Social service center to reopen

A social services office in the downtown homeless corridor that closed because of budget cuts soon will reopen thanks to grant funding, Clark County officials said Thursday.

"It's one of the best Christmas gifts we can give to people," Commissioner Lawrence Weekly said.

The 6,700-square-foot office inside the Fertitta Community Assistance Center, where some of the poorest valley residents went to apply for rental assistance and other services, closed in July because the county no longer could afford to lease and staff the facility.

But a recent $196,000 grant from the Southern Nevada Health District changed all that, the county said.

"Our staff was extremely good about going out and looking for resources," said Weekly, who with Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani and others fought to find a way to reopen the office, located at Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada's campus near Main Street and Owens Avenue.

"We have people who have never had to ask for help in their lives" now seeking social services, Giunchigliani said. "You want to make sure those services are easy to get to."

The county, which had to lay off staffers when the office closed, will hire 10 part-time employees to work in the office, a spokesperson said. The office is tentatively scheduled to reopen in December or January.

No one is certain how long the grant money will keep it open.

"It will get us through the winter," Weekly said. "Then we'll go out and find some more resources.

"My thought is: If there's a will, there's a way."

"Hopefully, it's enough money to keep the office open long enough to find other funding," Giunchigliani said.

The county was paying $173,000 a year to lease the office from Catholic Charities. It blamed the Legislature's grab of county tax revenue for forcing cuts that led to the closure.

Officials and advocates for the homeless had complained that the office's closure forced scores of homeless people to wait in long lines at already overcrowded alternate locations at a time when the county's Social Service Department is experiencing unprecedented demand for services.

Long waits give the needy less time to search for work and access other services, they said.

The next closest county Social Service office is 21/2 miles away.

The distance especially affects people who have a difficult time getting around by themselves, said Linda Lera-Randle El, longtime director of the Straight from the Streets homeless outreach program.

"Two miles is a long way when your feet are blistered and you're in poor health," she said. "There's too many people who need services right now to be shutting down offices."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.