Public-private solutions urged to help homeless

Friday, Oct. 10, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

A top health official from the Department of Veterans Affairs told state lawmakers that Nevada could reduce homelessness by encouraging mental health care agencies to team up with housing authorities.

Dr. Frances Murphy, the agency's deputy undersecretary for health policy coordination, also said that homelessness could be reduced by constructing affordable housing through public-private partnerships.

Murphy told the Nevada Mental Health Plan Implementation Commission Thursday at the Sawyer State Office Building that of the 12,000 homeless individuals believed to be in Southern Nevada, an estimated 4,000 are military veterans.

Although strides have been made nationally in the construction of affordable housing for seniors and other low-income individuals, Murphy said the availability of housing for the mentally ill has not kept pace. And she said the mentally ill are confronted with the additional barrier of housing discrimination more often than other low-income individuals.

That situation is compounded by the complex nature of mental health care services and the difficulty homeless people have in accessing those programs, she said. One federal study estimated that 46 percent of the nation's homeless people have a mental illness.

"It's a terrible problem and a cycle we can no longer tolerate," Murphy said. "The magnitude of this problem cries for a solution."

Nationwide, there are an estimated 637,000 adults who are considered chronically homeless, she said. The Bush administration, which formed a national mental health panel, has announced a goal of eradicating homelessness within 10 years.

Murphy said one place to start is for local mental health agencies to press for housing subsidies for their clients through contacts with housing authorities.

"Affordable housing programs are highly complex and extremely difficult to access," she said. "Many mental health programs are based on a medical model but don't see housing as a priority."

She cited a successful housing program in New York City that saved taxpayers $16,000 per year, per mentally ill homeless person. The program combined affordable housing with the delivery of mental health services. The savings came from reduced dependence on police, hospitals and other social services.

Murphy said public-private partnerships, in which public agencies team with private developers to build affordable housing, are another avenue that can be explored. She said Clark County has already witnessed this to some extent with the opening of more than 200 housing units for veterans who were homeless.

"We should not only look at eradicating the homelessness that exists but at preventing it in the future," she said.

Shawna Parker, a Clark County community resources management analyst, told the commission that another way to reduce homelessness would be to make it easier for homeless people to access Social Security disability benefits. A 1999 study by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, found that only 65 percent of Southern Nevada's homeless population was receiving Social Security benefits.

Parker agreed with Murphy that there is a need for affordable housing for mentally ill individuals, and said such housing could be constructed at a cost of as little as $45,000 per unit.

But state Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, commission chairman, said the problem is where to build such housing in sprawling Southern Nevada.

"Do you run into backyard issues?" Townsend said. "And how close is it to potential employment and services? It's a giant challenge."