Where I Stand -- Vegas must limit vulnerability of its working poor

DID YOU EVER help a child learn about finances with a simulated paycheck in Monopoly money? Start with $1,500 at the beginning of the month, deduct utilities, food, etc., and you wind up with zip.

Thousands of Las Vegas families live that stressful reality every month. That $1,500 is just what a couple making slightly more than minimum wage brings home, and it's just above the poverty level for a family of four. They work, they don't drink or do drugs, and they try to do right by their kids. Same for the single mother of three who can't get her child support, but works and takes classes at night. Las Vegas needs tens of thousands of workers just like them.

Let's look at their monthly budgets: Rent $540, utilities $235, food $360, after-school child care $130, transportation $250, and they're out of Monopoly money. Nothing for clothing, school supplies, cough syrup ... zip. Every month something important has to slide. And the Las Vegas economy desperately needs them.

These are our fellow Las Vegans who are turning to food pantries in record numbers. Many don't have health insurance for themselves or their dependents. Either their employer doesn't provide it or the employee contribution toward the premium is too high. Low-income households spend more than half their incomes on housing, and there just isn't enough left to go around. The cumulative effects of their daily hardships can be overwhelming.

These are the thousands of Las Vegans living on the edge. Living from week to week, they are an illness, layoff, or accident away from being on the streets. In a matter of days, people slide from working stiffs to street bums, and many in the general public think they bring their plight on themselves. Some can and will get higher-paying jobs, but the basic core of low-wage workers is a necessary reality for Las Vegas. Our economy even dictates that a certain number of people must be out of work at any given time. Is mere survival for them good enough for us?

And competition for these low-wage jobs will intensify with welfare reform. No one really knows the impact of welfare reform except that the welfare rolls will drop. Welfare reform is a good way to separate from public support those who can and should support themselves, but we have not adequately addressed what to do about those people who can't.

Many people will move from welfare poverty to low-wage, full-time employment poverty in jobs that do not allow affordability of basic necessities. We have not adequately addressed things such as affordable housing, access to medical care and treatment for substance abuse, mental illness and gambling addictions. And what of the children of adults who will not or cannot make it?

A percentage of our unemployed or working poor are going to have alcohol and substance-abuse problems. Many in the general public believe it serves them right if low-income people choose that path, but teenagers from good homes and white-collar executives also succumb. Who has more reason to want to temporarily escape their reality? The poor don't have the resources to access professional help and they are least likely to escape the harshest consequences, such as homelessness.

This reality is occurring at a time of community prosperity. When, not if, we hit the lean times, our social-service ills will quadruple.

The local United Way has a new publication titled "The Human Side Of Growth." It details the tremendous social-service challenges our community has acquired and didn't plan for. I'm sure someone will say we're working on it now, but we should have been working on it when the Mirage was on the board. In all the strategic planning and infrastructure discussions, there has been inadequate planning for the social impact of our growth, especially on the people on the lower end of the economic scale who are so vital to our economy.

Las Vegas has so much going for it, and we have many individuals and companies who do invest in our community, but these efforts are much like an unfinished patchwork quilt -- a little over here, a little over there. Some things that are essential but too difficult or too costly haven't been addressed. Our community needs to master-plan its human services right along with its schools, jails, and flood control. And a great place to begin is affordable housing. We can quantify the need. The challenge is to provide the quantity of decent, safe units at a rate people can afford.

I do not believe it is the will of the community to write off the working poor as acceptable losses. Strong leadership from government and nonprofit organizations, coupled with unprecedented business and community support, can solve these ills.

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