Emergency plan keeping homeless out of the cold

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004 | 10:44 a.m.

John Sutton, 52, smoked a roll-your-own cigarette in the cold while standing in line outside the Catholic Charities St. Vincent campus Monday night about 6:20.

He was waiting for a bed in one of the nonprofit group's three buildings in the so-called homeless corridor that have been filling up with bunk beds and bedrolls in recent weeks as part of a new regional emergency shelter plan.

The wait was worth it, he said. "If I didn't have this, I'd be under a bush." As the temperature dipped into the 40s, he recalled the time several years ago when a buddy froze to death sleeping outside on Fremont Street.

"You don't believe what it's like until you're out there," he said.

Sutton was among the hundreds of homeless men and women who have benefited this year from the Las Vegas Valley's first-ever emergency shelter plan.

Local shelters signed onto the regional emergency shelter plan before Thanksgiving after a public, sometimes bitter debate over the issue. On Thursday the different municipalities are expected to give the plan formal approval at a Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition meeting.

In past years the wrangling would usually begin about September, as local governments bickered over who would pay for what. The nonprofit groups would say they can't open and heat shelters without funds.

"Every September, we'd all be shocked to see it gets cold during the winter here," Frank Richo, director of homeless services for Catholic Charities, said.

"This (year) is the first real attempt to address the winter shelter problem ... on paper, rather than improvising," he said.

While this year started with similar public sniping, a newly formed coalition of high-level officials from the different municipalities led by Clark County Manager Thom Reilly cobbled together the plan.

"This year, the county decided to take the bull by the horns, focus, and stop the madness," said Linda Lera-Randle El, a homeless advocate for two decades and executive director of the nonprofit Straight From the Streets.

The issue, Richo and others have said, is a life-and-death one. At least 14 homeless people have died from exposure in the last two years, according to coroner's records.

Local and national experts said the move shows the valley is beginning to handle homelessness as a serious social issue that requires planning and funding to address. It's an approach that was already in place in other metropolitan areas nationwide.

"I'm glad that Las Vegas is catching up with the rest of America," said Donald Whitehead, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, a Washington-based nonprofit.

"It's absolutely necessary to have a plan for producing shelter when it's cold," he said.

Though the plan called for Catholic Charities to offer 200 emergency shelter beds this winter, the charity has been sheltering an average of 400 men, overflowing into hallways, Richo said.

The Shade Tree and Salvation Army -- two other shelters in the homeless corridor along Main Street near Owens Avenue -- have been sheltering up to 85 people between them.

The plan also calls for the use of motels throughout the valley if night temperatures fall below freezing and there's no room at the shelters. The county has pledged $75,000 for this part of the plan, or enough for at least 80 families to stay in motels for a month, said Debra Donahue, a Clark County Social Service employee who works with the homeless.

Coupons to stay in the motels are to be handed out by police and public and private agencies with personnel in the streets. Motels in each of the valley's major municipalities have agreed to participate.

Finally, if funds for motels run out, the cold weather continues and more beds are needed, the plan calls for using a state armory in the northern part of the valley for shelter.

Funding for the shelters will come from Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and Clark County, with each paying a part of the whole according to their share of the valley's total population. The county has picked up the bill so far but expects to be reimbursed after Thursday.

Reilly said a recently hired regional homeless coordinator will use this winter's experience as a blueprint for a long-term plan that includes shelter for the summer's heat.

Richo said he hopes the last-minute scrambling to shelter the homeless from the cold will soon be a thing of the past.

"We're not going to let this fall off the radar screen," he said.

By 6:30 Monday night, Jerry Halfpap, 44, was laying out a bedroll on the floor of a large building that resembled a hangar. The 50 bunkbeds were already taken and Halfpap got a space near Sutton, a buddy.

Halfpap said the possibility of counting on a warm place to bed down in the future was good news.

"A lot of people get sick out in the cold," he said. "It's not pretty."