Government services to be brought to the homeless

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, March 31, 2005 | 9:50 a.m.

At the second meeting in a week on the ongoing problems surrounding a camp of homeless people near downtown Las Vegas, officials decided to reverse a decision to stop feeding the needy at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, as well as to move forward with plans to set up intensive services in the area.

Pastor Jeff Chaves, interim director of the mission -- site of the meeting -- said his organization would go back to providing evening meals on Saturday. They were stopped March 17 in an effort to drive away the homeless people in the camp on Wilson Avenue behind the mission.

Now that "the ball is rolling" on the larger plan to help those in the camp, "keeping the food line closed is counterproductive," Chaves said.

Other plans discussed at the meeting include setting up temporary county offices on Wilson beginning in mid-April and getting Metro Police to put officers on the street during the effort. There are also plans to close down the street to traffic.

The camp, now at about 100 people, has become increasingly controversial in recent months after the Clark County Health District declared the area a health hazard in August.

The mission's 5 p.m. meals serve up to 250 people, including low-income people from the neighborhood.

The mission's recent decision was the second time it had stopped the meals in five months, though mission officials said the last time had little effect on the neighboring camp.

"Stopping feeding folks is not the way to deal with the problem," said Adrian Lee Noffsinger, manager of the mission.

Wednesday's meeting to deal with the larger problem was attended by city and county agencies as well as a diverse collection of private groups, including faith-based volunteers who feed the homeless people on Wilson.

The meeting was closed to media. Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight from the Streets, a nonprofit organization, said she couldn't understand why it was closed to the media and didn't agree with keeping the meeting behind closed doors.

"What are we plotting to do -- overthrow the government?" she said.

As the meeting was taking place in the mission chapel, Gerald Cummings, 49, sat on the sidewalk across Wilson in the sun, rolling a cigarette.

He said he lost some of his possessions in January when the state Transportation Department came through and cleared out another camp under a bridge nearby.

Asked about the plans being discussed inside, he said, "These people are dying in the streets. They don't need more government and police. They need water."

Still, Darryl Martin, director of Clark County Social Services, said his agency would be putting two trailers on Wilson to house offices on the site in the coming weeks, perhaps as early as April 18.

The idea would be to stay in the area for at least 60 days, and, with the help of city and state agencies, as well as private groups, to get as many people as possible off the streets and into housing.

"We don't want this to be a county and city effort, but community-wide," Martin said.

The county said the effort would be "re-evaluated" at the end of 60 days.

However, Orlando Sanchez, director of Las Vegas Neighborhood Services, another lead agency in the effort, said the camp will not be allowed in the area after the two-month period is up.

"If some people don't want help, it's still America and it's their God-given right if they want to stay on the streets -- but they can't stay on Wilson."