Editorial: Why the long delays?

Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.

Local agencies are moving at the speed of molasses in spending money that has been dedicated to help low-income people and those who are homeless and mentally ill. In August 2004, a month after Clark County declared that the number of mentally ill people taking up beds at area hospitals amounted to a crisis, a program was established to ease the crisis. Jointly operated by the Clark County Housing Authority and Southern Nevada Mental Health, a state agency, the program was given a budget of $1.5 million in federal funds. Today, not a soul has been helped by the program and the money remains unspent.

A similar situation is occurring at Las Vegas City Hall. For years it has been receiving federal funds for a Housing and Urban Development Department program known as HOME. The program was established to allow participating cities to provide housing assistance to families with very low incomes. A growth task force recently identified affordable housing as one of the greatest needs in the Las Vegas Valley. But the city, for some reason, is hoarding the funds. It has more than $5 million accumulated. When this newspaper inquired about its plans for the money, a city spokesman mentioned an "affordable housing project that is delayed."

There is no excuse, in our view, for not spending the money that is available to ease the problems facing poor, mentally ill and homeless people. Federal and local officials have identified the problems, money has been been secured to address the problems and then ... nothing. The $1.5 million was set aside to identify mentally ill homeless people, get them into apartments provided by the housing authority and then arrange treatment for them. But it took officials in participating agencies 10 months just to decide on the wording for a legal agreement.

Local agencies must learn to provide faster and more efficient service. A homeless family shouldn't be made to wait for years while officials dither.