Homeless count shows slight growth in Clark County
The number of homeless people living on the streets in Clark County and in emergency shelters increased slightly to 7,509 this year, up from 7,443 in 2014, according to the Southern Nevada Homeless Census & Survey released Thursday.
The 66-person increase represents an annual rise of less than 1 percentage point. However, the report does not include data on the “hidden homeless,” which significantly affected the annual estimates. Hidden homeless are people staying in someone else’s home or in vehicles. Excluding that population was a new requirement by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Job loss was the leading cause of homelessness, according to the survey, with 53.5 percent of respondents indicating that as a reason. About 922 people took the survey.
The survey found 53.8 percent of respondents were homeless for the first time.
“We have an influx of people entering homelessness within the last year,” Michele Fuller-Hallauer, continuum of care coordinator for the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, told the continuum of care board Thursday. Fuller-Hallauer added that the region is probably doing better at getting people into permanent housing, which is why the overall numbers are essentially steady.
The point-in-time homeless count was conducted in January by volunteers and included homeless people staying in emergency shelters and homeless housing programs. Surveys and interviews also were conducted.
County officials use the information collected to apply for federal funds to help reduce homelessness and to see where the region stands in getting people into safe housing.
Southern Nevada received more than $10 million in federal grants for homeless programs last year, according to county officials.
The 222-page report found 71.4 percent of survey respondents were living in Southern Nevada when they most recently became homeless. About 4.7 percent indicated their place of residency prior to becoming homeless was outside of Nevada and 23.9 percent indicated their place of residency was out of state.
A group of people at the continuum of care board meeting applauded when they heard that the population of homeless veterans and families had decreased, but didn’t know how to react when they heard there was an 8.5 percentage point increase among homeless children under the age of 18. That population was at 816 this year, up from 742 last year.
That has been a growing problem throughout the state.
Local jurisdictions and the county picked up the costs for this year’s count, which falls on an odd-numbered year and is a federal mandate. The budget for this year’s count was about $22,000 and was used mostly to pay for compiling data in a report for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Last year’s count, funded with a $100,000 grant, found 9,417 homeless individuals, which represented a 28 percentage point increase in Southern Nevada’s homeless population compared with 2013. That report included figures for the hidden homeless.
In this year’s report, the total number of homeless individuals in 2014 was adjusted to 7,443.
The full report can be viewed at http://www.helphopehome.org/2015-Southern-Nevada-Census-FINAL.pdf
Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Find her on Twitter:@YeseniaAmaro
