This is Las Vegas.

We serve more food here, probably per capita, than any other place in the world.

We've got to do better.

-After 12 years leading Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, Deacon Tom Roberts is set to retire.

His plea to lawmakers before he leaves, that's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

And this Thanksgiving, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada says it gave out 3,000 turkeys to those in need.

It's the nonprofit's last Thanksgiving under long-time president and CEO Deacon Tom Roberts, who's retiring at the end of this year.

In charge of 16 social service programs, including a men's homeless shelter, he was a gaming executive when he took on the role in 2012 following the unexpected death of Monsignor Patrick Leary.

He says he utilized his business sense to help Catholic Charities grow and hopes the State will do the same when considering future funding.

At 10 a.m. every day of the year, staff at Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada prepares and serves a free meal to those in need.

(Deacon Tom Roberts) I've been told that it's been going on every day, never missed a day for 50 years.

I can tell you it hasn't missed a day in 12 years.

I'm glad you're here.

You're always welcome here.

Deacon Tom Roberts, who's led Catholic Charities those 12 years, says this daily meal continued even through COVID.

-Because we quickly realized that the people we serve had no place else to go.

-We were not going to turn our backs on them; we're going to keep helping them.

And that was our collective decision.

It wasn't me saying, this is what we're going to do.

It's, hey, look, these are, this is what we know, and let's see what we can do to keep the engines going here.

And we did.

-What did that look like?

-So one big issue that I think probably everybody was struggling with, at least I remember this so clearly, what does this infection transmission look like?

And we have all these people here that some of them are unsheltered and they're already physically vulnerable, and so the kitchen and the dining room are connected.

So the first concern was, if we invite people into the dining room, will that infect the food that they're eating, but also the food that is going out to all the Meals on Wheels clients, because we produced it at that time, everything was done back here.

And so we decided to basically, sort of section off the kitchen.

But nobody still knew what was in the air.

So we built a 30,000 square foot tent in the parking lot, and we started to serve meals out there.

And because we were working with closing the kitchen at the time, I reached out to the resort industry, and they stepped up in a huge way to provide food for us.

So the Wynn, the Venetian, MGM, and United Healthcare each took two weeks, and they presented us with 1,500 meals a day for two weeks, all prepared.

We just had to go pick them up.

We served them outside on the curb on Foremaster because at least we were able to still give them food and connection while we were reconfiguring this space to protect what we thought we knew, which was create some distance and space.

And we never stopped serving, and the clients were so grateful.

Everybody realized-- we were then beginning to do testing outside in the tent.

We began to do vaccinations outside.

And during that period, once we got that sort of system going, we remodeled our shelter upstairs, one piece at a time, and we used that tent as an overnight shelter in phases.

And we got cots from FEMA, so we were able to never close the shelter and remodeled that along the way.

So we took advantage of that tool.

-Another tool Deacon Roberts took advantage of was funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, which he says he used to purchase this equipment... that allowed Catholic Charities to significantly increase the number of meals it produces for the homebound seniors in its Meals on Wheels program.

-And that will now allow us to go from 2,500 meals to 3,500 meals.

Now the key is we have to create the revenue stream and the sustainability for operating those additional 1,000 meals.

And I'd said to the governor two years ago, I said, Governor, I promise that I won't come back and ask for more money to grow the program until we can produce the meals.

Now we can.

-This program is very important to you.

Why?

-When I was a kid, I remember my mom--even though, you know, I was the youngest of six, and she was a busy lady--on Saturday mornings, couple times a month, we would go to our church basement, take a couple of hot meals, deliver them to some folks that we didn't know.

And my mom always wanted the little one to be in tow, because she would say, you know, They don't always get to see little kids, Tommy.

You know, they're in their nursing home, or they're in their apartment.

So, you know, I didn't-- I went begrudgingly, I would say, probably at 8 years old.

And then when I came here and I realized this Meals on Wheels program was underway and it was doing such good work--I think there was probably about 800 clients being served at the time--I started thinking about, what are our core competencies here?

And it became very clear to me that Meals on Wheels was a core competency, and it was also a great need.

So we worked out a plan to see, how can we grow this thoughtfully and also sustainably and then have a trajectory that continues to grow as the population grows, as the senior population ages in place grows.

So we went from 800 to 1,000, and we found ways to look for ways to buy food at a better price in bulk ordering, because we're ordering more food now.

We upgraded our fleet, and then we made some significant upgrades in production.

And just recently, we had a big increase in production technology to really try to modernize the way we were producing the meals.

We're now up to 2,500 meals a day, and we're still under $9 a meal.

