The latest statistics on homelessness in Clark County show some successes in the expansion of efforts to combat the crisis, but the number of people who are unhoused are still on the rise.
Several members of the Council for the Homeless laid out statistics from 2022 during a webinar on June 27. The council coordinates with dozens of agencies across the county in its efforts to answer the homelessness crisis.
At the center of the presentation was data gathered by the council’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) database. Thirty-nine agencies with 337 individual users put data collected through services into the database, Laura Ellsworth, the strategic partnerships and advocacy manager for the council, said.
Ellsworth said the data show some “hard truths” about the homelessness situation in Clark County.
“Each data point in the reports … represent a person, a family, a child, a teen or a senior living with the instability of life without a safe and stable home,” Ellsworth said.
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Clark County increased in 2022 despite improvements to service delivery, Ellsworth said.
Based on HMIS data, 9,032 people from 5,352 households experienced homelessness in 2022, according to the presentation, an increase of 44% from 2021. About two-thirds of those experiencing homelessness were new to the situation last year.
Ellsworth noted there were a number of compounding factors as to why the number went up as much as it did.
“Homelessness does not live in a vacuum of bad individual choices and circumstance,” Ellsworth said. “The pressures that are squeezing people and communities, causing homelessness, are only increasing as rents have gone up, housing stock remains in critical short supply, and impacts of a global pandemic continue to be felt.”
Dale Whitley, HMIS administrator for the council, provided more in-depth stats for 2022. The data he presented showed 22% of households experiencing homelessness at any point that year were seniors, 26% were families, 8% were youth and 6% were veterans. Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) households accounted for 37% of those experiencing homelessness.
Of the 2,421 of the households who asked for shelter, 1,857 received it last year, the data showed. The number who asked increased by about 900 in 2022 from 2021, according to the presentation. Only 679 additional people were able to access shelter between the years.
Of the 3,800 households that were assessed for housing program assistance last year, only 565 got into one of 39 housing programs. The number assessed increased by about 800 between 2021 and 2022, while the number placed increased by only 50.
“There is a big gap between the number who are assessed and the number who are able to be placed into a program,” Whitley said.
The council also coordinates help for individuals and families to avoid becoming homeless. About 5,200 households received rental assistance to prevent homelessness in 2022, a 9% increase from 2021, according to presentation data.
One of 2022’s biggest strides was increasing the number involved with a coordinated outreach team.
“Our coordinated outreach team is really focused and prioritized on the most vulnerable in our community who are unable to come to us. We want to make sure that we’re going out to them,” Council for the Homeless Deputy Director Sunny Wonder said.
In the past, there were only a handful of people involved with the team, but work to expand began in late 2021, Wonder said. Last year, there were 30 outreach workers across seven agencies.
Part of the outreach deals with the fact that the point of entry into the system is via a phone number. Access to a working phone or being able to take a bus line to get to services may be barriers.
With the expanded team, they were able to facilitate housing for 263 individuals through their efforts.
Wonder mentioned 47% of households served through either rapid rehousing or transitional housing exited into permanent housing, as did 93% of those served through permanent supportive housing last year.
“Homelessness is complicated, but it’s solvable,” Sesany Fennie-Jones, the executive director for the council, said.
Fennie-Jones said although the visible signs of homelessness are evident, through the council and its partners’ work, 700 households were housed last year.
“We are doing really, really great work,” she said. “We just need to do more with more resources.”
