A picture of homeless people sleeping in an empty parking lot has stirred a controversy on social media.
The picture was taken in Las Vegas, where a temporary open-air shelter for the homeless was set up in the parking lots of the Cashman Center.
Many of these homeless scurried to find places to rest after the Catholic Charities’ homeless shelter was closed last week. The shelter had to be closed after one homeless man was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus last week. Nearly 500 people were left without a proper shelter, as neighboring facilities were already full.
Thus the city and county officials decided to use the currently empty parking lots of the Cashman Center as temporary shelters. The center houses a baseball stadium along with convention halls for commercial use. It has closed its doors since the outbreak of the virus.
The initial plan for the shelter was to utilize carpets as sleeping mats. Last Saturday, 50 volunteers aided officials as 24,000 feet of carpet was laid on the parking lots. Medical students from the nearby Touro University, NV volunteered in taking the temperatures for those who wished to stay at the shelter.
On the first night, the ad hoc shelter housed 66 people for the night. One guest expressed her gratitude stating that she felt safe and assured staying her night in an official shelter. However, the decision to use carpets was soon cast into doubt.
After a single night, the officials found out that the carpets were extremely difficult to disinfect. This was an issue that they had been expecting. The only reason carpets were used was because sleeping mats were unavailable.
Between a rock and a hard place, the officials eventually decided to remove the carpets. White lines were drawn to enforce social distancing. The purpose was to minimize the spread of the virus among the homeless.
While out of good faith, the picture of the shelter enraged many on social media. Majority of the users criticized city officials for this decision. One user pointed out how almost all of the many hotels in Las Vegas were empty, yet the homeless had to stay in parking lots.
The shelter is expected to close next week when the original indoors shelter reopens. Clark County’s commissioner commented that this was inevitable as a quick solution was required. He thanked the locals and volunteers for their help.
Do you agree with county commissioner’s comments? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below, and make sure to follow us on Facebook for more news like this one.
Replaced!