Las Vegas Sun

By Jackie Valley

Sat, Jan 21, 2012 (2 a.m.)

As 59-year-old Bill Lee sat among the other homeless people Monday on Foremaster Lane, he considered himself lucky.

The previous night, a stranger attacked him in an alley near Fremont Street, knocking him unconscious, he said. He awoke with a sore back and pockets that had been emptied.

“The guy could have killed me,” Lee said. “No one would have known.”

On Monday — a day after a homeless man was found stabbed to death near E Street and Interstate 15 — homeless people congregated outside Catholic Charities on Foremaster Lane and talked about the dangers faced on the street.

Some said the stabbing is another reminder to watch their backs and avoid confrontations.

Metro Police are investigating the slaying, but have not turned up any significant leads. The victim, Erasmo Ortiz, 44, was found stabbed to death late Sunday afternoon on McWilliams Street.

Police said they don’t know whether an acquaintance or a stranger attacked Ortiz.

A string of Los Angeles-area killings has thrust homeless safety into the national spotlight. Southern California authorities arrested a 23-year-old Iraq War veteran last week in connection with the deaths of four homeless people, all found stabbed to death since December.

“It’s well known that if you’re on the streets, you will be a victim of violence in a short amount of time,” said Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group. “It’s part of the process of living in the streets.”

The coalition released a report last week analyzing hate crimes against the homeless. The report — based on information collected in 2010 from media and law enforcement agencies — shows hate crimes against the homeless dropped in 2008, but have been rising since then.

Of the 113 homeless hate-crime incidents documented in the report, 24 resulted in deaths nationwide in 2010. It was one of the five deadliest years since the coalition began tracking violence related to homelessness in 1999, according to the report.

Metro Sgt. Michele Royal, who oversees the department’s Homeless Evaluation Liaison Program — HELP — said it seems violence among the homeless is more common than hate crimes in Las Vegas, although she suspects both are underreported.

“There are so many homeless people in this environment that it has to be unreported, because we don’t get that many calls,” she said.

Robin McVenes, who has been homeless the better part of four years, said he feels relatively safe in Las Vegas, but points to his cane as defense, if necessary.

The violence he sees most often involves two homeless people whose anger escalates into a physical confrontation, he said. It can start simply — an argument about money or drugs — and turn physical, he said.

“You see people fight all the time around here,” McVenes, 50, said. “You just have to watch out and make sure they don’t pull a knife on you.”

McVenes and Lee worry last week’s dismantling of homeless encampments along Owens Avenue will spur more violence as those people seek new territory.

“They gotta go somewhere,” Lee said.

Royal, part of Metro’s downtown community policing division, said police periodically clean up the encampments at the request of property owners, but the homeless population generally returns.

The HELP team, which includes community partners, has ramped up efforts the past few weeks to find shelter for the homeless, Royal said. To curb violence among the homeless, Royal said, Metro schedules extra patrols and tries to keep a pulse on their issues and needs.

“We’re just trying to stay ahead of that game,” she said, referring to possible territory struggles among the homeless, “and reach out to as many people as possible.”

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