Beds, shelters for homeless can’t meet pace of growth

Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

The number of emergency beds and amount of short-term housing for the homeless are not keeping up with the growth of that population in the Las Vegas Valley.

At the same time long-term housing with additional services such as counseling is increasing, a trend stemming from the federal government's push toward that as a solution to the problem of homelessness.

But if the tendency to beef up long-term housing while ignoring the short-term services continues, "It's going to cause homelessness to continue to increase," said Michael Stoops, director of community organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless, a Washington-based nonprofit organization.

"Everybody assumes we have to put all of our eggs in one basket -- but you can't. You have to do all of these things at the same time," Stoops said.

The numbers, released Tuesday by Clark County Community Resources Management, show that between May 2003 and June 2004 emergency shelter beds went from 1,501 to 1,540 in the past year, a 2.6 percent increase, while short-term housing beds went from 1,336 to 1,278, a 4.3 percent drop.

In the same period the number of beds in permanent housing with supportive services increased 5.3 percent, from 620 to 653. The numbers are compiled annually as part of a regional application for federal homeless funds.

The emergency shelter numbers show "we're not being as effective as we should be in providing services," said Darryl Martin, director of Clark County Social Service. The county provides $500,000 to support so-called no-strings-attached emergency shelter -- or shelter with no cost and minimal rules.

"We need to make sure we're covered on the front end," he said.

At the same time, Martin said, "providers are stretched to the max. We're in a bit of a Catch-22."

The numbers on beds come several months after an April census that showed an estimated population of 7,800 for the valley's homeless population. That was 18 percent more than the last count, in 1999, a growth rate just below that of the general county population. Last year the county population grew 4.6 percent.

Stoops said the trend to move away from immediate or short-term shelter for the homeless is nationwide, in part because the federal government is tying funds to this approach.

"It (permanent housing) really is the ultimate solution, but at the same time we can't neglect those who need shelter for the night," he said.

Shawna Parker Brody, the county analyst who released the numbers, said this year's application for $6 million in Housing and Urban Development Department funds included no proposals for emergency shelter. It did include requests for money to pay for 35 beds for short-term housing and 138 beds in permanent, supportive housing.

"The community is focusing on permanent ... housing following HUD's lead," Parker Brody said.

The county analyst said local governments will have to support emergency shelter and short-term housing. "There definitely is a role that they play," Parker Brody said.

But Martin said the county and other local governments need to be creative in meeting the needs of those lacking a place to spend the night because "there is no political will for building new shelters."

"There's too much, 'You're not putting a shelter in my back yard,"' he said.

Martin's agency has funding for up to 200 emergency vouchers at certain hotels in the valley, an option Martin described as "an alternative to building shelters."

Linda Lera-Randle El, director of a nonprofit organization called Straight from the Streets, said such programs are useful alternatives to shelters, particularly given the tendency to "open one shelter and close another."

Martin, whose job it is to keep track of a broad range of social services for the valley's needy, said population statistics together with the numbers released Tuesday make for a bad mix.

"If growth continues apace," Martin said, "we're in for a rude awakening."