Advocates see increase in homeless families

Local officials told lawmakers Tuesday that a year on the streets for the chronically homeless costs society an average of $50,000 in services.

Shannon West of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition said, by contrast, it costs just $11,000 to keep that person in housing with supportive services.

She, Churchill County Social Services Director Shannon Ernst and Jodi Royal-Goodwin of the City of Reno made presentations before a subcommittee of the Interim Finance Committee on Tuesday seeking $1 million in grant money appropriated for homeless programs by the 2007 Legislature.

They said the various coalitions had agreed $600,000 should go to Clark County, $300,000 to Washoe and the remaining $100,000 to rural applicants. That final piece would be split $70,000 to Douglas and $30,000 to Churchill County.

The subcommittee indicated support for that apportionment but postponed a decision until March after Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, asked them first to present detailed budgets explaining how the money would be spent.

West told the subcommittee an emergency room visit for someone chronically homeless averages $3,722, the ambulance ride to get there $2,142 and a three-day hospital stay $4,440. Other frequent costs for those individuals, she said, include detox, several nights in jail and shelter costs.

"They don't use these services only one time a year," she said.

Lawmakers were told that at any given time there are nearly 13,000 homeless in Nevada. The vast majority, an estimated 11,417, are in Southern Nevada with some 863 in the Reno area and 567 in rural Nevada.

In Reno and Las Vegas, about three quarters are male and 25 percent are veterans.

Ernst said that doesn't hold in rural areas, which are seeing a higher percentage of women and children. In rural Nevada, men make up just 56 percent while women and children together are 41 percent of the total, she said.

But Ernst said there is a growing number of people living in "encampments" - substandard housing such as tent cities. In 2007, 236 camps were counted, 84 more than the previous year.

She said one of Churchill's encampments is at Lahontan Dam.

But Royal-Goodwin said the Reno area homeless population is also seeing a growing number of families.

In Southern Nevada and the Reno area, West said, the grant money will be used to expand the number of housing units available for the homeless.

"Our issue in this state is capacity," she said.

Ernst said most of the money in rural Nevada's portion will be used for support services.

All three promised to quickly submit detailed budgets outlining the different projects their share of the cash will go to. The funding is expected to be awarded at the March Interim Finance Committee meeting.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.