I am a big supporter of homeless causes. I donate annually to 2 different homeless organizations in Las Vegas and up until 2 years ago, I donated one morning each week doing Laundry at a youth homeless center. So I am sympathetic to the homeless. But the homeless situation in Las Vegas is
WAY out of control, as I am sure it is in most other major cities. Places in California and Arizona have been caught shipping homeless people to Vegas with a one way ticket. Like I said, it's just out of control.
Las Vegas is about tourism and you just can't have the homeless epidemic that is the current situation, in the downtown and strip (and just off strip) tourist areas. Tourists literally have to step over homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk. Have you been to Main Street along side Golden Gate, across the street from The Plaza? Absolutely disgusting. It will drive tourism down if it hasn't already. And that is the bread and butter of the Vegas economy. You just can't allow that.
In addition to the casino tourist area, homeless is now rampant in all areas of metropolitan Las Vegas Valley, including the nicer areas of Summerlin and Henderson. I watched last months city council meeting on TV, and there were numerous business owners that showed videos of what they have to clean up every morning just to open their business. That isn't fair to these folks who sink their hard earned money into their businesses.
So something had to be done. Obviously these people won't have the money to pay fines, so they will be locked up for 6 months. How is the county going to afford that? I also don't know that criminalizing homelessness is the answer. But I honestly don't know what the answer is. Something had to be done.