Which, when we all think about, especially the last few years of the impact that inflation has had on everybody, and arguably those that are the poorest among us, our people are the most effective because they are the most elastic when it comes to being sensitive to cost increases.

And so we've grown the program.

We've grown.

The agency's grown its financial support, and we've gotten some additional support from the governments-- from the state government.

We need more, because, as I've said to the legislature and the governor for the last couple of sessions, keeping people in their homes is not only the right thing to do after working their entire lives, it's a much better financial alternative for the state than going into assisted living.

Nine bucks a meal is a lot less than what it would cost the state if people were on Medicare, Medicaid.

And the people that we serve are low income.

That's going to become a financial burden to the governments that's much bigger than $9 a day.

And that's one good reason why we should fund this program.

And secondly, people want to age in place, they should have the chance to age in place, and they're going to be healthier.

If they get good food and stay home longer, their quality of life is going to be better.

- Nevada Week went on a Meals on Wheels delivery.

[knocking] (Male) Meals on Wheels!

-The drivers will deliver seven meals at a time.

So once a week, seven frozen meals.

We send seven out at a time with fresh milk and fruit, and the driver does a wellness check.

That's so important, because, again, that might be the only human contact they have.

(Nancy Mason) I know if I need anything, he would be there.

-Meals on Wheels Client Nancy Mason called her driver and the program a blessing.

-For seniors like me on a limited income, it's a lifesaver.

It's just an absolute life saver.

-Not just for herself, but for her dog, who also receives pet food.

-And it's good quality.

I mean, I've had to because I can't afford it.

I've had to buy cat food bags, and that's the biggest bag that we've got.

That's going to last for probably about eight months.

It's wonderful.

-So we started doing donated pet food, and now the clients are as happy or more happy about the food that they get for their pets than they do for themselves, because that's their family.

-In the 2023 legislative session, the State allocated $5 million to Catholic Charities' Meals on Wheels program.

-Which gave us 2 1/2 million for the last year and 2 1/2 million for this year.

And that was money that without that influx of dollars, we would have already been in an attrition standpoint.

We wouldn't have been able to fund the current 2,500 because the agency is already putting in food donations, about 50%, half of the cost.

Governments normally require a match, which makes sense, right?

They want you to have skin in the game, and it's normally 15%.

Our skin in the game is 50, so we're still upside down.

So that money provided some right-sizing of revenue that allowed us to, as I say, make sure that in the house-- the first floor is the 2,500 meals, the second floor is the waiting list.

As much as we want to deal with the waiting list, if the first floor is on fire, you can't get to the second floor.

So there's 1,000 people on the waiting list.

We now have the production capacity to handle those thousand.

Now we just have to raise the money to do it.

-How much money do you need?

-You know, I think if we were able to get, you know, the math of $9 a meal, times 1,000 meals, probably for under 6 to 7 million dollars.

-A year?

-Yeah, a year.

So, again, it's a lot of money.

But when you think about our state budget and the service and the value that this provides, I would argue this is a really valuable economic investment for the state to make in order to shore this program up.

And look, I also believe, Amber, that there's more than 1,000 people on the waiting list, because people call and they say, Hey, I saw that truck in the neighborhood.

And, you know, My grandma just got out of the hospital, and she can't move around yet.

Can you put us on the program?

And we say, well, you know there's a waiting list.

And so, Okay, how long is that waiting-- like, How long should we expect to wait?

Well, there's 1,000 people on the waiting list.

Thank you.

I know that number is underreported, and I also think there's capacity opportunity in some of our rural areas.

Think about Caliente, Pioche.

Why wouldn't you produce these meals and FedEx them?

I mean, we can do that now.

So I think there's opportunity to grow this program, and that investment is de minimis compared to the value that it provides.

-Last session, the state also set aside money for the construction of a regional homeless campus.

Assembly Bill 528 created a matching fund of up to $100 million for it.

Big question now: Best methods for addressing homelessness in Southern Nevada... Would you say you are an expert in this area after this many years now?

-I know a little more than I did when I started.

I would say that I'm excited about the Campus for Hope Project, the concept of adding that level of capital commitment to this area of need in our community and every community in the country.

-You are excited?

-I am excited.

-Initially, I didn't think you were.

-I, I guess, questioned where the money and how the money was going to be spent, and I don't know that I-- not that it matters, but I don't still quite know exactly what the program looks like.

I've recommended that affordable housing is a no-brainer.

It's something that Congresswoman Lee's talked about.

There's 85,000 shortages-- we all know this, right?

It's not a secret in any community.

