By Carly Sauvageau
Every year, volunteers in Clark and Washoe counties, as well as rural areas, gather before dawn and drive down every street of their communities, counting the number of people experiencing homelessness.
The point-in-time count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of annual data-gathering the federal government uses to determine how much funding each locality will receive to support services for unhoused populations.
This year, Clark County reported more than 6,500 people experiencing homelessness within the county, the highest amount since 2015 when the count reported the unhoused population reached more than 7,000.
In Washoe County, the point-in-time count revealed there were nearly 1,700 people experiencing homelessness in Northern Nevada. Last year, a little more than 1,600 people were counted.
Nevada’s 15 rural counties also saw their largest numbers in the past decade, with slightly more than 400 people experiencing homelessness on the day the count took place.
Overall numbers of unhoused people across the state have increased, but service providers, researchers, scholars and government officials say the point-in-time count doesn’t account for the complexities of homelessness and is a single annual snapshot within a community that changes every day.
However, the increases arrive as the state’s population is rising as a whole, meaning though there are more unhoused people in Nevada it could be a byproduct of people in general moving into the state. When compared to the total population of Clark County, the percentage of people experiencing homelessness has increased slightly but is still below what it was in 2015.
“For me, it’s more important to look at the actual numbers that have gone up,” said Kathi Thomas, the director for neighborhood services with the City of Las Vegas. “And [that] the kinds of folks experiencing homelessness is changing.”
In recent years, Thomas said she has observed an increase in families, people with disabilities and seniors seeking services.
Frederick Steinmann, director of the University Center for Economic Development at UNR, said there are multiple reasons for the steep increase in the unhoused population of rural Nevada including mines developing without communities having sufficient housing for the incoming workforce.
“This is kind of when you become the victim of your own success,” Steinmann said. “A lot of people flock in and you can’t build the housing fast enough.”
More beds lead to fewer unsheltered people
Though the number of people experiencing homelessness increased in Washoe County, the number of people living unsheltered — defined by HUD as living in an area not made for human habitation including abandoned buildings and on sidewalks — decreased by 21 percent.
Marie Baxter, the CEO of Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada, said the decrease in unsheltered populations is because the Cares Campus — the largest shelter in the area and managed by Washoe County — has significantly increased the amount of beds available.
“The shelter … on Record Street held a couple 100 people,” Baxter said. “The Cares Campus can hold upwards of 600 to 700 people. There’s also just a lot more commitment across the community to try to find solutions for people experiencing homelessness.”
Catrina Peters, the homeless services coordinator with the Washoe County Housing and Homeless Services team, added that the Cares Campus has added several emergency beds compared to previous years and some beds could have been excluded from the count before.
Local jurisdictions have also been adopting stricter policies when it comes to people living outdoors. Most recently, Sparks City Council adopted ordinances to the city municipal code that prohibits people from living in vehicles parked on public roadways, blocking public sidewalks, right of ways and streets as well as starting fires on public property without a permit.
The City of Sparks also expanded “the exclusion of camping in the Truckee River Corridor to 1000 feet off the river.” Previously the exclusion was set at 350 feet off the shore of the Truckee River. The city council also unanimously voted to reduce “the definition of an oversized vehicle from 24 feet to 15 feet,” read a statement from the Sparks city attorney’s office released Aug. 15.
Other Northern Nevada jurisdictions have adopted stricter regulations about living on public lands in recent years.
“My goal all along is how can we be a model for the West so we can compassionately lean into this problem,” said Par Tolles, the chief fundraiser of the Cares Campus and CEO of Tolles Development. “Get people services, make it very difficult for people to live on the streets, get them in safe environments, compassionately serve them and get them help and get them housing if they choose to come and help themselves.”
Though there has been a decrease in unsheltered people, Peters said there will not be a decrease in homelessness until there is an increase in affordable housing units.
“I think it really underscores the continued need for affordable housing,” Peters said. “This is not a problem we’re going to be able to solve without some substantial efforts to increase the number of affordable housing units for extremely low income populations in our community.”
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