Editorial: A ‘dummy giveaway program’

Monday, Jan. 30, 2006 | 9:25 a.m.

A well-intended federal law passed in 1987 to help homeless people has proven to be almost worthless. Under the McKinney-Vento Act, a list of surplus federal buildings and mobile homes is published every month. Homeless organizations may apply for the properties and establish them as temporary shelters.

Unfortunately, the properties have proven to be surplus for a good reason -- they aren't habitable. Or they are located in remote areas.

So it was with interest that we read of a proposed policy change by the Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the law. "This is representative of the president's strong commitment to end chronic homelessness," a department spokesman said.

The proposed change, however, would simply allow the properties to be used as permanent housing, and expand the eligibility to include not only homeless and mentally ill people but also elderly and disabled people. The change would also require that the sheltered people be linked to appropriate social services.

This is all well and good. But what is really needed is for the federal government to make the properties habitable and accessible. In a December 2004 story we wrote about this issue and quoted then-Clark County Social Services Director Darryl Martin (now assistant county manager) as saying the law was a "dummy giveaway program" because the properties were in such bad shape.

We also reported about three trailers in Great Basin National Park, 300 miles north of Las Vegas, that were listed as federal surplus. They were run down and even if they hadn't been, there was no provision in the law for transporting them to where they could be used.

We suggest a practical policy change -- bring all federal surplus property up to code, and provide regional transportation for surplus mobile homes. That would show a truly strong commitment to ending chronic homelessness.