There's new hope for the homeless

Elmer Taylor, 25, walks with a cane, but it's just for show, he says.

It may have been the cane that helped distinguish himself from the thousands of other homeless men milling the streets of Las Vegas. He was lucky enough to get a job. He's a hawker, one of the people who dress in clown suits and try to wave motorists into one business or another.

Out of his clown suit, Taylor's prefers jeans and a Harley-Davidson T-shirt. And when he talks of the events that took him from serving in the U.S. Navy to living on the streets, he prefers to look ahead, thinking of a time when he'll be back on his own two feet.

When he realizes that goal, he'll have a revitalized Catholic Charities to thank, along with the donors who are making the revitalization possible.

Thursday, the dining and residential facilities formerly known as St. Vincent's became history. While St. Vincent's long fulfilled a need, its condition had deteriorated and the demand for its services had long ago outstripped its size and capabilities.

Catholic Charities created St. Vincent's out of the old Vegas Shopping Center, which was built in the 1960s.

"The buildings were in such disrepair, there was nothing we could do," said Charles Desiderio, Catholic Charities' director of community and public relations. "When something is that old, we could not have repaired it enough."

With a $2.5 million grant from the Lied Foundation and $1.5 million provided by the Fertitta family, what was once generally known as St. Vincent's is now Catholic Charities Plaza, featuring the Lied Dining Facility and Fertitta Residential Center. The complex, at Las Vegas Boulevard North near Owens Avenue, will grow even more with a $10.4 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

Frank Richo, Catholic Charities' director of residential services for the past 2 1/2 years, has dealt with the many faces of homelessness.

He has heard hundreds of stories similar to the one Taylor tells -- a hardship discharge from the Navy after his mother died, a flood that ruined his one hope for a house, no luck in finding a job -- and can attest to the validity of the stories and the growing need for people to receive a helping hand.

"With the growth of Las Vegas, everyone hears about the great jobs you can get here -- it's not true," Richo said. "Many people we see were prevented from getting a job when they got here, or weren't prepared to make the move. When you are living on the street, you can't get a job because you don't have an address to put on your application."

He has seen people at the homeless shelter from all over the country, and growth in the valley keeps them coming year-round, not seasonally. He watches all types of people come through the center's doors.

"Most people by nature want to feel self-worth," he said. "Most people coming through our doors have lost that feeling. We want to not simply say, 'Everything's OK,' we are more concerned with getting them to self-sufficiency so we can reduce homelessness."

With the number of homeless people rising in the valley, it is not a rare sight to see them sprawled on sidewalks or asking for food or money on street corners. Richo said this image has led to many misconceptions about the homeless.

"The first misconception is level of education. We have doctors and lawyers coming into our center. The other misconception is that these people don't want to work.

"The number-one problem is that people are homeless for many reasons. People think they're just lazy, but they should be supporting an organization that is trying to change that."

The 15,000-square-foot Lied Dining Facility, which served its first meal to hundreds of homeless people at 10 a.m Thursday, enables 300 people to be served at once, nearly triple the number St. Vincent's was able to handle. Richo estimates that the organization serves 700,000 meals a year.

The 8,200-square-foot Fertitta Residential Center enables Catholic Charities to offer another 200 beds for men, in addition to the 550 beds currently offered.

"The major impact this dining facility will have is that these people aren't going to be walking into a shoddy building, they are going to be walking into a brand-spanking-new one," Desiderio said. "These people will feel so uplifted, it will show them that someone cares."

At Thursday's grand opening, donors Christina Hixson of the Lied Foundation and Frank and Victoria Fertitta spoke a few words.

"I can't tell you how proud I am to be part of this today," Frank Fertitta said at the grand opening. "It really gives you a good feeling to be able to help someone."

Hixson echoed his words.

"My hope is that everyone who gets through that line (at the dining center) gets their life back on track," she said.

Catholic Charities operates a program that supplies more than 4,000 workers a year to employers all over the valley. People who work though the program are able to live at the center's dormitories for 20 percent of their income.

"It's nice to know there is somewhere I can go in order to save money until I can get out on my own two feet," Taylor said. "I get paid every day, so it's just like a spot job. I have been treated really good living on the premises. It's a good thing, because Vegas isn't a safe place."

The remainder of the services are set up mostly for men, including an emergency shelter, a residential work program and an immigration program. A separate organization in Las Vegas, the Shade Tree Shelter, provides programs for homeless women.

The Reynolds Foundation grant will be used to complete the final three phases of Catholic Charities Plaza. Phase Two, which should be completed by March, consists of 120 units of transitional housing. Phase Three is a commercial center that will include a post office and laundry room. Phase Four will be a central facility, housing the current work program and social-services offices. All the phases should be completed by 2001.

"Society needs to be more knowledgeable of homelessness and stop looking at it as something that can't be helped," Richo said. "It's not just about money. The community has to demand things of its citizens -- we can no longer accept folks living on the street. We need to find out who they are and get them off the streets."

Taylor will go back to work Monday in his clown uniform, in the scorching heat, to continue his job as a restaurant hawker.

"I like my job," he said. "I meet a lot of people from out of the country, and people are always smiling when they see me."

archive