Municipal building used as shelter

By Timothy Pratt

Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005 | 9:47 a.m.

The weather in the Las Vegas Valley this last week has also been hard on those who have no home, bringing Clark County to use a municipal building to shelter the homeless for the first time.

The move was made Friday, when it snowed, and Sunday, said Darryl Martin, director of Clark County Social Service.

On both nights, emergency planning led the county to use a gymnasium for shelter at the Clark County Department of Juvenile Justice Services campus on North Pecos Road.

Martin said he and Clark County Manager Thom Reilly decided early Friday to search for a municipal building to respond to emergency conditions -- severe weather and a lack of room at all available privately run shelters.

The need to do so was contemplated in an emergency shelter plan Reilly laid out in November 2003. Shelters and temporary vouchers for area motels had met the need until now.

But this past weekend's weather hit the valley's homeless hard.

He said that several of the local shelters were "on overflow" by Friday night, and so 24 people were bussed from Catholic Charities on Las Vegas Boulevard and Owens Avenue to the Juvenile Justice Services campus. Twelve slept in the gymnasium Sunday, Martin said.

The county may need to use the space again if the weather remains wet, cold and windy, he said.

The county had to obtain security guards and transportation at the last minute, the cost of which Martin will know later this week.

Whatever the cost, he said, "it's a lot better than sleeping outside in the rain."