Editorial: Good intentions not enough

Saturday, Jan. 14, 2006 | 9:50 a.m.

More than a year and a half has gone by since two local government agencies agreed to spend $1.5 million in federal funds to assist mentally ill homeless people with housing and other needs. Today not a single person has been housed.

An official involved with the program, Nancy Wesoff, director of operations for the Clark County Housing Authority, provided the Sun with her view of why it is stalled. "This is a tough population to work with," she told Sun reporter Timothy Pratt for a story published Thursday. "They're inconsistent as far as coming in with documents, making appointments."

We have no doubt that is true. Mentally ill homeless people are not apt to keep track of documents or even know what the documents mean. They are also not apt to have any understanding of appointments, let alone know the time and day for which they were scheduled. What this program needs are experienced outreach workers who have far better understanding of people on the streets than administrators.

We appreciate the intent of the housing authority and Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, the state agency it teamed up with in August 2004 to devise the program. There was a high-profile crisis at the time involving a shortage of beds at area emergency rooms because too many of them were being occupied by mentally ill homeless people. The agencies offered help at a time when no other solutions seemed forthcoming.

Their plan was to dedicate most of the federal funds toward housing vouchers that 74 mentally ill homeless people could use to subsidize their rents at low-income housing units. The state agency, which specializes in treatment, not outreach, was to make referrals to the housing authority, which would administer the vouchers. It was a good plan, but it is obvious now that the two agencies are out of their league in trying to implement it.

We believe a homeless organization that has outreach workers on its staff should be brought in on the plan. Mentally ill homeless people should be able to get help without having to keep track of documents and appointments.