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Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman speaks at the grand opening of Veteran’s Village, a 125-unit converted motel for housing homeless veterans on Las Vegas Boulevard, south of Charleston Boulevard. Several organizations that provide services for veterans are also partnering on the project.
By Tovin Lapan (contact) 
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Hundreds of veterans homeless in Nevada
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KSNV reports that a study indicates more than 70,000 veterans are homeless across America, including hundreds in Nevada, July 24.
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The sand-colored Econo Lodge on Las Vegas Boulevard just south of Charleston has offered budget-priced rooms for tourists and visitors looking for longer stays since the 1960s, but now it will serve a higher purpose: providing shelter to some of Southern Nevada’s homeless veterans.
Mayor Carolyn Goodman was on hand Tuesday morning for the grand opening of the Veteran’s Village, a public and private collaboration that retrofitted the Econo Lodge to provide 125 rooms and social services to veterans in need.
“What’s happening here in Las Vegas is leadership, and we have been opening veterans homes and residences,” Goodman said, commenting that the country as a whole should do more for veterans. “(There is) nothing as big as this. This is simply a phenomenal step forward.”
The veterans who stay at the renovated complex will have access to education, nutritional, exercise, medical and mental health services provide by several local and national agencies, such as Lutheran Social Services of Southern Nevada, Help of Southern Nevada, U.S. Vets, Three Square Regional Food Bank, East Valley Family Services, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Medical Reserve Corps of Southern Nevada.
“This is the most important issue that we have,” Goodman said before cutting a purple ribbon hung across the doorway to one of the renovated rooms. “We need to get the vets that are homeless places, and we need to continue that outreach.”
The project was spearheaded by Arnold Stalk, a longtime Las Vegas architect and developer who has often tackled issues such as affordable and emergency housing. In 2007, Stalk launched a project to use converted shipping containers as single-family transitional residences for the homeless.
“This list of organizations serves notice to the community that we are here to help,” Stalk said of the service providers. “We are here to make the connections for veterans so they can make the transition to mainstream society.”
Stalk spent months looking for the a property to work with until he found the Econo Lodge. Kobi Shani sold the Econo Lodge to Stalk’s nonprofit Veterans Village organization. After updating the rooms and common facilities, the project was completed within a year.
Veteran’s Village and partnering agencies will provide round-the-clock security, wireless Internet service, on-site laundry facilities and weekly maid service at the complex. There also will be job placement services for the residents, and there are plans to host addiction treatment meetings on the property. Lutheran Social Services of Nevada is referring homeless veterans who seek assistance to the village.
According to a survey of Las Vegas’ homeless conducted by the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition in June, of 312 homeless people surveyed, 71 were veterans.
“There are probably hundreds of people in Las Vegas who need housing tonight,” Stalk said. “These 125 units sure are important as each void that we fill is another step forward.”
There was no “pop” of champagne bottles for the ribbon cutting, but the high temperatures added to the festivities by spontaneously bursting a few decorative balloons throughout the ceremony.
This is a good project. Long overdue. Glad to see someone step up and fill a much needed cause in this Valley.
Thank you one and all that helped and are involved.
The words 'Veteran' and 'Homeless' should never be used in the same sentence. This looks like a great project and I hope it works out.
Congratulations Arnie!
And the difference between this place and the El Cortez is.......
Me and the bird were glad to help.
Guess this is some of the "free stuff" that Mitt Romney said people won't be getting after he is elected President?
I wonder how long after the first homeless vet moves in that the room is stripped of anything of value and the vet has sold it for drugs and is back on the streets...or, moved into another room.
Most homeless need intensive, sometimes permanent mental health services, simply providing a place off the street will be another temporary, band-aid style approach.
But ain t this some of that "socialism" the republicans have been freaking out about for the last 3 years?
Comment removed by moderator. Inappropriate
I'm with Bob Realist. Route out those career-dependents and insist they make some moves on their own. We need to prioritize for those who have done and those who can do instead of dumping limited revenues into bottomless pits for the forever dependent. There is no return on investment the way we've been doing things. The Vets have already put in something "in return" and many can be productive again.
This a good deal for our homeless Vets. I"m happy
that some of our veterans will have a place to call home now. Actually I should have said it will
be a good deal only if Kobi Shani did indeed sell the motel and has no part of operating this project.
Many commenters here demonstrate very little respect for what we have done to these veterans, as many in our country view these castaway vagrants as something to hide or be ashamed of.
I knew guys whose lives were turned upside down from the stress of war, whose returning home in the 60s and 70s was nothing but insult heaped upon injury.
One of the reasons that their homelessness has plagued them is that they have lost their minds, many of them from post traumatic stress syndrome, some from drugs that they found would soothe their shocked and shattered realities, and some from the society who spat on them, disrespected them and shunned them for losing the war where the part they played was just crawling through tunnels to be ambushed, blown out of the sky or left standing alone in a pile of their blown-up buddies.
These people gave the prime of their lives to fight wars that benfit international corporate interests - 'national security' - as the term has been morphed in order to link our collective need ofr continued commerce that feathers the nest of a few and dumps these walking wounded warriors out onto the street with no idea in hell what happened to their lives, no chance in hell of regaining control of their potentials and no place to even sleep except through the grace of god and now this one morsel of community donation to their needy situations.
The entire depravity of social conscience in this total disregard for their welfare seese the height of disconnection, even as we are at war this very minute blowing up our neighbors and family members and leaving the evacuated skeletons of who they once were to roam the streets when they return from war to a country where their presence seems an embarrassment, a blight and a bitter reminder that some poor fool had to lose his mind or leg or both in order for us to have our little party, drive our little cars or enjoy the right to go to a midnight movie at a theater in peace...but try not to think about how nice we have it...try not to care about anyone else and certainly avoid giving a hoot about some deranged homeless vet wandering around begging for crumbs, for a dime bag of junk or a bottle of cheap wine to soothe his tormented soul. This time it's them, not you so why pretend to care?
To airweare (Joe Lamy)
I AGREE with everything you said in your post.
However, I believe it will require an intellectual leap for most of the Las Vegas Sun bloggers to truly understand what you are saying.
like Carolyn Goodman had anything to do with it. way to go las vegas, first you elect a former mob lawyer to be mayor and now his wife?
We need to be specific here folks...There are many different categories of "homeless veterans" and there are a few different categories of veterans!
Combat veteran is a specific group
Non-Combat veteran is a specific group
Drug and alcohol addicted veterans is a sub-group of both and is a major cause of some of the homelessness. I used to live in Prescott, Arizona and they have one of the oldest and largest veteran's facilities in the Nation - including a convalescent home. Prescott also has a relatively mild climate and these factors drew in the homeless vets from across the nation - (I am talking pre-911 vets) I've seen .40 blood alcohol from some of these guys, going into the ER and still talking...that's hardcore!
We need to make sure the combat vets; who are simply out of a job - or have had some other financial calamity - other than drug addiction - are put on the top of the priority list and work downward. Many vets play the vet-card! I am a non-combat veteran and that does not grant me a life-long list of entitlement. Many of the guys standing on the on-ramp with the cardboard, served 2 years in the Navy in 1988...
Keyword: DD-214 required upon check-in!