Life on the valley’s streets is increasingly a fatal proposition

By Timothy Pratt

Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005 | 7:06 a.m.

North of a railroad crossing. A Dumpster behind Rite-Aid. Inside a drainage pipe.

Those are three of the places homeless people were found dead this year -- and they died in record numbers. Through November, 75 people died on the streets of the Las Vegas Valley, the most since record-keeping began in 1995.

The role that summer heat, drugs and alcohol played in many of the deaths sheds light on holes in the region's social safety net. No new treatment centers opened for drug addicts in 2005. And despite 100-degree temperatures of late spring, the county did not provide refuge in the form of daytime shelters until July 1. Catholic Charities opened a shelter with Clark County funds, but anyone without ID was turned away. Many homeless people do not carry identification.

Darryl Martin, Clark County assistant manager, said the county will consider opening shelters anytime the weather turns scorching in the future. Also, identification will not be required.

"We're setting ourselves up for failure and people are dying as a result," said Linda Lera-Randle El, director of the nonprofit organization Straight From the Streets.

Alcohol or drugs, especially cocaine and heroin, played a role in 32 of the deaths. The Las Vegas Valley, with its 1.8 million population, has three centers for treating addictions. They have a combined 372 beds. Only one, WestCare, offers detox services.

JoAnn Lujan, social services director for HELP of Southern Nevada, said "there is a waiting list at every center," and the result is often that those who seek treatment give up.

"When you get someone to a point of where they're ready to commit to treatment -- they're in pain, they want help -- and you tell a homeless person, 'It's going to take a couple of weeks,' what's that person going to do?

"They'll go back to using."

This year also saw deaths from heat exposure rise to 13, as many as in the previous three years combined.

Of those, 10 died in July, on days where temperatures were as high as 117 degrees. The county paid Catholic Charities to open a daytime shelter offering refuge from the heat starting July 1, but the Sun reported on July 15 that people were being turned away if they lacked ID. Catholic Charities reversed its policy two days later.

Eight homeless people found dead had no ID. They were identified by fingerprints, friends or family, according to the county coroner's office.

In the past, local authorities have been more concerned about winter weather than summer. The county now has a policy of opening emergency shelters when winter temperatures drop to a certain level. There is no temperature trigger as yet for summer. Instead, the county plans to provide shelter starting each July 1.

Lera-Randle El said she is frustrated that the county doesn't take a common-sense approach. Numbers she has compiled over the last four years show that 65 of the 216 deaths -- or 30 percent -- occurred in July and August, usually the hottest months of the year.

"It boggles the mind -- in an area where you can fry an egg on the sidewalk ... we're playing a deadly crap shoot with their lives."

Lera-Randle El organizes an annual memorial vigil for the homeless. This year's will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Wednesday at HELP of Southern Nevada, 1640 E. Flamingo Road.

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at [email protected].