Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Census: Homeless spread around county

A census of the Las Vegas Valley's homeless population showed what advocates have suspected for a couple of years: that the population is growing and that, under the pressure of sweeps, the homeless have spread out.

Preliminary results of the count, done overnight on April 13 and 14, found about 7,800 homeless people, 1,100 more than in 1999, when the last census tallied 6,700 people without their own place to sleep.

The census also found homeless people as far flung as Mesquite, Laughlin and Primm, in such unexpected places as Summerlin, Boulder City and Green Valley, on buses, in athletic clubs and just blocks off the Strip.

"As the valley has grown, you have more and more neighborhoods, more and more gated communities and fewer places where the homeless can stay," said University of Nevada, Las Vegas sociology Professor Fred Preston, who led 319 volunteers in the count and tabulated its results.

The census was done in response to a cut last year in federal money to serve the homeless, according to Paula Haynes-Green, the regional homeless services coordinator. Federal officials cited the lack of an up-to-date census as a reason for the funding cut.

The numbers, once verified, will be used to identify gaps in services to the homeless and come up with recommendations for the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition to fill those gaps. This summer work will begin on a 10-year program to deal with chronic homelessness, Haynes-Green said.

The count was made more difficult by the fact that the homeless are no longer concentrated in a single area, Haynes-Green and Preston said.

"You never get them all," Preston said. "There is a zero chance of getting them all."

Haynes-Green said volunteer counters found several camps that had been recently abandoned. "Whether those people had left those encampments for shelters, we can't tell.

"I suspect there are places people are that we don't know about," she said.

Still, Preston said, he thought the census was as accurate as the one in 1999, especially since there were 71 more volunteers helping this time.

This year's census also included those who are living with friends or relatives, a number borrowed from the Clark County School District, Preston said.

The numbers still have to be double checked and corrected for those who may have been counted twice or mistakenly counted, he said, meaning that the initial finding of an 18 percent increase probably will change.

One key number that Preston is certain will change is the count of homeless living on the streets. The preliminary figures released by the county showed a decrease of almost 500, but Preston said he expected the final figure would be the same or more than the 2,300 found in 1999.

Linda Lera-Randle El, a homeless advocate and executive director of Straight from the Streets, said that once Catholic Charities closes its winter shelter on Saturday the number of homeless on the streets will probably rise again.

"It needs to be recognized that this count, this is reflective of a count when we had more people inside," she said.

The count was done before the winter shelter closed on purpose, Haynes-Green said, because people in shelters are easier to count.

Leroy Pelton, a professor at UNLV's School of Social Work and president of Southern Nevada Advocates for Homeless People, noted that because the count was done in the middle of the month, the numbers may not be as accurate.

"The homeless population tends to be larger at the end of the month," he said. "More people would run out of money."

The experts pointed to homeless sweeps of recent years as a reason the homeless population was more difficult to count.

Las Vegas officials and Metro Police on Palm Sunday 2002 broke up a homeless encampment along Main Street and Foremaster Lane of about 200 people and weeks later broke up a camp that grew blocks away.

That was a turning point, said Pelton, who did not participate in the census.

"The homeless know they need to scatter more, so that makes it more difficult for them to be counted," Pelton said.

Preston also pointed to the dispersal tactics used by police and city officials since the breakup of the Foremaster encampment in making the count harder.

"Las Vegas is, in fact, a less friendly place for the homeless population that it was five years ago," he said. "On the other side, we have more people sheltered and more people in transitional housing.

"Some of the homeless are moving on and some of the homeless are being helped."

Haynes-Green pointed out that the census was done before the closure this week of the Catholic Charities winter shelter, which filled 200 beds a night.

"That's one of the human tragedies of homelessness. You can have people who are housed today and not housed tomorrow.

"One of the things we need to focus on is closing the front door, preventing homelessness. That is the most effective remedy,"' she said.

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