Wednesday, April 19, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.
A shelter program that has helped homeless Las Vegas families for the past decade now needs help itself - from the Las Vegas City Council and perhaps from its neighbors - to avoid becoming temporarily homeless.
Family Promise could be forced to move from its central office - a two-story house at 502 Van Buren Ave. near E Street in West Las Vegas - unless the council grants zoning and land-use related changes that are being opposed by some neighbors.
Both sides said they hope for a compromise that will help the organization, which even those opposing it on this issue praise as doing admirable work - God's work. And they apparently will have another two weeks to search for common ground.
Although the council is scheduled to consider the zoning matters today, both sides expect any discussion and council action to be delayed until May 3.
That is because the Family Promise office is in the ward of Councilman Lawrence Weekly, who is out of town. The council typically delays action on controversial matters if the councilman whose ward is affected is absent.
For Family Promise, the council's decision could either keep the organization in place or uproot its office, a hub where families can do laundry, take showers, get onto the Internet to search for jobs and store their possessions.
Family Promise Director Terry Lindemann said Tuesday that while the organization has asked the churches and other religious houses that they work with for temporary office space, the group has not yet located an alternate site. Even if a new location is found, the organization lacks the money that would be needed to move.
"It would be several months until we would be settled down again," Lindemann said. "The office space doesn't really matter, but the families need the shower and laundry facilities and storage."
A forced move could put the organization out of business until a new office with those amenities is found, she said.
Family Promise, which has been in Las Vegas for 10 years and at its current location for two, works with 19 local houses of worship - including a Jewish temple, a mosque and churches - to assist up to four families at a time. The clients, up to 150 every year, stay at the religious facilities overnight and are fed by the host congregations, which take turns to provide temporary homes.
One of those clients, 29-year-old Candice Raasch, said Family Promise has been a lifesaver.
Raasch went into the shelter system while pregnant, but after encountering a series of unpleasant experiences including food poisoning, felt there was little help to get her back on track.
"I had a really hard time finding someone who cared," said Raasch, who gave birth to a boy less than two weeks ago. "Now there's actually hope."
Gary Baney, 46, and his two young children have been staying at Family Promise sites for about five weeks. During the day his children, ages 4 and 3, go to day care while he hunts for a job.
"It's really a good place. It saved us from being on the street, really on the street," he said.
The Rev. Ollie Reddick of the nearby New Revelation Baptist Church said he has nothing against Family Promise - except its location.
"What they do is wonderful," he said. "But where they are is wrong."
Reddick said he is concerned that changing the zoning to allow an office on the Family Promise site - the land is now zoned residential - would set a precedent that would open the door for commercialization of the area.
"It would allow other companies to move in, and it's wrong," Reddick said. "You don't put a business in a residential area. It's not a problem with them. It's a problem with the zoning, and that it will attract others."
The zoning conflict came to light in October when Family Promise applied for a $21,000 city grant. The grant application triggered a review, which uncovered that Family Promise was operating without a business license and on land not zoned for office use.
The city awarded the nonprofit organization $10,000, but the money has been held up until the licensing and zoning matters are resolved.
Both the city Planning Commission and Planning Department have recommended against changing the zoning and other land-use issues to accommodate Family Promise.
A city staff report said the proposed office use is too intensive for a residential area. City Planning and Development Director Margo Wheeler said that the Family Promise application, if granted, would allow only a social service use on the property.
"It's not going to be a Walgreen's," she said.
On the question of precedent, Wheeler said every land-use application is analyzed on its own merits. "This application does not make any future applications more or less viable," she said.
Lindemann argues that her organization's use of the property is not "intensive," pointing out that only two staffers are at the office at once and that clients are there for a limited time and not allowed to have visitors.
On that point, Reddick agreed.
"There have been no problems with them," he said. What he worries about, he added, is what might follow or replace Family Promise.
It remains unclear which side the council might take.
Weekly was unavailable for comment, and Councilmen Steve Ross and Gary Reese said they need to further examine the issue, but Reese added, "A residential neighborhood should be a residential neighborhood."
"I always support like uses next to like uses, but I'll have to wait and see what comes up at the council meeting," he said.
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