Finding work no easy job

Danny Capozzoli leaned back against the concrete block wall and surveyed the room in one of Las Vegas' largest homeless shelters.

His longtime girlfriend, Tammy Patterson, sat close and listened. Her two grade-school-aged children rolled and scampered about the room.

Capozzoli told a tale that is becoming all-too familiar in recent years in the Las Vegas Valley as 7,000 people a month arrive here: how his family's trip to the "promised land" had turned out to be anything but.

From Capozzoli's vantage point in Wyoming, where he said he was managing a restaurant, Las Vegas represented an opportunity to return to the work he loves.

"I wanted to get back into construction," he said, noting the year-round opportunities here.

"We bought a van. It ended up burning more oil than it did gas coming here. The brakes were bad. We spent about $450 fixing it up. By the time we got here, all we had left was $25."

The family arrived in Las Vegas in late August and lived in their van for two days on the banks of Lake Mead. Next they lived in a shelter arranged through Catholic Charities.

Marlene Richter, director of social services at Catholic Charities, said the plight of this desperate family is not unusual.

"What this family has experienced is very typical of what many of the people coming here have (experienced)," she said.

Unlike most American cities where drug abuse and mental illness are the leading causes of homelessness, Richter said this is not the case in Las Vegas.

"Those certainly are causes of some homelessness here. But the biggest reason we see is people who hear there are jobs here and think they will find one right away if they come here. It seldom works that way."

Part of Richter's job is to assist people in finding housing, and she said she has discovered that it's difficult here to find an apartment for less than $500 a month.

"By the time you pay your deposit for the apartment and all of the deposits for the utilities you are out more than $1,000. Many families coming to Southern Nevada just can't afford that," Richter said.

Indeed, Sumner Dodge, of the Las Vegas Salvation Army, said there has been a 36 percent increase in demand for services for the homeless since January.

"We thought we had enough food collected over the winter to last throughout the year. But the demand was so great that we ran out of food in July."

The shelter was able to replenish its stock, but only after an emergency food drive.

Such drives are becoming commonplace. Keith Schwer, director of UNLV's economics department, said need continues to grow because unskilled and semiskilled people continue to arrive in Las Vegas with no job, no money, no housing.

One effect is a social service network that cannot catch up, that is continually unable to meet the need. For example, the Salvation Army says that for every 10 homeless people in Las Vegas, there is one shelter bed. This is despite a renovation of Catholic Charities Plaza this summer that added 200 beds and a renovation under way that will add 120 more.

The Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition last year reported the results of a homeless census: 17,000 in the Las Vegas Valley and growing.

A survey of new Las Vegas residents found that 9.6 percent of people who have lived here for one year are still unemployed, Schwer said.

"Ten percent is high," Richter said. "But it is much higher when you look at people who have been here one to two months. I would say that 60 to 70 percent of people who move here looking for work are still unemployed after two months. They just aren't coming here prepared."

While Las Vegas' economy by most measures is booming, Dodge said some quiet time may be on the horizon.

"People in charity work are the first to know when a recession is coming," Dodge said. "We've seen a sharp increase in the number of people seeking assistance during the past year. It's just now that you are reading about a possible recession."

The shortage of beds is what creates the increasingly common plight in Las Vegas of people sleeping in vacant lots or setting up camps in the desert.

"Obviously, most of the homeless population is out on the street," Dodge said. "People can't just stay indefinitely in shelters once they arrive here. We have to make room for others to get off the street."

Many of those migrating to Las Vegas lack the skills necessary to do well in the casino industry.

"Let's say you move here from Illinois. Chances are you have never worked in a casino before and you don't have the skills necessary to start working there," Dodge said.

Richter added there are economic hurdles within the casino and hospitality industry that make it more difficult for low-income people to find work.

"If you are working in a casino, you have to have a sheriff's card, which is basically a criminal background check. That costs $35. A health card for anyone who works with food costs $10. Those are costs that the applicant has to bear."

Not only are the charitable demands greater in Las Vegas than in most cities, but Las Vegans are contributing less to charities than elsewhere.

The rate of charitable giving here is about half the national average, said Garth Winckler, president of the United Way of Southern Nevada.

Winckler said the reasons for the lower amount of giving are twofold: the transitory nature of Las Vegas prevents a sense of community from being established and Las Vegas has a larger number of people in the service industry than other cities.

"Contributions from the service sector of the economy are generally lower than in other sectors such as manufacturing or high tech," he said.

Richter, however, predicted that as people live in Las Vegas longer, they will develop a greater sense of community and give more.

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