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Unethical Social Distancing: Vegas Parking Lot A ’Homeless Shelter’ although City’s Hotels Empty

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By Staff, Agencies

Images of homeless people sleeping in a converted parking lot in Las Vegas have sparked criticism, even as the city officials describe an “emergency situation” and say the solution was the best option after another shelter was forced to close amid the coronavirus crisis.

Over the weekend, authorities in Las Vegas needed to find additional sleeping space for the city’s sizable homeless population when a 500-bed overnight shelter closed after a client tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Officials turned a parking lot into a makeshift shelter, saying spaces for sleeping were drawn 6 feet apart in observance of federal social distancing guidelines.

Many white boxes were covered up with blue mats that could be more easily cleaned. But photos of the temporary shelter showing people sleeping close to each other on the ground, some within arm’s reach, sparked backlash on social media.

Jace Radke, spokesperson for the city of Las Vegas, said the city and county had worked to open the temporary shelter after Catholic Charities closed and the city’s other shelter, Courtyard Homeless Resource Center, was nearly filled to capacity.

Officials set up the new shelter in the parking lot of the Cashman Center, which most recently has hosted soccer games. A city official said the inside of the Cashman Center could not be used as shelter because it was reserved for overflow hospital space.

Homelessness is a continuing crisis in southern Nevada, with at least 6,500 people camped on streets or in storm drains at any given time.

Many on Twitter have criticized the move, pointing to photos of people who appear to be sleeping on the ground or on unseen patches of carpet.

“After criminalizing homelessness this year, Las Vegas is now packing people into concrete grids out of sight,” tweeted Julian Castro, the former presidential hopeful and mayor of San Antonio, who served as the secretary of housing under Barack Obama.

“There are 150K hotel rooms in Vegas going unused right now. How about public-private cooperation [resources] to temporarily house them there? And fund permanent housing!”

Homelessness is a widespread problem across the western US, particularly in California, where more than 40,000 people live in shelters on a given night.

Relatively, advocates and shelter residents have warned that unsanitary and inhumane conditions raise significant concerns for the battle against the spread of the coronavirus.

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