Record number seek aid at homeless event

The number of unhoused people seeking services at Pahrump’s latest quarterly event designed to connect them with free essentials and services broke a record on Friday.

Sixty-five came out to the Homeless Wraparound sponsored by the Community Crisis Intervention Committee and hosted at the NyE Community Coalition Activities Center.

Thirty-one of them arrived at the resources event within the first half hour of its doors opening at 10 a.m.

Some likely had seen the flyers that NyECC employees posted in various areas where Pahrump’s homeless community gather. The flyers promised free transportation to the event to those who needed it.

Cassie Wiley of the Nevada Outreach Training Organization called the wraparound a “collaborative event.”

Each quarter, community churches, nonprofits, private individuals and businesses come together to provide Pahrump’s homeless population with free services. It includes hot meals, showers, haircuts, hygiene products, non-perishable food to go, cell phones, vaccines, Naloxone training and kits, clothing and community and health resources.

Even with these resources, it’s still just a Band-Aid for those without safe and stable shelter in Pahrump’s harsh desert climates.

Donna Cordova, who volunteered her hair-cutting services at Friday’s event, said as a local business owner she wanted to give back to her community.

“If it wasn’t for our community sticking through the good times and the bad times — my business being here since 2006 — I couldn’t be here,” she said.

Ms. Senior Golden Years Althea Jones, president of her nonprofit ministry GO Sounds Performing Arts Academy Inc., told the Pahrump Valley Times she’s working on a grant with other churches and nonprofits to secure land where transitional housing could be built for those who could benefit.

Read about the plans for operation Love Thy Neighbor here.

John Clausen is a freelance journalist in Pahrump.