More space for homeless sought in valley churches

Monday, Dec. 6, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.

Dennis Valdez, a burly housepainter, leaned forward a bit as if to say something he wanted no one to hear.

The smallest of his four children, 2-year-old Dennis Jr., had just ducked in from the cold for the third time, crying.

Unexpectedly, the 41-year-old father was now tearing up.

"Just between you and me," he said. "This has really crushed me."

"This" is homelessness.

The Valdezes -- Dennis, his wife, Denise, and their children Deani, Destiny, Dina, and Dennis Jr. -- are among the growing number of homeless families in the Las Vegas Valley.

Like many families lacking a roof over their heads this holiday season, Dennis says he "never thought this could happen to us."

But it did. A motor gone bad in a van, a lost job, $5.50-an-hour jobs after that, a Budget Suites room rented at $247 a week. It all piled up and turned into a month-to-month unraveling. The Valdezes were evicted one day in October.

Low-paying jobs and a lack of affordable housing, among other factors, hit a lot of families hard in the valley, said Terry Lindemann, director of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, the only local program that lets families stay together while receiving shelter and a plan to get back on their feet.

The Valdezes are staying at Christ Episcopal Church this week on Maryland Parkway, one of the network's 16 houses of worship that open their doors to as many as four homeless families for a week at a time, on a rotating basis.

The program meets -- or tries to meet -- "probably one of the most critical needs in Las Vegas" when it comes to solving homelessness, said Maj. William Raihl, Clark County coordinator for the Salvation Army.

Other shelters for the homeless, including the Salvation Army's downtown shelter, have no place where families without a home can stay together. They also lack the specialized case management needed for families in crisis to get back on track, as well as child care.

The network cobbles together all these things on an annual budget of public and private funds totaling about $180,000, with a lot of cooperation from other agencies and volunteers at many of the churches and synagogues participating in the program.

But it is overwhelmed with an average of 185 calls a month in recent months, with space at any given house of worship for only three or four families at a time.

"There are just not enough out there for families," said Lindemann, herself a volunteer with the program for five years and director since September.

Lindemann has launched a campaign to double the number of houses of worship in the program. With about 600 in the valley representing more than 63 faiths, the task is large.

The Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas did not return calls seeking comment on the program.

Ace Robison, spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Las Vegas Valley -- which has about 80,000 followers -- said he had not heard about the interfaith program.

But, he added, "The notion of actually having someone stay in our buildings would be difficult" since "our wards, or parishes, are using buildings intensely for various activities during the week."Meanwhile, area shelters often wind up referring families down on their luck to Lindemann, and she often has to tell them to call back when a family in the program has obtained some kind of housing, which can take as long as eight weeks, or has dropped out before reaching that goal.

Raihl said he has seen the number of families seeking shelter go up in recent years.

"A number of years ago, we would never see little children in the shelter," he said. "Now we're sleeping up to 20 some days."

That's out of 255 emergency beds. But the mothers and children must be separated from the fathers, and sometimes the fathers stay at the Salvation Army while the rest of the family is sent to Shade Tree, a shelter for women nearby in the downtown area known as the homeless corridor.

The possibility of having to separate from his family loomed as the first fear Dennis had to beat back when the five-day eviction notice arrived in late October.

"That goes against everything I believe in, as a loving family," he said. "I wanted us to stay together."

Denise, who has known her husband since junior high school, nodded.

Almost two months into the program, Dennis has now a new job, though a new car is still down the road. Denise says her goal is to get into a new house by the 18th -- before Christmas.

Steven Evanoff Jr. sat across the table from the Valdezes at Christ Episcopal Thursday night, where spaghetti and salad were served.

He's a single dad, with three small children from 1 to 4 years old who have been back and forth between their separated parents several times in the past year. Each parent has battled demons.

Evanoff's demons during months on the street were methamphetamines and alcohol, though now he has licked them both, he says.

And though his former wife has gone to parts unknown, Evanoff, after a few weeks in the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, which has a small program for single fathers though no child care, is enrolling in the network's program and is optimistic about his family's future.

This despite days spent spinning through revolving doors on his children's behalf, such as: No social security cards without immunization records. No immunizations without social security cards.

Where does his good attitude come from?

"I don't mind being in the house of God on Christmas," he said. "I couldn't think of a better place to be. At least when the oldest one looks back, he can remember the true meaning of Christmas."