LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Thousands of people are sleeping on Southern Nevada’s streets every night.
The most recent Southern Nevada Point-In-Time Count indicated that over 6,500 people are experiencing homelessness in Southern Nevada. These numbers have been steadily rising since 2021.
FOX5 got a ground-level view of what the City of Las Vegas is doing to help this population by riding along with the city’s M.O.R.E. Team.
“We don’t judge anyone,” M.O.R.E. Team Coordinator Mario Guzman says. “We treat everybody like a human being.”
Five individual teams make up the greater M.O.R.E. Team. Seven days a week, the teams visit encampments within city limits.
They offer cold water, explain what resources are available, offer rides to agencies, and build relationships with their clients.
“You guys doing okay this morning? You guys have water?” M.O.R.E. Team Member Kia Welch asks a group near 28th Street and Bonanza Rd. downtown.
This time, the resources were not accepted, but Guzman says they’ll be back.
“We won’t give up. If it takes ten times, twenty times, to visit them until they accept our services, until they are ready,” Guzman says.
For Guzman, this mission is personal.
“I experienced it myself. I know how it is to suffer out on the streets,” he says.
The U.S. Navy Veteran says it took him years to accept help before reaching out to the VA, who guided him in the right direction and gave him the tools to go back to school.
Although he says it pains him to see people suffering, it’s created common ground between him and his clients.
Anyone can call the M.O.R.E. Team hotline to report areas of concern. It goes through DPS dispatchers, who then send teams to certain locations.
They also hand out cards during their visits, and say sometimes the clients call themselves.
The number for the hotline is 702-229-6673.
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