Vigil marks deaths of homeless in past year
Names total 109 in sign of ‘sad reality’
At least once every four days in Clark County, a homeless person dies.
The coroner’s office said 109 deaths occurred from November 2018 to last month. Last year’s death toll was 179.
Of those who died this year, 37 percent died from opioid use — a jump from last year’s number.
Some were killed. Others had heart trouble. Some succumbed to the elements.
The youngest was 20. The oldest was 83.
On Thursday afternoon, each of their names was recited during a candlelight vigil at the CARE Complex on Foremaster Lane.
“It’s not acceptable that people are dying on our streets. It’s not acceptable that thousands of people will be outdoors tonight,” said Emily Paulsen, executive director of the Nevada Homeless Alliance. “I think we can easily become numb to that because we see it every day. It’s just become a part of our sad reality.”
During the vigil, the homeless received hygiene kits and free haircuts. As some waited in line for a bed at Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada across the street, one man asked Thomas “Chicago” Randle-el what the event was for.
“This is for the people who died without families,” he said.
Randle-el founded Straight From the Street, the nonprofit that hosted the vigil, in 2001 with his late wife, longtime homeless advocate Linda Lera Randle-el.
On the 24th annual vigil, Randle-el was pleased to see that at least deaths were down. He attributed it to more Nevadans being eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
“That means the the community is coming together to help the less fortunate. That’s what I really think,” he said. “We’re going to continue to fight the good fight.”
This year’s Southern Nevada homeless census counted 5,503 in shelters and on the streets. An estimated 14,114 people will experience homelessness at some point this year.
Paulsen criticized a controversial ordinance passed by the City Council last month making it a misdemeanor for people to camp or sleep in public areas downtown and in residential areas if there are beds free at established homeless shelters.
Las Vegas policymakers also might expand a ban on camping and sleeping in public to include hours when public sidewalks are being cleaned.
Another speaker, Merideth
Spriggs, who heads the nonprofit Caridad, shared her story of homelessness, which began more than 10 years ago in San Diego.
After the vigil, Nick Lerma, 39, who usually stays next door at the city’s Courtyard Homeless Resource Center, sat on the outskirts, in his wheelchair. Years ago, he lost both legs to a rare bone infection called osteomyelitis.
He said he spent three periods of time this month in a hospital, afraid his untreated condition while living on the streets might cause him death.
“It scares me. There are people that are dying, having heart attacks, and this weather could be a factor,” he said. “I knew some of these people. I didn’t know their names.”