Supervisors to hear about homelessness

Homelessness will be highlighted this week when a federal official comes to town to discuss ways cities can alleviate the situation.

The visit by Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, comes as the Rural Center for Independent Living and Do-Drop In opens at its new location, 900 Mallory Way. The city is also in the process of deciding how to spend a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of $101,580 for sheltering those who are chronically homeless.

The city has been focusing on the problem and the Carson City Board of Supervisors rated homelessness as a problem substantial enough for inclusion on its annual lists of goals - specifically seeking ways to provide transitional housing.

The board will consider adopting a resolution Thursday that directs the city toward finding a solution to chronic homelessness.

Homeless population counts began last year. The first count was done in January 2005 and was used to help obtain the federal grant. The latest effort was in January, and information gathered then is being studied, according to Kathy Wolfe, a city health department official who deals with homeless issues.

In January 2005, less than 160 homeless people were found. The count focused on people living in resident hotels as well as those with no known address.

Numbers were much higher in August 2005, most likely because the weather is better, Wolfe said. That midyear count registered a total of slightly less than 800.

The number of homeless found last month is expected to be higher than tallied the previous year.

Carson City will join with such communities as Reno, Sparks and Las Vegas in creating a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness.

Wolfe said that various plans of other cities are being studied to see what might best work for Carson City. And a coalition of various community members, service providers and people who are and used to be homeless is forming to ascertain local homeless population needs.

Monte Fast, director of Friends In Service Helping, is one of the participants. FISH deals with the city's homeless daily and offers shelter to homeless men. The facility is almost always filled, he said.

He hopes that a solution for the city's chronic homelessness can be found, though the goal of ending chronic homelessness in 10 years was first announced in the 1980s, he said.

"We're making some progress on the bureaucratic level" but, he emphasized, "we have to get realistic."

-- Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.