Event makes connections

As a city bus driver, Gail Reed never discriminated against her customers whether they wore raggedy clothes or three-piece suits.

It was that attitude that probably helped her out in the end.

Reed's route was mostly Las Vegas Boulevard, a popular corridor for the homeless, who also made up a majority of her customer base.

The economy crashed, she lost her job, and her savings dried up in August 2009. Reed was booted from her rental home. She was homeless, couch surfing with her two young children and living out of suitcases and bags she hauled around town.

"I wasn't looking for a handout, I was looking for a hand up," Reed said. "I didn't want to go on welfare, and I didn't want to be looked at as a needy person."

So, she took advantage of an annual program through Project Homeless Connect that focused on providing resources to low-income and homeless individuals and the chronically homeless. She got a job that helped her afford a three-bedroom apartment in the northwest valley with her son Armond, 12, and daughter Blessing, 5.

Preventing Homelessness Connect is a new program, similar to the one Reed used, coordinated by the Southern Nevada Regional Planning's Regional Homeless Services and the Nevada Homeless Alliance.

The program targets families, like Reed's, who are homeless or on the verge of losing their homes to provide resources that help stabilize their housing situation.

Rather than serving the chronic homeless, this event is geared toward families and individuals before they fall too far, said Gina Gavan, Nevada Homeless Alliance spokeswoman.

"We want to provide a safety net to catch them before they fall back into the system," Gavan said.

This year's event will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Cox Pavilion. Financial planning, job readiness, housing, medical care and legal resources will be available.

"This event will bring together families in need and the organizations and programs that can help them," said Shannon West, regional homeless services coordinator. "Homelessness can devastate a family, and we need to do whatever we can to help families in need secure a stable home."

It was an eerie foreshadowing of events as the very same homeless people who rode on Reed's bus became one of her greatest assets. Reed said she overheard people at the rescue mission she was staying at talk about a resource fair that connected homeless people with the necessities to begin stabilizing their lives.

Reed stood in line for two hours at Cashman Center and ended up meeting with representatives from Help of Southern Nevada, who helped her get a job at Goodwill Industries.

"I had to go from $14 an hour (driving a bus) to $7.55, but I was going to do whatever I could to get a roof over my head," Reed said.

But a two-week bout with pneumonia forced her bosses to let her go, and now she is unemployed. She now relies on unemployment checks and welfare to pay the bills. She also volunteers about 30 hours a week with Help of Southern Nevada's Baby First Services program. She meets with pregnant teens and moms to get them to parenting and prenatal classes.

"They're not saying they're going to work a miracle," Reed said. "You come and get in the program and people think they're going to get you a job. No, you're going to get you a job. They just give you the tools to get it."

Contact Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.