Carson City Mayor Lori Bagwell during ‘Coffee and Conversation with the Mayor’ on March 10, 2022.
Faith Evans/Nevada Appeal
Carson City Health and Human Services has probably touched the most residents through the 74,000 COVID-19 vaccines it administered in 2021.
But Mayor Lori Bagwell highlighted another side of the department at "Coffee and Conversation with the Mayor" at the Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. She spoke on the assistance programs that CCHHS offers to unsheltered residents.
Bagwell emphasized that CCHHS doesn’t just “hand out free stuff.”
“It’s about giving (people) opportunities and choices for change,” she said.
During 2021, CCHHS helped 925 individuals through its Community Services Block Grant, which supports workforce development and life skills workshops. The department also offered 62 people rental assistance through supportive housing grants.
Carson City’s unsheltered resident population has fluctuated over the last decade but grew from 14 in 2019 to 82 in 2021, according to the city’s annual Point in Time Count. Homeless Outreach advocates estimate that as many as 200 residents were unhoused in 2020.
“Once they don’t have a roof over their head … the service levels increase, the cost to help that client increases,” Bagwell said, adding the city provides services with the final goal of self-sufficiency.
Programs that offer financial assistance to unhoused and transient residents are funded through the indigent tax, which comes from a portion of city property taxes.
However, the lion’s share of funding for all CCHHS services comes from federal and state grants. It’s a challenge that CCHHS Director Nicki Aaker addressed. Without a steady source of funding, CCHHS can’t consistently offer services, and it can’t promise job security to grant-funded employees.
Bagwell said the city hopes the state will carve out a direct funding source for public health departments like CCHHS.
But it’s not just CCHHS that is responsible for community health, Bagwell said. The Board of Supervisors recently adopted a “Health in all Policies” approach, which means the board evaluates every decision they make through the lens of public health.
For example, projects like the East William Complete Streets improvements can incorporate plans for better pedestrian and bicycle travel to encourage residents to get active.
“We really want to start thinking that way,” Bagwell said.
She pointed out that her graphic, a “Public Health System” network with interlocking pieces, doesn’t just encompass CCHHS. It includes every part of the city.
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