Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Homeless plan hampered by glitches

One man with a bum knee walked about seven miles to and from a Las Vegas-led weeklong project aimed at helping the homeless only to find he didn't qualify because he wasn't sleeping under the right bridge.

Others got a Clark County voucher for temporary housing and then were told there were no landlords with rooms available to accept those vouchers.

Plus, the computers being used for the project were down all day Tuesday, the second day of a five-day effort meant to clear out a camp of as many as 200 people from under a nearby bridge at Wilson Avenue and F Street.

That meant that dozens of people walked or were taken in vans from the effort's epicenter, set up in a trailer on the Las Vegas Rescue Mission site, to Clark County offices to apply for the same vouchers. Once there, some were told they didn't qualify, so they went back to the trailer.

The project was intended "to bring the service providers directly to the individuals on the street," according to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. It involves public and private agencies ranging from Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services to welfare.

But the outreach's computer glitches and other problems left many with no other plans Tuesday night than unpacking a bedroll under the bridge.

The Sun's calls seeking comment from Las Vegas spokesman David Riggleman this morning and Tuesday were not returned.

Darryl Martin, director of Clark County Social Service -- the agency that provides the vouchers, the most sought-after item at the trailer -- said the effort was "working for people who are getting helped but there are a lot of people being left out."

He noted that 22 people did receive temporary housing Monday night.

But, he added, "it sounds like there has been a communication breakdown" between the city and the county.

Mark Esparza, 31, described the scene at the trailer Monday and Tuesday as "pure chaos."

After spending several weeks under the bridge, Esparza started the second day at the trailer around the corner on Wilson Avenue by being put in a van headed for the county office on Pinto Lane.

"When we got there," he said, "they didn't know what was going on. They said they were only expecting 12 people, but we were at least 15."

By 11 a.m., a Social Service worker told him he qualified for the voucher, he said.

"Then they said there's no place to take one," he said. Esparza began calling places on a list at the county office and found a place that had room.

But 90 minutes later, the worker told him the place would not accept a voucher, only cash.

So Esparza headed back to Wilson Avenue. At 3:30, he was still waiting for an answer.

Esparza has also been spending recent weeks trying to replace a stolen Nevada identification card, a trail that began with figuring out how to order a replacement birth certificate from California while sleeping under a bridge.

He recently got the birth certificate.

"I could've gotten my ID instead of being here two days," he said.

Similarly, 51-year-old Steve Gorman wound up at the county office only to be told he wouldn't qualify for a voucher because he had already received one in the past year -- a fact he said he had related last Friday to Trina Robinson, Las Vegas homeless liaison and coordinator of the week-long project.

"She said, 'Don't worry, we're going to make exceptions to get everybody out from under the bridge,' " he said.

When he tried to tell the county worker this scenario, Gorman said the answer was: "Who told you that? We don't know any Trina."

So Gorman walked back to the trailer at Wilson Avenue, where he was still waiting about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Meanwhile, under the bridge, a man who only gave his name as Jose Luis said there were 35 to 40 people there who, like him, were Hispanic immigrants without documents.

He said he didn't even go into the trailer, since he didn't think they could help him. The 27-year-old said the immigrants under the bridge go every morning to the corner of Bonanza Road and Rancho Drive to seek work, but day jobs have been hard to find in the recent spate of bad weather.

Martin said that the immigrants should not fall through the cracks.

"If that (such a large group) exists," he said, "there needs to be services for them -- or they'll just go somewhere else."

One man was taken to a motel nearby Tuesday evening -- by an advocate who dropped by to see if he could help.

Rev. Charles Bowker, chairman of the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, came by about 3 p.m. with a list of landlords that receive county vouchers. "Trina (Robinson) asked for any other resources I might know about," he said.

But the list wound up being the same one the city was working with, so he decided to look for any families to help, and left with Marcellus Hicks, a 49-year-old man with two daughters who have been staying with a relative while he has been under the bridge for three months.

This morning, Terry Lindemann, director of the Interfaith Hospitality Network -- the only emergency shelter for intact families in the valley -- said Bowker contacted her Tuesday night, but she had no room in her program.

So Bowker put Hicks up at the Travel Inn on Fremont St., then took him this morning to interview with Lindemann for any openings in the near future. After the interview, Hicks was back at the trailer -- "to complete his application if he can," Bowker said.

The trailer also saw people like Greg Dickinson, who filled out a form truthfully Monday and said he stayed near Cheyenne Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Dickinson said he has had trouble keeping a job since getting injured in late 2001 and has been trying to get off the streets for a year while getting the runaround from various county and state agencies.

Tuesday morning he was sent to Social Service, which resulted in a medical appointment later in the month. He returned to Wilson Avenue with the hope that he could get a voucher to get in out of the cold.

There he was told that the outreach effort was only meant for those who slept under the bridge nearby.

"I thought they would help you wherever you were at in the process," he said.

"They dashed my hopes again and that hurts."

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