Thursday, August 05, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Homelessness official touts federal plan in Las Vegas

Mangano says Bush standing behind 10-year project with $3 billion

Philip Mangano made a cross-country trip from Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to tell Las Vegas officials why the president's 10-year plan to end homelessness will work.

"By joining this 10-year plan, you're joining a partnership that extends from the White House to the streets," said Mangano, the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. "You won't be out on a limb. You'll be going to the roots and uprooting this national disgrace."

The Interagency Council on Homelessness is part of the Domestic Policy Academy of the White House and was created as an independent establishment within the federal executive branch. The council, made up of 20 Cabinet secretaries and agency heads, is chaired by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi.

Repeating much of the same message he shared with Nevada state officials during his visit to Las Vegas in June, Mangano said governors and mayors across the country have agreed to participate in a plan that would provide permanent housing for the homeless, instead of temporary shelters. He called on Las Vegas, one of the 100 largest cities targeted for the 10-year effort to end chronic homelessness, to adopt its own plan based on the federal model.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines the chronic homeless as those people with a disabling condition who have been continuously homeless for a year or more, or who have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.

Mangano was invited back to Las Vegas to speak at the City Council meeting by Mayor Oscar Goodman.

The main reason the president's plan will work, Mangano said, is because it wouldn't be an unfunded mandate. He said the president has budgeted more than $3 billion for the U.S. departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs for initiatives related to the 10-year plan. Those funds, he said, would go to cities such as Las Vegas through a competitive process.

His presentation came on the heels of a public health crisis in the valley stemming from the mentally ill clogging hospital emergency rooms in July and ongoing efforts by local and state officials to ensure that enough funding is available to keep alternative triage locations operating. Many of the mentally ill patients who end up in area emergency rooms are homeless.

Following Mangano's presentation, Trina Robinson, a management analyst for Las Vegas' Neighborhood Services Department, presented an outline for the city's own 10-year plan to end homelessness. The council approved her presentation and directed staff to move forward with the city's plan.

Like several other plans regional officials have touted and tried to implement, the new 10-year plan to end homelessness in Las Vegas would include focus groups, collecting data and research on the homeless, defining the problem in the valley, creating action plans and finally putting the plan to use. The process is broken down into 10 steps.

But Goodman and council members Gary Reese and Lawrence Weekly were skeptical of whether the city's plan would work.

"I'm concerned that sometimes it's just rhetoric," Goodman said. "We've been talking about this since I've been elected. My question is, do we have to start from scratch or can we use the resources we already have and jump to step eight?"

Linda Lera-Randle El, an advocate for the homeless who runs an outreach program called Straight from the Streets, said in a phone interview that she was offended by the proposal to start another plan, given the long record of studies and plans for tackling homelessness produced by local government agencies over the years and the lack of impact they've had on those who live on the streets.

"We are way past all these initial steps," she said. "We've done them time and time again. We know this stuff, and it's ridiculous to start again when we have a world of 8,000-plus people who can't find a home."

Reese said he would not support the city plan if it meant placing more housing or other services for the homeless in his ward. His concern was echoed by Weekly, who said he was frustrated by unfunded mandates and a lack of help from other Southern Nevada cities.

"It's frustrating to listen to a lot of dialogue," he said. "If the White House is serious, be like Jerry Maguire and show us the money."