From the infamous waves of demolitions of the Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino, the first racially integrated casino in Las Vegas, to the quiet removal of less flashy community landmarks, seeing buildings that hold historic and emotional value to residents get reduced to dust have left many with feelings of resentment and skepticism toward the city.

Volunteers and employees at the facility celebrated the aid the ISO-Q provided to Southern Nevada’s most vulnerable population during the ongoing global health crisis, but critics question the amount spent on a relatively small group of people. Others wonder whether the facility was closed prematurely amid the growing number of coronavirus cases.

As a crowd protested outside of Las Vegas City Hall on Thursday, Mayor Carolyn Goodman defended the city’s efforts to end homelessness, describing them as “humanitarian and compassionate” and pushing back against critics of an ordinance that makes it illegal to sit or lie down in public rights-of-way. Criminal penalties for the ordinance are scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 1.

“Right now we have more people sitting in that queue for longer than we want, and that just comes down to affordable units that we can get folks into,” Clark County Administrator of Human Services Tim Burch said.

Outreach teams are dedicated to finding people on the streets and connecting them to pathways out of homelessness — most often emergency shelters, drug detox and transitional housing programs. Demand for the MORE teams may change in coming months because of a new ordinance that makes it a misdemeanor to sit or camp in public rights-of-way in parts of the city.

Board Co-Chair Kathi Thomas-Gibson, who is the director of the Office of Community Services for the City of Las Vegas and responsible for providing homeless services, fielded pointed questions from her peers for an ordinance passed by the City Council.

If passed, the ordinance would make it a misdemeanor to camp or sleep in any public right-of-way downtown and in residential areas in cases where beds are available at at the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center or another service provider along the “Corridor of Hope."