Las Vegas, COVID-19, and the Homeless Crisis

Homelessness is a crisis across the US, and the novel coronavirus outbreak has exacerbated it further. After a positive case of COVID-19 was discovered in a Las Vegas homeless shelter, it was forced to temporarily close down. As an alternative to providing temporary shelter for these desperate people, city and county officials spray painted rectangles onto the Cashman Center’s parking lot so the homeless could practice appropriate “social distancing.”

Although the boxes were painted six feet apart, the reality is that they provide little to no protection from the virus—not to mention zero shelter from the elements. Some of the boxes were provided with blue mats to allow for easier cleaning after use, but that is the extent to which the shelter offered “hygienic conditions.”

This is the second time this year that Las Vegas has shown what kind of policy it wants to pursue when it comes to the city’s homeless population. On January 1, a non-lodging law went into effect which makes sitting, resting, or lodging on sidewalks a misdemeanor punishable with up to a $1,000 fine or up to six months of jail time—basically criminalizing homelessness.

The city’s policy is especially perverted when you look at the numbers. There are about 6,500 people living on the streets of Vegas at any given time. At the same time, the “Entertainment, Gambling, and Marriage Capital of the World” has some 150,000 hotel rooms—roughly 23 rooms per homeless person in the city. Huge numbers of these rooms are currently unoccupied as COVID-19 has essentially shut down tourism.

And if that weren’t enough, around 2% of all houses in the Las Vegas area are reported as empty—over 14,000 in total—which is roughly two houses for every person that sleeps on the street. But the city’s solution to deal with a shelter closure was to provide a parking lot instead of a roof.

Across the country, hotels remain empty due to the coronavirus pandemic. The US hotel industry has asked for a direct $150 billion bailout and another $100 billion for suppliers. Only a quarter of the $2 trillion stimulus package is set aside for individuals—and most of that will eventually end up in the bank and landlords’ pockets. The largest chunk will go directly to corporations including the travel industry.

So, although they are getting bailed out with public dollars, they refuse to provide for the essential needs of the working class and poor. It is the profit motive that doesn’t allow for homeless people to stay in an empty hotel room or house. All that stands between sleeping in a parking lot in the open air or in a safe and comfortable bed is private property. Clearly, with the abundance of housing there is no reason for anyone to be living on the streets. But the barbaric reality of the free market is that there will always be homelessness, poverty, and hunger under capitalism.

The absurdity of capitalism is radicalizing millions of workers and young people who are turning to socialist ideas as a way out of the impasse of the system. If this movement were organized into a mass socialist party and armed with a revolutionary program it could fight for a workers’ government and put an end to this barbarism by providing quality, affordable housing for everyone—in addition to full employment, free universal health care, and much more.

This is the future the IMT is fighting for—if you agree with our socialist program to fight COVID-19 and the economic crisis, we urge you to join us!