Shade Tree, Catholic Charities and Salvation Army -- will be called on to provide up to 167 beds starting immediately, said Clark County Social Service Director Darryl Martin in a presentation to the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition's new technical committee on homelessness.

Additional beds in case of emergency could be provided at a building Catholic Charities was scheduled to renovate this winter, as well as at the National Guard's Armory building on Range Road and at a nonprofit called the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.

The idea that the county could declare an emergency requiring more beds -- based on weather, numbers of homeless men on the streets, or some other factor -- was one sign the committee was addressing the shortage of shelter in the region long-term for the first time.

As the valley's homeless population has grown in recent years -- it is now estimated at 10,000 -- a yearly ritual has been made of advocates beseeching municipal governments to fund extra beds at area shelters. But no policy has been set for solving the problem long-term.

"This is not something we want to keep going through every year, running around trying to find extra beds," Martin said.

Thom Reilly, county manager and chairman of the committee, said the system for declaring an emergency will be set in the coming weeks. Likewise, members of the committee and other public and private experts on homelessness will be interviewing and recommending for hire the valley's first regional coordinator on homeless issues in the next month or so. The coordinator's first job will be to develop a plan for shelter in the coming winters.

"This will be the first priority," Martin said.

The committee includes officials from the city and county manager offices of all of the valley's municipalities, as well as housing, mental health, police, school and veterans affairs officials.

It replaces a regional body chaired by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman that met for about two years and produced a five-step plan for reducing homelessness.

The committee's announcements came on the heels of a weeklong vigil local activists began Tuesday at various locations to draw attention to the shortage of more than 200 beds in area shelters when compared to last winter.

Some of the activists suggested at the Clark County Commission meeting Tuesday and the Las Vegas City Council meeting Wednesday that Catholic Charities delay renovating a building it closed as a shelter in April and was scheduled to reopen as a one-stop center with services for the homeless next year.

Testimony at the two meetings included claims that if the agency didn't delay the renovation in order to offer shelter from the cold, then "Catholic Charities has forgotten what charity means."

Thursday morning, Frank Richo, Catholic Charities homeless services director, said he had decided to delay the renovation.

He said he was concerned that the things being said about the agency's homeless services would jeopardize the agency as a whole.

"When certain individuals stand up and mention ... what monsters Catholic Charities are ... they're talking about 19 programs," he said.

"It's not just about the 200 beds. It's unfair to workers and clients."

Richo also said he was making the offer on the condition that a regional solution be found to the ongoing problem of emergency shelter.

"Somebody has to provide a platform to work from and not just call each other names," he said.

"We can't find ourselves in the same position next year."