Down and out

Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005 | 7:49 a.m.

In the eight years Arthur Crowder has been off the streets of Las Vegas, one apartment burned down on him, another was bought out from under him, and, as of last week, yet another was declared unfit to live in.

His apartment and others at the Peter Pan Motel downtown were found with numerous building and health code violations last week, including leaks, mold, no heat and bedbugs.

Crowder's situation is the same as hundreds of other formerly homeless and poor people in the valley, many of whom are on fixed, minimal incomes and live in low-rent apartments in horrible, sometimes life-threatening conditions, officials said.

And Las Vegas, with one code inspector for about 55,000 rental apartments and a system based on responding to complaints, is overwhelmed.

Add to that the growing number of properties being sold for conversion to condominiums, the lack of new low-rent properties being built, and people's unwillingness to complain for fear of being left without a roof over their heads, and you have many who are left between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

"(These) tenants are already at the bottom of the barrel -- that's all they can afford and they're afraid they'll be put out on the street (if they complain)," said Jim Shadrick, the city's lone inspector, an employee at the Neighborhood Response Division of the Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Department.

Officials said a new program paid for by property owners could get more inspectors on the street by July, with annual visits scheduled in advance instead of being driven by complaints.

A similar program is being considered by North Las Vegas, which City Manager Gregory Rose said he hopes will be working by sometime next year.

Until then, people such as Crowder have few options.

After a 1999 stroke left him paralyzed on his left side, Crowder gets $579 a month in Social Security benefits, plus $97 in food stamps.

Since August, $450 of those benefits have gone to pay the monthly rent at the Peter Pan Motel on North 13th Street.

A city official last week told Crowder he "shouldn't be there" -- meaning it wasn't safe, he said.

But Crowder's response was a result of past experience -- "Where am I gonna go?"

Several others at the motel also spoke of their limited income, past difficulties finding housing and narrow field of options.

Betty McAdory, 48, sat in a wheelchair on the sidewalk on Thursday watching workers go in and out of the Peter Pan apartments after the city's initial inspection had ended.

Thirteen of the motel's 37 apartments were inspected last week; the remaining ones have yet to be looked at because, as of Tuesday, the owners had not given the remaining tenants advance notice of the inspection, as required by law, Shadrick said.

McAdory, who has multiple sclerosis and receives $574 in monthly disability benefits and $20 in food stamps, said she was "trying to make it one day at a time."

She said her apartment had holes in the bathroom ceiling. "It scares me when I go in there -- if I see something come out of there, I'm flyin'."

By Monday, Harold Black -- a 61-year-old, self-described "auto body man" who said he is unable to work because of a bad back -- said some repairs had already been done on his second-floor apartment since the inspections began.

Holes in his bathroom wall had been fixed, he said.

At the same time, Black, who said he had been waiting nearly two years for Social Security disability benefits -- which would be at least $500 more than the $369 monthly vouchers he gets from Clark County Social Service -- added that everywhere he lived has been in bad shape.

"Every place I've been in, it has been the same," he said.

Neighborhood Response Division Manager Devin Smith said, "So many of these older apartment complexes have been allowed to deteriorate to the point where they're uninhabitable."

Especially downtown, Shadrick added. Asked how many downtown properties would have trouble passing inspection, he said, "All of them."

At the same time, he said it's impossible to inspect them all, particularly with a complaintdriven system and one inspector.

He currently has about 300 cases open. A case refers to a property, which may include hundreds of individual apartments.

An open case means he's still working with the owners to try to correct violations, or hasn't done the followup inspection after repairs have been completed.

At the Peter Pan, he said he will work with the owners to try to repair all the units including fixing leaks, installing smoke detectors and providing heat but if certain deadlines aren't met, he and Smith may reach the decision in the coming weeks to condemn the building.

If that happens, the owners can find another place to live for all the affected tenants, and if they don't, the city will do so -- if necessary, put a lien on the property to cover costs.

Shadrick said statistics on the number of properties that had been condemned were not readily available. However, he said that owners were increasingly "choosing to close down properties on their own ... (and) putting the properties on the market." A sign on the Peter Pan says it is for sale. Georgia James at Prudential Real Estate said the asking price was $1.6 million.

Attempts to reach the owner of the Peter Pan were unsuccessful. James said the owner, listed in county records as Sharon Nuno of Cerritos, Calif., would not comment. Nuno bought the property in March, according to county records. Closing properties to put them on the market further reduces options for people such as Crowder.

Linda LeraRandle El, director of Straight From the Streets, a nonprofit organization that works with the homeless, spent three days driving the 59-year-old around town in search of other options.

But they were all full, or too expensive, or with no firstfloor apartments available, an important factor for Crowder, who walks with difficulty. Crowder, who LeraRandle El helped get off the streets in 1997, said it sometimes seems it would be easier and safer to live in a lot again.

Then he shifted in his winter jacket, looked up from the floor, and said, "I'd like a little house. ... That's it. So I don't have to worry about it."