Hundreds line up for chance at federally funded housing

Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 | 10:57 a.m.

Refugees from West African civil wars. Single mothers recently out of their teens waiting for child support payments to arrive. Divorced grandmothers living with friends. Pregnant mothers fleeing domestic violence. Homeless men. People with Los Angeles-area addresses.

These were some of the 1,896 people who lined up outside the North Las Vegas Housing Authority Thursday to get a chance to be among the 200 people whose names will be plucked from a barrel Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Those names will then get put on a waiting list for up to two years.

The prize worth all the waiting: federally-funded, Section 8 housing.

The event was the first of its kind in two years, a reflection of the low turnover rate in the 1,400-plus Section 8 apartments currently available through the housing authority and the lack of funding for the program, according to Thelma Catro, Section 8 manager for the North Las Vegas Housing Authority.

The Clark County and Las Vegas housing authorities also have high demand and low supply of Section 8 vouchers.

"They (the federal government) keep cutting our funds and expecting us to do more," Catro said.

Waylee Glah was one of those who went to Thursday's event for a chance to get an affordable place to live.

Glah is a refugee from Liberia, a country whose longstanding internal violence and resulting lack of infrastructure contribute to a life expectancy of 47 for men. He is 45.

He came here only five months ago. As a busboy, Glah earns $5.85 an hour, or $844 each month, most of which goes to $670 in rent for a two-bedroom apartment where he lives with his wife and three children near Sahara Avenue and Paradise Road.

Income limits for people in Section 8 housing vouchers range from $1,650 a month for one person to $2,354 for a family of four. The vouchers can be used to obtain apartments anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley, providing landlords agree to participate in the program. People receiving vouchers are expected to spend 30 percent of their adjusted gross income on rent.

However, Catro said, "if their income is at zero then 30 percent of zero is zero."

There is no time limit on participation in the program, though participants have their income and other conditions checked every three months.

Before filing into the housing authority's lobby to sit at a table manned by four employees for the day, Glah turned around and said, "By God's grace, I will be chosen."

Andrea Cervantes, 20, was in line outside with her 2-month-old son, Giovanni, and her 15-year-old friend, Marisela Tarango.

She said she needed a larger apartment and was unable to pay for one on her own because she is a student and has yet to receive child support payments that she has been awaiting for months.

Dorothy Prentiss, 52, said she has been living with friends since getting divorced and has been unable to work since hurting her back after several years of lifting boxes at a department store.

She has been denied Social Security disability benefits three times, she said.

"If I don't get picked, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and waiting for disability," she said, holding onto a stub she'll need to find out if she's on the list of the 200 chosen to be on the waiting list.

Dorothy Lafrance, 37, came to Las Vegas from Tucson Nov. 30 with her husband, a carpenter, and their 9-month-old daughter, Lena.

She is eight months pregnant.

And although the family's plan in moving here worked -- her husband found work -- when her husband stopped taking medication for his bipolar disorder, a psychological condition that results in extreme mood swings, she wound up in the Shade Tree shelter for women.

Fearing her husband, she is now trying to cobble together a new life based on a series of programs that could allow her to obtain a place to live, a job, food and someone to care for her children.

"This is something to look forward to," she said, after filling out the card at the housing authority.

Behind the table in the lobby, Catro said the majority of the people who had come through were single mothers.

"It's hard for a lot of single mothers to find work and child care," Catro said, in explaining why so many of them seek affordable housing.

The official said the line had also included many elderly people, homeless men and women from nearby shelters, and dozens who had California addresses.

Before heading back to the shelter for the night, Lafrance tried to be optimistic about the drawing of names next week.

"I'm hoping this comes through," she said.

"There must be a reason I came to Vegas."