Nevada homeless assistance programs to receive $15M in federal grants

Dozens of homeless assistance programs in Nevada will receive nearly $15 million in federal grants, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday.

The funds are provided through HUD’s Continuum of Care Program to end homelessness and will go toward the state’s 37 existing programs, according to the HUD announcement.

Of those programs, 22 are in Clark County, and will receive just over $13 million.

The grants are part of about $2 billion awarded to support 5,800 local programs nationwide aimed at helping homeless individuals and families.

The funding level springs from HUD’s 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, which identified Nevada as the state with the highest rate of homelessness among youth and one of 10 states where at least half of those experiencing homelessness were unsheltered.

Clark County trailed only Santa Clara County in Northern California in terms of high rates of unsheltered homeless youth, it said.

Nationwide, the numbers remained largely unchanged in 2018, with 552,830 persons enduring homelessness on a single night, an increase of .3 percent. Veteran homelessness also reduced across the country by 5.4 percent, and 49 percent since 2010, the report said.

“With this targeted investment, HUD continues supporting effective community-based programs that deliver housing and services to meet the needs of homeless Nevadans,” HUD Regional Administrator James Stracner said in the press release.

The results of the report will also be used to determine new project awards for local communities at a later date.

Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @brianarerick on Twitter.