Homeless people are shown under the U.S. 95 overpass at 14th Street Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2019.
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Southern Nevada is $342 million a year behind where it needs to be to reduce homelessness, officials told the Clark County Commission last month.
A study commissioned last year by the Nevada Legislature shows that Southern Nevada needs regional oversight, more affordable housing and behavioral health services, an expanded prevention and intervention safety net, and much more money to combat homelessness, Clark County Manager Yolanda King said.
In a presentation to the commission, she said homelessness afflicts more than 6,000 people in the area on any given night and 14,000 people at some point during the year.
The Working Group to Address Homelessness, created by the Legislature during the 2019 session, recommends the region take several steps to combat homelessness, including forming a regional oversight body of local governments, service providers and private entities. They also suggest: expansion of scattered housing at all levels, from basic emergency shelter to permanent affordable housing, augmented with landlord and developer incentives; expanded access to behavioral health and substance abuse treatment programming; expanded tenant assistance; and improved coordination of data.
Clark County devotes $55 million a year to homelessness, but $55 million is also the size of the annual funding gap for housing alone, the working group noted. Behavioral health is underfunded by about $287 million.
The fiscal gap could potentially be filled via state legislation or local ordinance, including taxes or fees on professional sporting events.
The recommended investments would strengthen the existing tiered, housing-first system, which prioritizes getting unsheltered people into stable housing before launching intensive case management “but obviously recognizing that there is a significant gap in funding that is needed to be able to reduce … and end homelessness,” King, who chairs the group, told the commission during the presentation of the study’s findings.
However, there isn’t enough of that needed housing — there’s an estimated shortage of some 78,000 low-income, affordable rental units across Southern Nevada, said Assistant County Manager Kevin Schiller, who is also part of the state working group.
“This deficit is significant,” he said. “It obviously contributes to the issue.”