My recommendation after being here 12 years is if you put affordable housing together, I really suggest that you include behavioral and mental health resources to be a part of that program, because I have learned that people do not get homeless overnight, they do not get out of it overnight, and there's a reason why they got homeless and stayed homeless.

And there's invariably a mental behavioral health component to that.

So if you put them into a housing unit, whether it's temporary, our shelter, our work program, our apartments, you still have to give them case management and access to those resources to find out what they need to be healed from that caused the homelessness in the first place and that keeps them homeless.

Again, I don't think that's-- it's easy to say; it's harder to do.

But I do think that it makes sense.

We understand from our work, and others in this space, that intensive case management that happens helps people move through the system and get better.

And not everybody gets better.

If we batted 40%-- just picking a number.

And said we got 40% of people that we touched and treated in affordable housing with mental behavioral health resources, that means we're batting 400.

I'd be in the Hall of Fame if I was batting 400.

Now, do I want to do better than that?

Absolutely.

But I think you have to be realistic, but you have to have a program of sustainability.

Really that's-- I mean, that's in my DNA as a business guy.

You can have the greatest idea in the world--build this and build that--if you can't figure out a way to run it and sustain it, then it ends up being a good idea, but fell on bad concept.

-So the Campus of Hope, that was inspired by the Campus of Hope in San Antonio, Texas, right?

That led to Assembly Bill 528 last legislative session, a program to provide matching funds up to $100 million to qualified projects that are facilities to provide services to individuals experiencing homelessness.

Isn't this what you are already doing here at Catholic Charities?

-We're doing some of that.

I mean, again, you know, we have a shelter that has 450 men in it every night.

And there's certainly more than that.

There are more unsheltered people, of men alone, aside from women and children, by the way, which, again, you know, we have resources like Shade Tree across the street that does great work, Salvation Army.

We're not the only game in town.

We're doing what we do well, within our core competencies.

My hope is that this Campus for Hope program will add a significant amount of affordable housing, whether it's transitional housing or transitional/permanent supportive housing.

And based on what I know about the project, that's going to be a big part of the program.

What I don't know is whether or not they're going to include some additional resources of case management, mental behavioral health, and be a part of what's called the coordinated intake system, which is the system that all of us use to try to take advantage of open units that are available based on a demand level.

It's almost a yield level where, if we have through the county, 100 people that have needs for affordable housing, well, as soon as we get a unit, we want to match that person to that unit.

So what we did was we took of our 120 units, we took about 15 of those units with the county and the city's collaboration to put people that are housing-ready in those apartments so that when there's a unit ready, we're ready.

If someone is unsheltered, often you can't find them.

I mean, if you're not sheltered-- so again, let's put them in a queue in an environment where they're already getting some housing, and then move them to an up-stead environment, and then we can backfill those units.

We need more of that.

We have 15 units.

We could use 150-1,000.

I think those are the kind of conversations that I hope are happening at a visceral level with the Campus of Hope program.

I had some conversations with the principals of the development.

I continue to.

They're running their own program and their own show and their own leadership structure.

They have their own governance structure.

I hope and pray that it will be collaborative to what we're doing and that we can work together.

I hope so.

I hope that happens.

-So you do support-- -I do.

- --this program?

-Again, I just hope and pray that there will be good collaboration, that we have a parallel path and a collaborative path.

I mean, I work with Salvation Army, Rescue Mission, Shade Tree.

You know, a lot of the big not-for-profits that you're aware of, we have this coalition called the CEO Exchange, where the 12 largest not-for-profits meet the CEOs.

We collaborate all the time so that, again, we're not duplicating resources and we're sharing competencies and collaborations.

That, to me, is what a business person would do.

You do what you do well, and you focus on-- I hope the Campus for Hope does the same thing.

-I want to run a quote by you from now mayor-elect Shelly Berkeley.

She said, "This is not an indictment on any organization working with the homeless-- Rescue Mission, Catholic Charities, the Courtyard, Vegas Stronger, CARES-- but none of them are designed to get people off the streets and self-sustaining."

Do you agree?

Disagree?

-You know, obviously I've known Shelly for a long time, and I think the world of her.

I think she'll be a great mayor.

She has big shoes to fill, two sets of shoes, Goodman shoes.

I think that we do some of that here.

I mean, Shelly, now, Shelly has volunteered here with her family many Thanksgivings.

And again, I know her very well.

And she knows what we do, and she also knows that we are compacity constrained.

So do we need more resources to do more of that?

Absolutely.

Do we do some of it?

Yeah, we have our Renewing Hope program where we take gentlemen to come into the shelter.

