I offered the gentleman a bottle of water and asked his name. Enclosing my palm in his leathery grasp, Tyrone gave me a firm handshake and told me he'd come here from Los Angeles about a month ago. He'd lost all his money in the machines. It's a familiar story in Vegas; this is not the place to be if you're addicted to gambling. Tyrone had popped into our building, looking for respite from the heat. He wanted a place to stay for the night. Ultimately he was hoping to find an apartment.
We adminster the low-income housing tax credit program, which awards housing affordable housing projects to developers who create housing for seniors, the disabled and low-income folks who can't afford anything else. We don't, however, manage the housing directly or provide any other types of transitional services.
I turned to HELP of Southern Nevada, a non-profit that delivers services to serve the poor, the homeless and those in crisis. They offer a range of options for people in Tyrone's situation. I was delighted to learn that they'll also pick people up and deliver them to the right place to get assistance. Within an hour of my phone call, Mindy and Christine arrived, talked with Tyrone, and escorted him to their car to take him where he needed to go. They were fantastic.
An easy out in this situation would have been to call the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. They'd have come and sent Tyrone on his way. That may be the solution one day, but thankfully, it wasn't today.
Instead, with a little bit of research on our end, we were able to connect someone to the services he needed while maintaining an appropriate environment for our clients. And, who knows; maybe this will be a new beginning for Tyrone. I like to think so.
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