Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumbleeconomic stimulus:
County, cities pitch homeless plan for stimulus money
In addition to bill-pay, rental aid, money would help coordinate services
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Price of emergency aid from county is a long wait in line (5-26-2009)
- Street sweeps won't solve street sleep (4-17-2009)
- Metro rethinks 'Don't feed homeless' (4-14-2009)
- Growing homeless settlement vexes business, Goodman (4-3-2009)
Clark County, Henderson and North Las Vegas plan to use $4.1 million in stimulus money for a wide variety of programs, such as helping families pay rent and overhauling the computer system that more than 15 agencies use to help the valley’s homeless.
The money, part of the $1.5 billion being given to 540 public and private agencies nationwide, is for preventing homelessness or helping homeless people quickly into housing. But private and public officials who worked on the funding have made it clear that they hope communities across the nation also use the grants to focus as much as possible on the economic crisis while improving the way they deliver services.
National and local experts on homelessness said the county-led plan appears to deliver on both fronts.
“If implemented with determination and creativity, this approach holds promise of preventing a massive increase in homelessness, while at the same time creating a better system for the future,” said Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a Washington-based group that advised Congress on the funding.
The spending plan developed by Clark County, Henderson and North Las Vegas was sent to the federal Housing and Urban Development Department on May 18. HUD has until July 2 to approve the proposal and would release the money Oct. 1.
The plan “could make a huge difference in the community,” said Duffy Gold, director of community development for United Way and part of a group that helped draft the plan.
She called attention to the parts of it that would use the least amount of money but help create a new system whereby a few agencies would act as hubs for the delivery of services, with up-to-the-minute information on the many programs in the valley and the ability to quickly match clients to the right program. Now, people wander through “pockets (of services) here and pockets there,” Gold said, often leading to a runaround.
The plan says: “Historically, Southern Nevada’s homeless preventions system has been fragmented, with upwards of 15 agencies receiving ... funding ... each with its own set of rules. This fragmentation is inefficient and ineffective.”
Revamping a computer system that those agencies currently use to cut down on fragmentation would take $314,000 of the $4.1 million. There’s also a pitch for using part of the money to develop better data on available affordable housing and to work more closely with landlords on getting people into housing.
Roman said her organization has pushed for some time to make communities with federal funding for helping the homeless manage their data better, to ensure that services are delivered more effectively and to make it possible to research who needs help and what is working to help them. She said the stimulus money offers the opportunity to make those changes.
Shannon West, who is paid by area municipalities to be the regional homeless service coordinator, said a more coordinated, better-run system “should have been in place before.” But when local municipalities and agencies that help the homeless began discussing how to use the stimulus money, which will be very closely monitored, “it forced the conversation about how to do things better.”
Finally, most of the money will be used to prevent homelessness through straightforward programs like help with past-due rent or utility bills, or with rent or utility bills for up to 18 months, or even security deposits or moving vans.
West said local municipalities and agencies had begun talking about how to shore up the local system for preventing homelessness last fall, even before the stimulus was announced.
Rising unemployment rates, now at 10.4 percent in the valley, will likely push more families closer to the brink of homelessness, Roman said, so it is wise to aim as much of the stimulus as possible at prevention.
“If you can help stabilize a family of four before they wind up on the street, you’ve saved the community an innumerable amount of money,” Gold said.
The county-led plan is missing one major local player — Las Vegas. The city sent in a separate plan for spending $2.1 million that focused mainly on helping dozens of people in one tent city downtown. But West said Las Vegas not participating “doesn’t affect the plan’s chance of succeeding,” and the city could tap into the improved system after it is in place.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Chinese company agrees to finance proposed Henderson arena
- South Point owner Michael Gaughan’s take on ‘Vegas Stripped’: ‘I’ll give it an 8’
- Coolican: Henderson officials out of loop on police brutality case, raising red flags
- See mug shots of 16 arrested in stolen-property police sting
- Lumberjacks — ‘Where the Big Boys Eat’ — hiring for North Las Vegas location
- Berkley draws stark contrasts with Heller over immigration
- Conceptual design unveiled for Henderson Space and Science Center
- Rebels open as a 9.5-point favorite against No. 13 San Diego State
- Send your loved one a virtual Vegas Valentine’s Day card right now
- Short memories may serve president
Blogs
The Kats Report
Live color from the scene at Thomas & Mack Center: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (3 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
I just hope something is done to get that tent city off of Foremaster Lane & Main Street. I am tired of seeing women trying to get through that area with their children to get to a bus stop or something and being subjected to this type of gauntlet. It's not right, people have a right to walk down a public street or wait for a bus without harrassment.
How do those people get away with setting up a tent on the sidewalk harassing legitimate business owners and productive members of society. Kick them out, it's disgusting.
Right. Give the money to the same local government that threatened to arrest those good church people for bringing sandwiches to the homeless. And a few years ago actually arrested the "Food Not Bombs" people who fed them on a larger scale on public property.
Watch 'em swallow up the offered millions in red tape, starting with that computer system.
Public spending was essential to creating jobs in the Great Depression. Look at these hundreds of billions now pouring in to everything. This economy will be turning around within months IMO -- found a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
Some funny comments from rejco. Well, he's right-- when cities receive stimulus money, they are NOT going to use it to help homeless people--they are going to use it to balance their budgets. The U.S. is becoming more and more like Zimbabwe or Somalia--a third world country. The biggest growth industries in the U. S. are collection agencies and education scams. (Oprah is the education shill.) Calif. is going to run out of money in a few weeks because of a $30 billion deficit. At this point there is no way out for Calif. $30 billion deficit is like the H-bomb in "Lost".
some day... it may be you... I KNOW let execute the homeless.. i mean there are draging the rest of us down.....idiotS....CAPITOLISM! SOME ONE WINS SOME ONE LOOSES THATS HOW IT WORKS ITs A BY-PRODUCT OF YOUR SUCCESS ... it could get much worse
Rocco, really trying hard to understand and find a point to your post.
I think what Rocco is saying is that homelessness is a by-product of capitalist. That in order for some of us to win and prosper we have to have a loser in the game as well.
I think a lot of these people have made choices in life that have led to the homeless problem. Some of these people have chosen to live this way for one reason or another. Others made bad choices.
Still others are homeless for a short time and will move from that stage to a better life if given the right hand up.
You will never be able to give the poor enough money for them to not be poor. We will always have poor people no way around it.
Thank you LasVegas2009,
Now what the hell is rejco trying to say?
I have been homeless at several points in my life. Contrary to popular belief, most homeless did not become so out of choice and not because they are lazy, stupid, or immoral. Many homeless people are victims of abuse in the form of neglect and abandonment by their parents or other caregivers. Some of them are simply victims of life's tragedies, such as hurricanes, fires, or other catastrophes from which they simply don't have the resources to recover. I invite you to my blog devoted to raising awareness on homelessness: Freethegods.com. There you will find an article I wrote on homelessness and pictures I have taken of homeless people. I always give them a dollar or two for the privilege of photographing them. I am often surprised by their cheerfulness and sense of pride. Often, they will show themselves to have some kind of talent. There is a fine line between genius and insanity.