LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) -Las Vegas Valley residents are gathering hundreds of signatures to pause a project intended to help the homeless.
Residents are sending a message to to state and local leaders about the planned $200 million project referred to as Campus for Hope.
FOX5 has told you about the Campus for Hope and the dire need for more homeless services, transitional housing and resources for families across the Las Vegas Valley.
Community leaders have held town halls to address residents’ concerns.
MORE: Neighbors sound off on proposed homeless center in west Las Vegas
Local resident Jim Root created a online petition. There are hundreds of other signatures on paper from neighbors going door to door.
“We’ve seen no economic impact study, no environmental study, and only minor attempts at public involvement after loud complaints,” the petition states.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to fight. I would like it to just be something that we could have conversations about,” Root said, stating that officials have not presented blueprints, plans, or in-depth details to concerned residents.
“Our next step is likely legal action, but we’re going to continue with the petition as well and hope that someone in the political sphere will step up and recognize that this is not appropriate for our community,” Root said to FOX5.
“I would be against this if it was 900 apartments,” Root said. “900 apartments mean 900 new cars on the corner. It means building, it means traffic… 900 apartments on that corner don’t make sense for this community,” he said.
FOX5 recently did a one-on-one interview with the CEO of Campus for Hope.
“It’s built to look like and mimic a community. It looks like a college campus, you have kind of residential places, places for people, green spaces on the campus,” Kim Jefferies said.
“It’s really trying to build that community feeling, so that when people are trying to navigate all of these resources, they have a safe and beautiful environment to really recover from whatever led to their homelessness,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Campus for Hope tells FOX5, Jefferies has continued to meet with schools, libraries and facilities around the area. She will plan a meeting with community members to address concerns, the spokesperson said to FOX5.
FOX5 told you how Las Vegas City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Brian Knudsen of Ward 1 has been hearing concerns — and working to dispel any misconceptions.
“The neighbors around there, the neighborhoods around there, I get to represent all of them. They’re nervous. They don’t want this to be a tent village. The Campus For Hope is not that: Campus for Hope is apartments. It’s medical services, and it’s workforce and childcare options,” Knudsen said.
Root and other residents have concerns about an expansion of services at the site provided by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services for inmates with mental illness.
According to the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Service campus Master Plan in 2022, research found that there are 200 additional beds needed for its “forensic facility” to meet the needs of the growing Las Vegas Valley.
FOX5 has reached out to DHHS to clarify plans for expansion.
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