Shelter adds winter beds, but future funding still uncertain

     St. Vincent shelter has added 250 beds for homeless men to sleep in during the winter, said Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada spokeswoman Kathryn Haisan.
      The shelter also has weathered budget cuts that threatened to close it down for a few months before the winter. But Haisan said Catholic Charities still does not know if the funding will be restored for next year.
      In August, the organization announced it would have to close the 180-bed St. Vincent Emergency Shelter from Sept. 1 through Dec. 1 after the city of Las Vegas sliced the shelter's funding request of $112,500 nearly in half.
      The city's allocation of $60,342 represented a 33 percent funding cut from the previous year. Shelter officials decided to close the shelter for the warmer months to ensure it could be open for the winter, Haisan said.
      Upon hearing news of the impending closure, Mirage Resorts Inc. offered the organization $30,000. The money has lasted long enough to allow the shelter to stay open through the winter, Haisan said.
      The additional beds are in buildings on the Catholic Charities campus at Las Vegas Boulevard and Owens Avenue.
      The buildings are normally leased out but will be operated with funds from the Southern Nevada Coalition for the Homeless as a shelter until the end of February and possibly through March, depending on the weather, Haisan said.
      Catholic Charities will present its funding request to the city again in the spring and has made the city aware of the problem budget cuts can cause, Haisan said.
     --Caren Benjamin
     
     Rebels lead in plate race
     
      The UNLV Rebel mascot has blown past UNR's wolf on Nevada's hectic city streets and quiet country roads.
      University mascots have popped up on more than 3,100 license plates across the state in 3 1/2 years.
      The Department of Motor Vehicles issued 1,623 UNLV and 1,512 UNR plates from the summer of 1993 to Dec. 31, 1996. DMV spokeswoman Kimberly Reed said the program has sent $69,168 and $68,110 to scholarship funds at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Nevada, Reno, respectively.
Next Column