A MOMENT CAPTURED

Tiffany Brown, Las Vegas Sun

Thursday, April 26, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

Grand opening: 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday

Address: 319 S. Main St., Las Vegas

Help needed: Painting, other remodeling and moving furniture

Incomplete rooms: A dozen rooms, which were initially adopted, remain incomplete - and, in some cases, not even started.

Contact: New Genesis, 702-384-8007

F or the past several weeks, the former Little Hotel and Victory Hotel on South Main Street in downtown Las Vegas have been hives of activity.

Volunteers have been remodeling their adopted rooms in the historic buildings, helping convert the former jail and brothel into transitional housing for the homeless.

New Genesis, a nonprofit group that works to guide the homeless back to independent living by providing housing, supportive services and an aftercare program, is dubbing the project the Compass House, with women living at the former Victory Hotel and men at the Little Hotel.

"When we first heard about the adopt-a-room program we said, 'Hey! We wanna help , too.' Even though we're clients we want to give our part , too," said Annette Evens, who came to New Genesis' transitional housing program in December 2005 and recently became the nonprofit's director of client services.

"It's our way of saying we made it, and you guys can make it , too. We're clients and we've all come a long way. We were in the shelter, we know how it feels to live in the shelter ... and now we live in the transitional apartments. So these guys, even though this is a start for them, they can get where we are."

She compared volunteer activity to the energy of the popular TV program "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

"We're all little miniature Tys," she said, referring to the show's carpenter host, Ty Pennington. "We're just so happy to be able to do our part. When we finish our room we're going to go upstairs and help finish those rooms up there. The group, everyone getting together and helping each other, it's just so exciting."