LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A charity helping the homeless in the valley is out of rental assistance funds, but the calls for help don’t stop coming in.
Its founder was hoping for more money to keep providing the same services for residents in an apartment complex near the Arts District. But instead, the money dried up, rent went up and she’s playing the waiting game.
Taking people off the cold streets is all Merideth Spriggs of Caridad Charity wants to do. But she explains they’re out of funding to help people with rental assistance, and she worries that could lead to people she’s housed ending up right where they started. People like Dewayne Turner.
“I’ve been all around Las Vegas, living in a tent double wide, a single tent, a kiddie tent, a small tent, a sleeping bag, and it was getting hard, and something had to give,” Turner said.
What finally made the difference for Dewayne Turner, a helping hand from Caridad Charity, getting him off the streets, a job, and rental assistance from the nonprofit’s founder and Chief Kindness Officer, Merideth Spriggs.
Turner does worry about things changing though.
“You know, I appreciate being inside. I appreciate this place here, but now I got word that rent’s going up. I’ve been holding on, but everyday is a challenge,” Turner said.
Turner has lived at the Hebron apartments for about a year and a half.
The apartments are part of Caridad Charity which is a resource for homeless people. The goal is to help them get jobs and get back into the community.
Some residents pay rent and live on the property. But now that rent has gone up, Spriggs worries people might end up back on the streets.
“It’s a bummer to not be able to help people in the way that we’d like to help people, which is immediate housing,” Spriggs said. “I’m worried if we have to raise rents again, we’re not going to be able to keep our tenants because they just simply can’t afford it.”
Spriggs says she’s reapplying for more grant funding through the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, and federal grants as well after the money recently ran out.
She says they need about $200,000 to continue to offer services like rental assistance, which can lower rent payments by as much as $400 per month per tenant.
Spriggs says that assistance is priceless for the homeless.
“What it does affect is the ability that we have to help them bring in new people in our dorm housing because we don’t have those subsidy funds. So, for right now it’s just on pause until we get more funding,” Spriggs said.
FOX5 reached out to the City of Las Vegas and Clark County for comment on more grant money coming to Caridad Charity, and we’ll update this story as we get that information.
But Spriggs tells FOX5 she’s going to get the funding some way. She adds that her charity can still help people who knock on the door, they just can’t house them at the moment.
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