Homeless campsite cleared

The homeless campsite that police and social workers came upon early Wednesday morning was an elaborate and cozy one, complete with an elevated mattress, lots of clothing and a makeshift place of worship nearby.

It was situated hundreds of feet within a dank, pitch-black drainage tunnel that extends beneath Decatur Boulevard and was only dimly visible in the light from the officers' motorcycle headlamps.

"Watch out for booby traps," one of the social workers said.

"Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here," one of the officers said.

Eric, the man who had been living at the site and had said he wouldn't leave, just moments earlier had agreed to go into more conventional housing, at least for a while.

"See, we can resolve things peacefully," said Linda Lera-Randle El, director of the Straight from the Streets homeless outreach program. "We can offer options."

A small army of people, including several Las Vegas police officers, outreach workers and Clark County employees -- even the dog catcher -- gathered just after dawn at the homeless encampment at the northwest corner of Decatur and Tropicana Avenue.

It was the final day of a monthlong intervention or "abatement" at the site, and officials hoped to get everyone who still remained there into some sort of housing, transitional program or shelter.

Outreach teams already had helped find housing for 21 of the original 35 people found living in tents, in improvised shelters and between bushes, said Shannon West, regional homeless services coordinator for the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition's Committee on Homelessness. About a dozen had housing vouchers from Clark County Social Services. A handful were placed in a HELP of Southern Nevada program for the chronically homeless. Others arranged for housing on their own or planned to stay with family or friends.

Seven people declined services. Others, including three illegal immigrants, simply disappeared.

But workers found about a dozen homeless people at the site on Wednesday.

A 51-year-old man who asked to be identified as John said he didn't know about the intervention: "I don't associate with the other people here. They're drug-addicted punks. I just come here to sleep."

John, who had a suitcase full of clothing and a sleeping bag, took off before social workers got to him.

Outreach workers had better luck with Lois, 59, whom they found sitting near the entrance to the drainage tunnel.

Lois, who said she is homeless because of a drug-addicted relative and has severe health problems, eventually agreed to accept help. "It's really hard for me," she said. "I've never been here. I've always had my own place."

West said that interventions such as Wednesday's, about 30 of which have been completed in the past couple of years, are highly orchestrated to help the most people possible.

"We follow protocols developed in a collaborate effort with law enforcement, code enforcement, social services, advocates, public works and others," she said. "We've spent over 200 hours on that site."

The area is being cleared in part because the county eventually wants to build a park there. But there also has been an increase in crime in the area, West said. "There have been robberies and assaults," she said. "People are stealing stuff from Home Depot to make structures. They're taking copper wire" to sell.

Police come along on the interventions in case someone flat-out refuses to leave or causes trouble. People can be cited or even arrested for trespassing. But it didn't come to that on Wednesday. "Normally, homeless people don't want trouble," Lera-Randle El said.

Instead, outreach workers helped people fill out food stamp applications and determined their eligibility for housing vouchers.

Several people made arrangements to move in with friends or family members.

"I'm in favor of this team process," Lera-Randle El said. "Let's not just go out there and grab up everybody's belongings and start scattering people if we can avoid that. Let's have some common sense."

West said the next site intervention will begin soon at a large homeless encampment near U.S. Highway 95 and Lake Mead Drive in Henderson.

About 11,370 homeless people live in Clark County, according to a January count.