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CLOSED PROPERTY: Homeless camping on Strip

Rotting Klondike Inn becomes flophouse

They hang "Do not disturb" signs from their doorknobs. Some make their beds in the morning. Artwork even hangs on a few of the walls of this one-time Strip motel.

Less than a mile south of the golden-windowed towers of Mandalay Bay, the homeless have found a new place to stay -- inside the shell of what was once the Klondike Inn.

The decades-old Las Vegas Boulevard property near Russell Road has become more than just an eyesore and a flophouse for homeless people since it closed last year, Clark County officials said. The 153-room building is also downright dangerous.

Its landings are rotting. Columns that support the second floor are in danger of collapsing. The windows and doors are broken or missing, and the hotel's courtyard is strewn with shattered glass.


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  • Out front stands the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign.

    "Who would know that an encampment exists right here?" said Linda Lera-Randle El, director of the Straight from the Streets homeless outreach program, while surveying the property last week.

    "It shows you the expansiveness of homelessness, that it's not just in the homeless corridor" downtown.

    Don Medvi, who works next door at the Las Vegas Tourist Bureau, said homeless people even used the hotel's showers until the water was shut off recently.

    "They took most of the framing, and they ripped out the wiring," he said. "I've seen them with wagons full of copper wires."

    County officials said the hotel's owner, Royal Palm Las Vegas, has not been responsive to directives to do something with the place.

    Royal Palm is part of Royal Palm Communities, a Florida company that has developed high-rise condominiums, hotels and business offices.

    The company paid longtime owner John Woodrum about $24 million to buy the Klondike's 5.29 acres in September, according to Clark County assessor's office records. Royal Palm also spent $42 million on a vacant, 5.25-acre site next to the Klondike.

    Ron Lynn, director of the county's Department of Development Services, sent a letter in September to the company detailing dangers at the Klondike and ordering the owner to either repair the place by Dec. 18 or demolish it by Nov. 13.

    "We have not heard back," he said on Friday.

    The Review-Journal had left several messages with Royal Palm since the start of last week seeking information about the site.

    On Monday, John Montani, a spokesman for Royal Palm subsidiary Paramount Worldwide Gaming, said all of the county's issues with the Klondike had been resolved.

    He declined to comment further, other than to say that the company will be announcing its plans for the property early next year and that homeless people are no longer living at the site.

    Lynn on Monday said that a Royal Palm attorney did call the county that morning to say the company had received the county's September order. But the issues have not been resolved, Lynn said.

    "Their responsibility is to maintain it, and they haven't," Lynn said. "Nothing's been done."

    The county will be drafting another letter to Royal Palm, Lynn said. The company could face fines or liens for failing to comply with the county's orders.

    In the meantime, homeless outreach teams are working the Klondike as they would any other encampment, said Shannon West, regional homeless services coordinator for the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition's Committee on Homelessness.

    West said Clark County Social Services and outreach teams have been visiting the Klondike in hopes of talking the homeless into shelters and other services before the building is either fixed up or demolished.

    She estimated that 15 to 20 homeless people initially lived there.

    Some of them moved on after outreach workers began visiting.

    A couple agreed to take help finding more permanent housing, Lera-Randle El said.

    She said she thinks that eight homeless men are still crashing in the hotel each night.

    "Someone made the bed in room 207," she said while peeking through a door.

    "There are hard hats on the bed. The window has curtains across it, even though there's no window."

    Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0285.



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    mike arington wrote on March 06, 2008 11:36 AM: barry p arington if your still in lasvegas contact mike last i heard he was arrested for jwalking and loitering in park seems googmens got otherthings to worry about now with hepatitis scare hope he left town.


    notme wrote on November 06, 2007 08:35 PM: My heart goes out to the person who made the bed and hung the curtains in the abandoned hotel room on the multi-billion dollar Las Vegas Strip. Vegas has royally screwed up and anyone with half a brain realizes the issue is much deeper than the deed holder failing to lock down the property. An area like this needs a full-time government-run (or regulated) well-funded service that deals with the homeless (regardless of private/public property boundaries) in an effective way that does not run out of capacity. I fear the shadow-government and the real one is going to wait like they did with the roads until the problem is unmanageable. Maybe we need some federal oversight now, since human (and civil) rights are also at stake and many of these "homeless" are fresh here from across the nearby state borders.


    not sorry wrote on November 06, 2007 05:22 PM: Send some real estate agents in there with Real Estate Contract that makes the new owner or the agent clean up the mess. send the bums back to CA to deplete their welfare system.


    notmyjob wrote on October 24, 2007 05:12 PM: *[o*o]*


    leggs wrote on October 24, 2007 05:08 PM: Blame your city for not doing there job. Oh thats right there too busy making deals to pocket there own lives.


    Hitler wrote on October 21, 2007 08:53 AM: Ah my Las Vegas friends, the solution is so simple, I laugh! At night while they sleep like babies, take the homeless by bus into the desert, dig trenches and line them up, perhaps three in line and shoot them in their collective heads, cover them up, and viola! Problem solved! Next issue????


    Justin wrote on October 18, 2007 06:30 AM: I have a better idea Harvey, why don't we close down where you work so yu can go try and find a new job that can pay enough to support your current lifestyle, then break your car which you won't be able to afford, toss in a medical emergency with an astronomical price tag, and see how you come out of it! Remember that most Americans are only three paychecks away from financial disaster and even though you are doing good now, there may come a day when you have to decide whether to eat or keep the power on.


    Harvey wrote on October 10, 2007 01:29 PM: They bought "The Klondike" for 24 million and the vacant lot next to it for 42 million. Bulldoze the joint before someone gets hurt. It's not like whoever bought the property don't have the money to do so. Then round up all of those Homeless staying there, and everywhere else in Las Vegas and send them "ALL" to Iraq. Like Castro did when he emptied all of his jails, and prisons, put them on boats, and then "Our Government" rescued these people. Make them someone else's problem. They might just fit in over there, and if not, who cares!

    Jason if you don't like the smell, then move ya dope!


    Jason wrote on October 10, 2007 01:01 AM: East Harmon Street, it's extremely toxic air, someone please see whats going on, it's very very bad for the health of the people in this area, it's so bad it fills my apartment up with it's toxic smell. I ask what they are doing and I get a "don't know" or "none of your business" response, look intothis, this is a BIG EPA issue over here. I and many of us are students and have to live in this area.


    Jason wrote on October 10, 2007 01:00 AM: East Harmon Street, it's extremely toxic air, someone please see whats goingon, it's very ver bad for the health of the people in this area, it's so bad it fills my apartment up with it's toxic smell. I ask what they are doing and I get a "don't know" or "none of your business" response, look intothis, this is a BIG EPA issue over here. I and many of us are students and have to live in this area.


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