From home to homeless

Rodger Jacobs (Las Vegas Sun): The long columns of slot machines are blinking and twinkling and beckoning with their tinny carnival tunes. But only a haunting memory remains of the fun seekers who flocked to this popular off-Strip casino before the Great Recession swept in and devastated home values, savings and retirement accounts, jobs, futures, dreams, security.

It is 4 o’clock on a breezy weekday afternoon. As I settle onto a stool at the horseshoe-shaped bar at the sports book at the Fiesta on North Rancho, a dull ache in my arthritic joints warns me of impending winter. Enduring another season of Southern Nevada’s harsh wintry wind and frigid biting cold is a prospect I am prepared to move mountains to avoid.

Even more stinging has been the reaction by many readers to my first essay on being homeless in Las Vegas — mean-spirited remarks that have fueled my decision to leave town.

-eddie