Where I Stand--Mike O'Callaghan: Ya gotta have heart

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

NEVADA'S 2001 LEGISLATURE is showing heart when considering who needs help the most. Recently this column pointed out the progress being made to encourage the protection of newborn babies not wanted by mothers.

Sen. Ray Rawson's SB191 is a needed step forward that should soon become law. The Junior League of Las Vegas has thrown its considerable influence behind this bill. It's badly needed in a society where we have some newborns being disposed of in garbage cans to die and be thrown away.

Last week I went to the Gov. Grant Sawyer Building to watch the Assembly Ways and Means Committee hear a request for $100,000 to help another growing group of people in our society -- homeless youth. Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera spoke up for the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth request. Herrera's presentation was clear and concise and held the attention of Assemblyman Morse Arberry, the committee chairman. The bill AB139 was authored by Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins who was also present in the Carson City hearing room ready to testify on behalf of another of his bills, AB57, which will provide for means to promote needed parental involvement in our schools.

Herrera spoke about what the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth has been doing: "Initially, we had no idea where the kids lived or how many there were. Through our street outreach we have identified and served over 200 kids living in the streets. Many of them are well aware of how the system works and live on the street as the better alternative. Nine out of 10 report physical or sexual abuse (or both) as the reason for leaving home."

So what has the NPHY been doing before coming to the Legislature and what are their plans?

"The NPHY has been facilitating, through the Street Teens Program, a part-time drop-in center three days a week in the Maryland Parkway and Karen area. The drop-in center needs funding in order to relocate closer to the area where the homeless teenagers are residing. In addition, available hours need to be extended to a full-time permanent center. We intend to use the appropriation to expand services seven days a week, closer to where the adolescents actually reside. The targeted area encompasses UNLV, where the kids remain virtually invisible. Homeless teenagers do not go into the homeless corridor for personal safety reasons. In most major metropolitan cities, homeless teenagers congregate around colleges and universities."

Kathleen Boutin and her NPHY colleagues tell us that there are about 500 homeless and runaway youth who live around the UNLV area. From June until December of last year their "drop-in center distributed over 1,000 McDonald's gift certificates in increments of $5 to these youth."

"During this time, of the youth seen more than once, 30 are working full time and seven are back in school on a regular basis and 12 have been rightly reunified with their family.

"Over 200 hygiene kits were distributed along with 76 bus passes, 615 snacks and 252 telephone calling cards."

Do you want to know what else has been learned by NPHY and Street Teens outreach?

"Eight out of 10 homeless teenagers accessing the drop-in center admit to having been sexually and/or physically abused by a household member.

"Fifty percent of the homeless teens living around the university are from Las Vegas.

"Seventy-five percent of the teenagers seen at the drop-in center have admitted to engaging in 'survival sex,' i.e., prostitution."

In the meantime, Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, who is also the majority floor leader, has the names of 35 lower house members on her AB264. This bill provides for the next step in the process of helping homeless youth and runaways. In effect it revises "provisions governing the duty of certain persons to report the abuse or neglect of children; authorizing a county to adopt ordinances regarding the designation and operation of approved youth shelters; providing that approved youth shelters are immune from civil liability under certain circumstances."

Yes, there is lots of heart in the 2001 Legislature.

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