LV again considered cruel to homeless

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

Once again this year, a national group that works with the homeless says Las Vegas is mean to them, and once again city officials say it ain't so.

In an annual report titled "Illegal to be Homeless" released today, the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless said that Las Vegas is the fourth "meanest city" in the nation when it comes to the homeless -- in part because of a hard-line policy against crimes such as jaywalking.

The ranking was a drop from last year, when Las Vegas was considered the meanest, prompting Mayor Oscar Goodman to dismiss the report as a "rehashing of 2-year-old newspaper articles."

This year Goodman's staff said his schedule didn't allow him to comment on the report, but Trina Robinson, Neighborhood Services Department homeless services coordinator, said it was "unfortunate that they've deemed us the fourth-meanest."

Meaner than Las Vegas were Little Rock, Ark., Atlanta, and Cincinnati, in the top three spots respectively, with Gainesville, Fla., rounding out the top 5.

Robinson said Las Vegas is "totally headed in a positive direction" and that the city is offering "the best services with utmost care and respect."

The report says its ranking is based on the number of laws the coalition considers to be anti-homeless and how severely those laws are enforced; it also lists the "general political climate" as a criteria.

As for Las Vegas, it mentions a September 2003 sweep outside the downtown Salvation Army campus that left about 20 homeless people without their belongings when shopping carts were taken away by Robinson's agency.

The report also mentions the city attorney's policy of pushing longer jail sentences for repeat offenders charged with crimes like jaywalking and trespassing. That practice started earlier this year.

The ACLU and others said the policy targeted the homeless.

City Attorney Brad Jerbic did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

But Donald Whitehead, executive director of the coalition, said, "The criminal justice system is not an answer to the problems that homeless people face. We need solutions that go to the root causes of the issue -- affordable housing, livable income, treatment and health care, and civil rights protection."

Robinson said the city has been "very aggressive in developing a ... plan to reduce homelessness." The plan is supposed to take 10 years to achieve its desired results and is not yet complete.

As for the law enforcement policies pointed out by the report, Robinson said at first she couldn't comment on the city attorney, municipal court or Metro Police.

Then she said that she didn't see her agency and law enforcement "going in separate directions."'

"They're at the table with all of the agencies and looking for plausible solutions," she said.

Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight from the Streets -- a nonprofit organization that works with homeless people across the Las Vegas Valley -- said that simply calling city policy "mean" wasn't a complete enough description.

"It's extremely mean-spirited actions like the sweeps coupled with ignorance, frustration and not good planning," Lera-Randle El said.

"When you stir all of that up, you get a mess."