Las Vegas urged to help other cities cut veteran homelessness

The Las Vegas area should help other cities match its success in fighting homelessness among veterans, the nation's top housing official said Wednesday during an appearance here.

The Las Vegas Valley has been certified as having met the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness, a national initiative announced in 2014 by First Lady Michelle Obama.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says the valley has achieved "functional zero," which means it has enough resources to house every homeless veteran.

By teaching other municipalities across the country, Las Vegas could help the nation end veteran homelessness, HUD Secretary Julian Castro said during his visit.

"I have one request today, and that's that you become an ambassadorial city, an ambassadorial community for all of those who have not yet met the goal," he said during a ceremony at the Smith Center for Performing Arts.

He added: "People look at you now as a role model community of how you can get the job done."

The Las Vegas area is one of 13 municipalities across the nation that HUD says have met the Mayors Challenge. Other cities include Houston, New Orleans and Las Cruces, N.M. Virginia also has met the goal statewide.

During Wednesday's event, the mayors of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City received a plaque. Some mayors spoke, along with other local officials and veterans who shared their stories.

In 2011, there were 1,169 homeless veterans in the Las Vegas Valley. That number decreased to 692 in 2015, according to HUD statistics.

Several agencies working on the problem use the same list of homeless veterans who have been identified.

"As we move forward, of course challenges remain," said William Caron, acting director at the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System.

In 2010, President Barack Obama launched Opening Doors, an ambitious federal plan to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015, which officials have acknowledged is not going to happen.

But since the Mayors Challenge was launched in 2014, more than 800 local officials across the nation have started working toward the goal, Castro said.

"The communities that have taken this challenge at heart are the ones that we are so proud of," he said, emphasizing their collaboration and other steps.

This kind of challenge "takes leadership," said Matthew Doherty, executive director at the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Even though the Mayors Challenge has been met, a Las Vegas veteran could still experience a crisis that leaves him homeless again. So officials need to remain vigilant every day to help prevent that — and to make sure it doesn't last long if it happens.

"It's an achievement that we must sustain," Doherty said.

He said lessons learned in the campaign to help veterans could be used to help reduce homelessness among other people.

From 2010 to 2015, there was a 36 percent reduction in veteran homelessness across the nation.

Referring to a headline in Wednesday's Review-Journal that read "Valley meets target," Castro said he looked forwarding to reading that in other cities' newspapers.

He said he also looked forward to one day reading this message directed at Las Vegas: "America ends veteran homelessness, and you showed us how to do it."

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3843. Find her on Twitter: @YeseniaAmaro