Kindness from Catholic Charities helps those on the street

Jodie Goldberg, shelter operations manager at Catholic Charities in Las Vegas, greets homeless diners by name.

“There’s Mrs. Philly,” Goldberg said during a recent lunchtime tour, waving to a squat woman in a knit cap who could be mistaken for a man.

“Hi Lawrence, are you going to come and see me today?” she asked a barrel chested man with bloodshot eyes.

More than their names, Goldberg knows their stories, their problems and their needs.

“We do more than warehouse them,” Goldberg said.

Goldberg estimates 30 percent to 50 percent of the homeless people she sees are mentally ill. Most also abuse drugs or alcohol, worsening their condition.

“They get taken advantage of, so they self-medicate,’’ she said, explaining that scam artists or thieves sometimes steal support checks and prescription drugs.

Catholic Charities, in the downtown homeless corridor at 1501 Las Vegas Blvd. North, is most widely known for serving a free midday meal and for providing nightly shelter for men. During the summer, 160 beds are provided. In winter, Clark County pays for another 30.

The shelter has a maxiumum of 400 beds, but Goldberg said she never leaves anyone on the streets.

“If I have 450 people outside, I’ll bring everyone in,” she said. “Everyone should have a place to sleep at night.”

Catholic Charities also has a work program and an intensive care management program for longer-term residents.

James F. Brown, the mentally ill man recently bused to Sacramento, Calif., by Nevada mental health authorities, was placed in a long-term bed because he was so fragile, Goldberg said.

“We didn’t think he should be on his own all day,” she said.

Shelter managers also try to hook the homeless up with mental health and other services, but many refuse help, afraid they’ll be committed to a psychiatric hospital, she added.

Lawrence, a Vietnam veteran, is one of those.

She said she has talked him into meeting a mental health professional and tries to get him services that would help him stabilize, and one day get off the streets.

For now, he talks to “the others,” or the voices he hears, and he sometimes sleeps in a field. Like some homeless people who get monthly government checks — veterans benefits, Social Security checks or others — Lawrence spends it quickly on alcohol, gambling and a few days rent at a hotel, she said.

When the money is gone, the homeless again join the shelter food line, she said.

The shelter serves 1,000 to 1,200 meals a day, Goldberg said. The door is open to all, including those living in low-rent apartments, the jobless who are wandering the streets, and the mentally ill.

Mrs. Philly, like other women, can sleep across the street at The Shelter Tree facility for females. She sits outside the shelter every day, Goldberg said, but has refused most help beyond meals.

“One day I tried to get her to take a shower, but she didn’t want to come in,” Goldberg said. “She said she’s waiting for her children to come back, which is why she sits outside every day.”

Several people stop to chat with Goldberg, some ask for clothes, others thank her for the meal.

Willy Whitfield, 59, said he’s been on the streets for five years. He’s from St. Louis and used to clean carpets. He can’t find a job now, and said he would go home to his four children and five grandchildren, if he could.

“I talk to them on the phone,” said Whitfield, who has a missing front tooth. “I’m going back there when I got some money, one day. I don’t want to go home broke.”

Asked whether he helps some of the mentally ill on the street, Whitfield shook his head.

“I can barely take care of myself,” he said.

Ray Williams, 63, said he sees mentally ill homeless people mistreated in the rough-and-tumble street world

“Some people are cruel — like kids,” Williams said.

Williams is trying to move into an apartment with Catholic Charities help. He has stopped looking for work. He gets a monthly Social Security check, he said. He’s lived in Las Vegas for 13 years, coming from Texas.

“I’m not Boy Scouting it,” he said, referring to homeless encampments. “This has been my home.”

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.