Group that helps homeless youths faces funding loss

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, May 20, 2004 | 9:16 a.m.

Street Teens, a nonprofit organization that runs the Las Vegas Valley's only drop-in center for homeless youth, is in danger of losing up to $100,000 in federal funds if it can't show that it provided services it was supposed to provide, a county official said Wednesday.

A review of the center, completed Feb. 20 by Clark County Community Resources Management, gave Street Teens the lowest possible score in five of 12 areas reviewed. The county agency oversees $84,000 in federal Housing and Urban Development funds earmarked for the nonprofit organization for the new fiscal year beginning July 1.

A county official conducted the review as part of a new policy that calls for the county to monitor all organizations receiving HUD emergency shelter and community development block grant funds. A total of 15 organizations will receive $1.2 million of those funds next year.

To date, three of the organizations have been reviewed by the county, and Street Teens had the most negative findings, officials said.

The Street Teens findings included an assertion that the drop-in center could not demonstrate that it is helping teens.

"It appears that most of new clients ... are over age 18, and most currently active (clients) are also over age 18," the review by county analyst Shawna Parker Brody noted.

Other findings include not being able to show that the center has been offering health care and education to homeless youth or reuniting them with their families -- all services the center is supposed to provide.

Liza Parker, president of the board of directors of Street Teens, said she had no comment about the review's findings.

It is unclear whether the organization's drop-in center could continue to operate if it does not get the federal funds, which would make up more than half of next year's budget. Estimates of the number of homeless teens in the valley range from 500 to several thousand.

For now, Parker Brody said, the county agency would "not be giving any future requests for reimbursement until they make changes" -- meaning nearly $5,000 in HUD funds for the remainder of this fiscal year will not go to the nonprofit organization until it corrects the review's findings.

Parker Brody notified Street Teens in a March 3 letter that she would be making a follow-up visit to the drop-in center this month to see if changes have been made.

The findings put next year's funding in jeopardy, Parker Brody said -- meaning more than half of the organization's $150,712 budget for running the center would be withdrawn. About $31,000 of the $84,000 in HUD funds that Parker Brody's agency oversees were slated for the executive director's salary for fiscal year '04-'05, which is $48,321.

Federal regulations would also permit the county to take back nearly $15,000 in funds already given to the organization during this fiscal year if Street Teens doesn't improve, Parker Brody said.

"It becomes an issue to document the results of an agency receiving funding," Doug Bell, Parker Brody's supervisor, said.

By the same token, Bell said, the organization is relatively new and his agency has been "trying to get them off on the right foot." Street Teens was established in 2001, after a law passed in the state legislature giving teens the right to seek help from such organizations without parental consent.

The organization gained nonprofit status in July 2003, Parker Brody said.

Patty Johnston, a Nevada State Bank employee, is vice president of the organization's board, and Jennifer Bowers, a senior administrative clerk with the Clark County Health District's tobacco control program.

Parker Brody said Street Teens' problems could be attributed to its volunteer base.

"As with many volunteer-based groups, their paperwork and processes -- such as the intake of clients, management of client files and outreach -- are less formal than what is required for ... government funding." are less formal than what is required for ... government funding."