One-stop center will provide help to homeless, poor

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

Plans to open a one-stop center downtown with services for the homeless, veterans and poor people were announced today by Dan Goulet, director of the United Way of Southern Nevada.

The center, known as the Fertitta Community Assistance Center, should be open at the Catholic Charities campus in the so-called "homeless corridor" near North Main Street and Owens Avenue by Sept. 30, Goulet said.

It will include government agencies offering counseling, welfare and Social Security, as well as private agencies offering aid to children and families.

The announcement is the culmination of two years of planning between the United Way and private and public agencies throughout the Las Vegas Valley after the 2002 closing of the Crisis Intervention Center at the former MASH Village, which was nearby.

MASH included the center and housing for families, as well as a tent for winter shelter. But it closed for lack of funding after local municipalities could not agree whether individual buildings -- including the crisis intervention center -- should remain open with public money.

Since then, United Way has generated significant private and public support for a center modeled on the former one-stop idea. That support has included grants from Station Casinos and KLAS Channel 8 as well as donated architectural, engineering and construction help, including from three local unions. The nonprofit organization seeks additional help in the coming months, including materials, Goulet said.

The new center will be located in a building donated by Catholic Charities. Las Vegas, Clark County and the United Way have contributed funding that should be enough to run the center for five years.

Those who seek help at the center will be able to find out what services are available from all of the agencies at once, instead of having to visit each one.

In the new center, unlike the old, agencies will pay rent to offer services, which Goulet said will "create a sense of ownership." Additionally, all agencies will be required to attend monthly meetings assessing what is working and what needs fixing.

Some who work with the homeless caution that services are not enough to get homeless people off the streets, and the homeless in recent years have dispersed throughout the Las Vegas Valley, as opposed to living in camps and shelters downtown.

Linda Lera-Randle El, a homeless advocate who was interim director of MASH when it was founded 10 years ago and worked in the original Crisis Intervention Center, said that needs have changed and a growing homeless population calls for more focus on affordable housing.

Additionally, she said, one-stop centers giving help with everything from a bus pass to drug counseling should be located throughout the valley.

But Goulet said the new center doesn't negate those other goals. He said there is enough need downtown to serve up to 60,000 people a year -- which would be four times what the old center was achieving.

Then, he said, "if the center is successful, there is no reason we can't build other centers in other locations."

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By rejco100

7/7/09 at 7:15 a.m.

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STOP THE INSANITY! NO MORE "COUNSELING" NONSENSE! REAL HOUSING, REAL TRAINING, and REAL JOBS!
NOTHING ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By rejco100

7/7/09 at 7:19 a.m.

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This is what the POVERTY PIMP'S COUNSELING IS: "There is no housing, there is no training, and there are no jobs, NEXT!"
By rejco100

7/7/09 at 7:29 a.m.

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How about when someone walks through the door needing help, YOU ACTUALLY HELP THEM instead of "YOU DON"T QUALIFY"!
By rejco100

7/7/09 at 7:41 a.m.

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This center will be another POVERTY PIMP CENTER where everyone is labeled seriously mentally ill & addicted/alcoholic, mandated Evangelical Christianity Insanity & 12-Step Religious Cultism, Forced daily group therapy nonsense, and handfuls of med, sorting clothes at Goodwill MASQUERADED as "Job Training" while the POVERTY PIMPS pockets MILLION IN CASH from every funding stream they can tap...And at the end of each day, EVERYONE IS STILL HOMELESS, HAS NO TRAINING, AND STILL UNEMPLOYED sleeping on the streets!
By rejco100

7/7/09 at 7:46 a.m.

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In order to get a bus ticket from the POVERTY PIMPS, you have to schedule an appointment, wait for about 2 hours, write out an hour-by-hour itinerary of where you will be WITH phone numbers of people & business's to verify where you are at all times. And that's only if THEY HAVE TICKETS, usually they don't!