One-stop center will provide help to homeless, poor

By Timothy Pratt

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."