Catholic Charities reverses ID policy

Monday, July 18, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

An emergency shelter program at Catholic Charities for the homeless to get out of the summer heat reversed a policy denying admission to men without identification, after the Sun reported on the policy last week.

"Questions and issues about the program were raised ... (and) we wanted to know -- 'Are people being turned away?' Because that's not what the grant stipulated," Clark County spokeswoman Gina Olivares said Friday.

Though the program's $77,808 grant, paid for in taxpayer dollars, comes from all area municipalities, the county supervises the regional homeless coordinator, Paula Haynes Green, who coordinates the emergency shelter programs in winter and summer.

The Sun reported Friday that homeless men -- as well as a Catholic Charities administrator -- understood the policy to be that identification was required to enter the shelter.

The summer emergency shelter program opened July 1 and will stay open until Sept. 30. It runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and is meant to provide a way for homeless people to stay safe in 100 degree-plus temperatures. Since 2002, at least 13 homeless people have died, in part due to the heat, according to coroner's records.

Given the emergency nature of the program, Olivares said, county leaders -- Clark County Manager Thom Reilly, Clark County Social Service Director Darryl Martin and others -- were concerned that Catholic Charities could be turning the homeless away, or that the homeless could be staying away because they understood the policy to be that ID was required.

In a 2004 survey of the homeless, nearly 18 percent said they lacked identification.

The reversal of Catholic Charity's policy was announced Friday in a one-page notice Olivares sent the Sun that also announced other shifts in the program.

The notice said the charity had:

The notice said Catholic Charities will be "allowing an additional 150-175 beds to be utilized by Summer Day Shelter (sic) clients so that no one is turned away."

It also said the shelter will allow people waiting outside the shelter downtown to enter the shelter as early as 10 a.m.