COLUMN: Community rallies in support of Nevada HAND

The charity of Las Vegans never ceases to delight me.

Miriam Rodriguez, director of resident services for Nevada Housing and Neighborhood Development, recently filled me in on the organization's holiday support.

Nevada HAND builds and manages apartment complexes for low-income residents valleywide. Rodriguez said this year she set the goal of a gift for each of the approximate 1,000 children living in Nevada HAND communities.

Not only was that goal met, 1,045 toys were gathered by organizations including Silver State Apartment Association, YMCA, LDS Student Organization at UNLV, Child Advocacy Committee of the William S. Boyd School of Law and the Latin Chamber of Commerce.

The effort also received more than 6,000 cans of food and City Mission distributed 31 full meals for Christmas. A hotel donated bedroom sets that were delivered to 32 households where residents were sleeping on the floor.

More than 300 households received bags of food that had been gathered from local businesses such as hotels, doctors' offices, law firms, apartment communities and schools. Rodriguez said accepting the food was daunting because she and her three assistants had to catalogue everything.

So, the word went out to Nevada HAND's senior communities and the response was overwhelming, according to Rodriguez.

"We sent vans out to our communities to pick up the seniors to bring to our warehouse where they helped unload trucks, recorded the donations, separated the food into bags for delivery and wrapped gifts," she said. "We couldn't have done it without the help of our seniors. When we couldn't get a van to pick them up, several would get together and find an alternate means of transportation to the warehouse. They were wonderful."

Apparently these seniors were giving back to those who have helped them.

Rodriguez said Nevada HAND schedules an annual conference with each tenant to assess individual needs. She said these assessments help Nevada HAND decide matters such as whether more classes should be offered to seniors about money management or handling basic issues such as grocery shopping.

"You'd be amazed at the men who were left totally helpless after their wives died. We have to help them learn basics such as meal planning and grocery shopping," she said. "On the other hand, many widows don't know the fundamentals of maintaining a checking account or managing their money. We have people come in who give classes on a volunteer basis.

"We try to enhance their lifestyles to keep them at home and out of care facilities."

Nevada HAND has grown tremendously in the past couple of years, and the nonprofit developer recently moved into new offices. Rodriguez said its furniture was donated by various banks that are involved in issuing loans and otherwise financing Nevada HAND projects.

Rodriguez said that as the valley grows, so will the need for good, affordable housing for seniors and low-income families. So will the need for charity. Thank you Las Vegans for your warm and generous hearts and deep pockets.

Carmel Hopkins, real estate product manager for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, can be reached at 380-4574. Her e-mail address is Carmel_Hopkins@ lasvegasnewspapers.com. Snail mail is P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.

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