Vegas Gambles Stimulus Funds

by Shannon Moriarty

Published May 18, 2009 @ 08:15PM PT

Is the city of Las Vegas gambling people's lives for political clout? A quick look at their proposed usage of $2.1 million in stimulus funds intended to combat recession-induced increases homelessness suggests exactly this. In a move that has advocates scratching their heads, the city has proposed targeting 90 percent of the funds to dismantling a tent city rather than implementing sweeping structural changes that could improve the city's efforts to address homelessness long after the recession is over. 

Shame on you, Las Vegas, for this short-sighted approach. An approach that  gambles lives and favors superficial improvements rather than real progress in improving services.

Indeed, the hopes for this chunk of change are high; the $1.5 billion dollars in stimulus money is not only expected to support prevention and rapid-rehousing, but it is also expected to be the impetus for a paradigm shift in the way homelessness is addressed at the community level. Essentially, it is a chance to eliminate lengthy and pricey shelter stays and implement a system that aims to keep people in permanent housing. 

Here are the details from the Las Vegas Sun:

Las Vegas seeks to use $2.1 million in federal stimulus money to get dozens of homeless people off a downtown street and into housing, an idea experts say misses the intention of the grant and could waste an opportunity to help thousands more hit by the economic collapse.

The federal money, part of $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 tied to the funding said the hope is that communities across the nation use the grants to help set in place sweeping changes in the way they help the homeless, while focusing as much as possible on people beaten back by the current crisis.

The city's proposal, due at the federal Housing and Urban Development Department on Monday, focuses on a tent city at Foremaster Lane and Main Street that has caused controversy in recent months as Mayor Oscar Goodman has called for cleaning up the area.

It is tragically unfortunate that the city does not recognize the lasting opportunity presented by the stimulus funds. The chance to tighten communication between service-providers while reducing the length of homelessness for those affected by economic forces. The chance to prevent hundreds- even thousands in the long-term- from experiencing the devastating effects of being homeless. Instead, the city is focusing on a city eyesore for purely political purposes and neglecting its responsibility to serve the poor and improve lives. 

[Photo from the Las Vegas Sun: Leo Afshar, from left, Johnny Van, center, and Bill Levenson hang out in the homeless encampment on Foremaster Lane between Las Vegas Boulevard North and Main Street in Las Vegas on Friday, May 15, 2009.]