We help them get stabilized.

We help them find jobs.

We have filled so many jobs in the resort industry between our refugees and our RHP, our Renewing Hope Programs, that are ready to work.

And they filled jobs that have been vacant.

So we've supported that.

I wish I had another 100, 200, 300 beds, units to do that.

So I agree with her that we need more investment.

And I've told her that.

I said, you know-- but I think we have to be thoughtful about how we do it.

Again, if you put a bunch of people into hotel rooms or apartments without case management, you are proverbially kicking the can, in my humble opinion.

You know, other states have spent billions of dollars on housing projects.

And I only know what I know and might read, but I often wonder whether or not those investments have included mental behavioral health resources.

Because it seems to me, like any medical doctor, you've got to get to the core of what makes people sick, and then you have to address that.

You address the symptoms that they're causing, but you also address why they're there.

That's what I'm suggesting here.

-And those resources, how prevalent are they here at Catholic Charities?

-So again, we have a whole case management department.

We have case managers walking in here right now that are touching men and women and families.

And those that are ready and want more help once they can trust us and know that we're not doing anything but providing help, we're doing that now.

We're not doing enough of it because we have limited capacity.

This campus, save what we just added with the construction of the kitchen remodel and maybe one small additional building for more support space, this campus is maxed out.

So I said to the governor, the state needs a separate, single-purpose Meals on Wheels production facility now.

Now, because even if we can produce the 1,000 meals, capacity is already there.

We need the same level of thought process to think about affordable housing with resources to get people out of Hope.

We have the track record to show the people that were going through our Renewing Hope Program are recovered and doing better.

Does every one of them stay out of the situation?

No.

But did they recover?

Yes.

Is it perfect?

No.

Would I love to have a lot more resources?

Absolutely.

And that's what I think.

That's the collaboration that I would say-- to answer the new mayor's question, if we collaborate and have the ability to have an open door with the Campus for Hope and, the both and, make sure that you're supporting what we're doing and don't, don't cannibalize our funding.

Now, I'm told that's not going to happen.

I won't be here.

I sure hope it doesn't.

But look, we need more funding here, and we're showing how efficient we are.

Nine bucks a meal from Meals on Wheels, what we're doing in this dining room, what we're doing in our shelter, it's a lot cheaper to run a shelter bed than a bed at CCDC, at Clark County Detention Center, I'll tell you that.

So I think we can't just look at one end of the, of the barrel.

We have to weigh both ends of the static level to say, Let's do Campus For Hope.

Let's connect it and collaborate with the resource providers, and let's raise the boat, because as big as that investment is, we need more, but we need to do it thoughtfully, and we need to work together.

-Has anyone from this Campus of Hope project reached out to you to ask for your advice?

-Yes, they have.

And I've had several conversations with some of the folks that are involved in the planning and the orchestration of it.

And I've offered my feedback, and I've offered my help.

And so has our team, by the way.

There's been some what I call "shrep" meetings, of conceptual design or thought process in our social services team that, frankly, should be there, because they live it every day.

They've been invited to those meetings.

I hope they continue, and I hope that they're productive.

-And will you be available to them post-retirement?

-This is my home, and I'm not going anywhere.

I'm going to enjoy whatever the next chapters that God has in store for me.

And if anyone wants to know what a little private citizen can do to help with a little bit of experience, they have my phone number.

-Why are you retiring?

-This team is ready for the next step, and I think having fresh leadership after 12 years is a good thing.

I love this place.

I love the people.

I always will.

And you know, I think that I'm going to have a chance to maybe do some things that I have not been able to do because I've had a busy, great career, like travel and see some of my siblings that are getting older like me and that live in other parts of the country.

And maybe spend a little more time with my wife and my adult children.

That-- you know, this is a very demanding job.

And I love it, and I feed off of it, and it's also a very demanding job.

So I'm looking forward to having a little more flexibility in my schedule, but I'll always be a permanent deacon in the church.

The word "diakoneo" is the Greek word for service.

So having a deacon run Catholic Charities has been a special gift for me, and I'll continue to serve the church, and then I'll ask to see what God has in store for me.

-Deacon Tom, thank you so much for talking with Nevada Week.

-God bless you, keep you safe.

-Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada recently named a successor to Deacon Tom Roberts.

Sarah Ramirez will lead the organization as its new president and CEO starting December 16.

She comes to Southern Nevada from Catholic Charities of Central Texas, where she served as executive director for more than 11 years.

And that's all the time we have for this edition of Nevada Week.

For any of the resources discussed, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek, and I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.