Catholic Charities completes $4.7M renovation of men’s shelter
A men’s homeless shelter in Las Vegas’ Corridor of Hope is wrapping up a two-year long renovation this week.
Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada said Tuesday that it was the first time major renovations took place at the shelter, which will now be able to house more than 400 men each night. Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the shelter had a capacity of 524 beds but COVID-19 precautions reduced that number to 400, according to Leslie Carmine, director of community and media relations for CCSN.
Steve Schmitt, chief operating officer of CCSN, said the organization took what it learned over the last 20 years and applied “it to not only giving dignity to the people that we serve, but also the durability of surfaces and things that we’ve learned over the years that make it easier for us to help them.”
The nearly $4.7 million renovation started at the beginning of the pandemic. Updates were made to the bathrooms and sleeping area as well as a new HVAC system, plumbing, flooring and locked phone charging stations.
Schmitt said the No. 1 complaint among people at the shelter was that their phones would be stolen overnight. The new charging stations have combination locks to address this issue.
“That phone is their lifeline,” Schmitt said. “It’s access to every resource that they have and so their ability to store that is critical.”
The men’s shelter isn’t just getting a face-lift but also adjusting its operations because of the summer heat — allowing people to enter the building at 3 p.m., instead of its normal time of 7 p.m., according to Carmine.
High temperatures in Las Vegas can be deadly for the unhoused. A recent report from the Review-Journal found heat-related deaths nearly doubled in 2021, totaling 245 people. And satellite imaging has shown that city streets and sidewalk surfaces can climb above 122 degrees.
Changes at the men’s shelter is part of several upgrades implemented by CCSN at their 7-acre campus. Other recent upgrades include a new dining facility, completed in November 2021, and moving its refugee and migrant services into a larger building since they have seen a “huge influx” of demand, said Schmitt.
He added that demand for food services has increased the most at the organization with housing services coming in second.
“We do have a housing navigation center … that we are seeing an uptick there as well, as rents go up,” said Schmitt.
The housing navigation center helps shelter resident’s find short-term housing options like motels.
Schmitt said CCSN doesn’t want its shelter to be the “final destination” for homeless people but a stepping stone to longer term housing solutions.
The Nevada Homeless Alliance estimated more than 12,000 Southern Nevadans experienced homelessness in 2021.
“So the more that we can design our operations and design our facilities to be conducive to an understanding that this is a stop along the way, that’s better,” he said.
Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on Twitter.
