LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – After multiple complaints to the county and the FOX5 newsroom, local agencies came out Monday morning to clear up homeless encampments near the U.S. 95 and Charleston.
“For them to come through and just dump it, is just humbling and it’s sad,” Jade, a transient woman who asked only to use her first name, told FOX5 after the cleanup began. “They’re destroying the rest of whatever hope that we have.”
The people there to assist the unhoused as the camp was being cleaned up say they empathize with the people being moved out.
“Any time there’s a drop dead date and folks have to either accept immediate services or kind of move along is traumatizing,” Louis Lacey with Help of Southern Nevada said. “A lot of folks have accepted services, and we’ve got folks going into a non-congregate shelter, the Navigation center, and other housing settings.”
Lacey was joined by Clark County Commission Chair Tick Segerblom, who watched as encampments were cleared, graffiti was covered up, and the alley just off Charleston was transformed in just a couple of hours.
Segerblom realizes more needs to be done, though.
“We can’t just clean it up and have them come back the next day,” he acknowledged. “COVID’s over. Now we have the resources, the time, and energy. And frankly, I’m getting lots of complaints, so it’s time to do something.”
Segerblom says he’ll be introducing an ordinance similar to the one the City of Las Vegas just passed, which takes advantage of the power given to cities by the U.S. Supreme Court to put the people who refuse the services offered by the city and refuse to leave public places – in jail.
“That may be the last thing, but we have to do that because at the end of the day, neighbors, homeowners and kids deserve safe neighborhoods,” he explained.
But the prospect of going to jail doesn’t sit well with Jade, who says that for people like her who don’t feel they’re able to go into shelters or rehab centers, there’s still not a clear answer of where to go from here.
“I’m a survivor of domestic violence,” she said through tears. “When your abuser can find you or when you just don’t feel safe. What if you just can’t be around people, the anxiety of it?”
Copyright 2024 KVVU. All rights reserved.
