Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Program helps family get off Las Vegas streets, offers hope

Homeless Family Find Home

Wade Vandervort

Heather Sullivan, alongside her husband Clarence Nolan, smiles after Metro officer Dan Blount hands her an assistance certificate for furniture from the Salvation Army on Monday, June 3, 2019.

Homeless Family Finds Home

Xavier Nolen, 4, plays with a toy truck inside his new home on Monday, June 3, 2019. Launch slideshow »

Soon after they relocated to Las Vegas last fall, a couple and their two children began sleeping in a tent in a desert lot for up to two weeks at a time. They didn’t have a choice; they had no home.

If sleeping outside without a shower was tough enough for the couple, they had to worry about Xavier, their 5-year-old nonverbal son with Down syndrome, and Xeryn, his outgoing 7-year-old sister.

To keep up the children’s spirits, the parents treated homelessness like a camping excursion, said Clarence Nolen, 42, adding that there was no bickering about grim finances. “As a family unit, it made us stronger,” he said.

Their children kept Nolen and his wife, Heather Sullivan, 32, grounded, he said. If it wasn’t for them, the couple said, they might have given up. So, when Metro Police approached them about a month ago offering a lifeline, they instantly accepted.

Within 30 days, the now mostly self-sufficient couple had a two-bedroom apartment of their own on the historic west side of the city, thanks in part to the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team.

The team combines Metro officers and Help of Southern Nevada staffers who patrol Clark County streets looking for the needy.

Three days after the family secured their home in a complex near Washington Avenue and D. Street, the outreach team surprised them with household goods and toys.

That June 3 morning, the apartment sat mostly empty, two fading red chairs in the living room. Toy packaging was scattered about as Xavier and Xeryn played.

Furnishings would come from Salvation Army vouchers. “We had nothing here, no bags or nothing, but this is ours,” Nolen said. “You know, we don’t have to worry about anyone kicking us out...We pay the rent; can’t nobody take that away from us.”

Sullivan works at a fast-food restaurant and Nolen, who is looking for work, cares for the children.

The intervention team, which is funded by Clark County, offers referrals to services, but the clients are expected to contribute.

“We watched them take a ball and run with it,” said Louis Lacey of Help of Southern Nevada.

Sullivan and Nolen found a home on their own, but they were $300 short on rent, which the program subsidized, Lacey said.

The family moved to Las Vegas from Tennessee, searching for programs best suited for Xavier, Nolen said.

But within the first month, their living arrangement fell apart and the money quickly ran out, he said. They tried renting a one-bedroom apartment but it wouldn’t accommodate four people, and they couldn’t afford a two-bedroom unit, Nolen said.

For a while, they stayed with an acquaintance, but once the winter cold left, Nolen said, he and Sullivan felt like they’d overstayed their welcome. They had enough money to eat and survive, but not enough to afford a permanent home, so they ended up in the tent.

When they had the money, they stayed at a hotel for showers and warm meals, which would fast deplete their cash, Nolen said. “To us it made perfect sense,” he said. “To anybody watching it, they wondered, “Why are you doing it that way?’”

Then came unexpected expenses.

Xavier doesn’t walk much, and when his stroller broke, his parents bought him a pull-cart. But that also broke, so they had to buy another stroller, Nolen said.

Initially, the family stayed in the central valley, where the soup kitchens and shelters are located. But the children’s school and Sullivan’s job were farther south, said Nolen, who recalled 15-mile walks and taking the bus.

On this day, Sullivan had to hurry off to her job. She blew a kiss at Nolen, who flashed a smile and turned his attention back to the kids — at their home.