City orders sweep of another camp

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

A homeless camp of about 40 people downtown is about to be broken up only weeks after it was created in the wake of another sweep.

Las Vegas has cited a private property owner for having homeless people on his land, and the owner now has to get them off the lot by Tuesday.

"I think the owner will have them trespassed and the police will come in," said Orlando Sanchez, director of the Neighborhood Services Department, the agency that issued the citation to the owner on Jan. 20.

The sequence of events appears to be leading to the third breakup of a homeless camp in as many months, which local officials and a national expert said in turn would only create another camp somewhere else.

"The bottom line is that the treatment on demand, the supportive services and the permanent housing are not available," said Michael Stoops, interim executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, a Washington-based group.

"The sweeps are not helping solve the situation ... and they're setting themselves and the homeless up for failure."

The current series of events began on Jan. 19 -- the second business day after the finish of a city-led "outreach effort" meant to help a camp of about 200 under a bridge by Wilson Avenue and F Street.

The new camp of about 40 men and women in a lot north of the bridge includes people who were under that bridge.

The city's effort got about one of four in the camp into some kind of housing. Those who didn't get helped included several dozen undocumented immigrants and many who were sent by the city to Clark County Social Service only to find that they weren't eligible for assistance.

On Jan. 18, the first business day after the city finished the effort and left the site, state Transportation Department officials moved everyone out from under the bridge in order to clean the area.

Documents from the Neighborhood Services Department show that the next day inspectors began documenting the growth of the new camp in a lot north of the bridge.

Sanchez said the inspector's visit was the result of a complaint from a neighborhood resident at 11:04 a.m. the day before, meaning the call came in within hours of state officials breaking up the camp under the bridge.

"In that neighborhood the residents are very vocal and tired of the homeless encroaching into the neighborhood," he said. "If it was Green Valley, they wouldn't like that (the homeless camp), but people think it's OK in other areas."

From Jan. 19 on, neighborhood services inspectors made visits to the site, took pictures of the camp and called owner Augustine Bustos and the property's manager. On Jan. 20, the agency sent the owner a "nuisance/litter abatement notice and order to comply."

That notice tells the owner he must clean up the lot or face misdemeanor citations, fines of up to $500, or six months of jail, as well as paying for the costs of the cleanup if that is done by the city.

On Feb. 1, a neighborhood services staff member called the property's manager and left a message with the phone number of Clark County Social Service -- "for possible assistance on relocating the homeless," according to a city document.

Bustos said he called the county and was told to give the county's phone number to the homeless men and women in the camp.

"I don't have time to be doing that," he said.

Sanchez said he also called Darryl Martin, director of Clark County Social Service, to inform him of the city's actions at the lot near Wilson and F.

Sanchez said he did this to avoid the sort of situation that occurred shortly before Christmas, when another homeless camp was broken up after the city cited a lot owner, catching private and public agencies that help the homeless unaware.

"Part of the thing we were criticized about is not communicating ... so we wanted to notify them," Sanchez said.

Sanchez said the city's homeless liaison, Trina Robinson, was "still out there, helping people."

"We're doing everything in our power," he said.

When Martin was told that many of the people in the new camp had been sent to his agency weeks earlier only to find they weren't eligible for services, he said, "We're trying to find a way to deal with the population, and it's a very difficult one."

He also said some people in the earlier camp couldn't be helped by the county because they were receiving money from the federal government.

Martin said the series of events -- the weeklong outreach, followed by the cleanup under the bridge and the citation issued to the owner of the land where the new camp is located -- "is probably not the best way to deal with this."

But no other solution exists right now, he said.

Meanwhile, Bustos, the property owner, said he felt as if he was being targeted for a problem that wasn't of his making.

"The problem isn't mine, it's the city's. They can't fine me -- it isn't our job to deal with homelessness," he said.

Martin said he could predict what would happen after the camp was cleared.

"They'll probably wind up somewhere else, and we'll start up again." "If it was Green Valley, they wouldn't like that (the homeless camp), but people think it's OK in other areas."