A map from HUD’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress showing estimates for people experiencing homelessness by state.
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People experiencing homelessness in the U.S. reached the highest level ever recorded last year, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In Carson City, homelessness has been a complex issue involving law enforcement, city services and local organizations as well as concerned residents and businesses.
Also in 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 6-3 vote, reversed an earlier ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and found that in the case of Grants Pass, Oregon, local penalties for people camping on public property do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Thursday, Carson City supervisors will consider the first reading of a new ordinance designed to strengthen and specify existing prohibitions on sleeping and camping in unauthorized public spaces. The ordinance spells out how the city would confiscate personal items from an illegal encampment.
The meeting begins 8:30 a.m. Thursday in the boardroom of the community center, 851 E. William St.
A staff report says the proposed ordinance “was written to be consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in its Grants Pass decision.”
“Inclusion of the provisions establishing a procedural process for the removal, storage and release or disposal of personal property from an unauthorized campsite affords reasonable protections to the property of a homeless or unsheltered person who is occupying the campsite, a requirement established by various federal courts under an analysis of the Fourth (reasonableness standard for search and seizure) and Fourteenth Amendments (due process) that has not been disrupted by the Grants Pass case,” according to the staff report.
The scope of homelessness nationally and statewide
HUD’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress provides point-in-time counts, population estimates and describes an accelerating crisis.
“The number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was the highest ever recorded,” the AHAR states. “A total of 771,480 people — or about 23 of every 10,000 people in the United States — experienced homelessness in an emergency shelter, safe haven, transitional housing program, or in unsheltered locations across the country.
“Several factors likely contributed to this historically high number. Our worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits.
“Additional public health crises, natural disasters that displaced people from their homes, rising numbers of people immigrating to the U.S., and the end to homelessness prevention programs put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the end of the expanded child tax credit, have exacerbated this already stressed system.”
The number of people experiencing homelessness nationwide jumped 18.1 percent, according to HUD. Every subpopulation except veterans saw an increase last year. Homelessness among veterans nationwide dropped 7.6 percent last year due to “targeted and sustained funding to reduce veteran homelessness,” according to HUD.
The national inventory of beds for people experiencing homelessness increased by 13 percent between 2023 and 2024, the report says.
“This increase was driven by increases in emergency shelter beds, which increased by 18 percent between 2023 and 2024 and have doubled since 2007. Transitional housing, meanwhile, has steadily decreased over time — declining by 4 percent between 2023 and 2024 and by 60 percent since 2007,” the report states, clarifying transitional housing has been converted to emergency sheltering in many instances.
The estimate for people experiencing homelessness in Nevada in 2024 was 10,106. The homeless population in the Silver State grew by approximately 17 percent from 2023, HUD reported.
According to Carson City Health and Human Services, the 2024 point-in-time count revealed 39 unsheltered individuals in Carson versus 68 in 2023. For those in emergency shelters or transitional housing (considered sheltered but still homeless), the count was 31 in 2024 versus 62 in 2023.
Since the implementation of the Carson City Housing Plan in 2023, which included ARPA funding allocations to local nonprofits, Carson has seen a 40 to 50 percent drop in homelessness as measured by the point-in-time count.
However, CCCHS elected not to conduct the point-in-time count this year (HUD requires it every other year), CCHS Director Nicki Aaker told the Appeal on March 14. Plans are for another count in January 2026.
Existing city code versus new ordinance
Current Carson City Municipal Code 8.04.010 for disorderly conduct states:
“It is unlawful for any person to lie or sleep on any of the sidewalks, streets, alleys or in public places within Carson City, or to disturb the peace and quiet of any person, family or neighborhood by loud, violent or offensive language, or by boisterous, tumultuous or offensive conduct, or by threatening, traducing, quarreling or offering or challenging to fight, in any manner whatsoever.”
Existing penalties include a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up to six months in the city jail. The new ordinance provides the same penalties but adds the following language for those violating sleeping or camping restrictions:
“(a) Is guilty of a misdemeanor and may be punished in accordance with CCMC 1.08.010. (b) May be arrested. (c) May be issued a citation and immediately removed by an authorized official.”
Separated in two sections, the new ordinance would prohibit “sitting, lying down or sleeping on or encumbering public places” and “camping in public places.”
The first part specifies public places illegal for sleeping, “including, without limitation, sidewalks, rights of way, alleyways, trails, paths, parks, libraries, schools and recreational and other public facilities or structures, including, without limitation, bridges, overpasses, underpasses, storm drains, benches and bus stops.”
“This subsection shall not be construed to prohibit any conduct or use that is directly incidental to and normally associated with the lawful and intended use of a public place or property,” the new ordinance says.
The draft also specifies steps for removal of unauthorized campsites.
In occupied campsites, the individual would be given at minimum an hour “to vacate the campsite and remove all of his or her personal property.” In unoccupied campsites, the city would post a notice in the campsite for a minimum of 24 hours.
“Before expiration of the 24 hours, the authorized official must communicate to an appropriate local agency which provides social services to homeless or unsheltered persons the location of the campsite and of the fact that a notice has been posted at the campsite in accordance with this section,” the new ordinance says. “If, after expiration of the 24 hours, the campsite remains unoccupied and personal property has not been removed as directed by the notice, the authorized official must post an inventory form in a conspicuous area of the campsite for not less than 48 hours and cause the personal property to be processed in accordance with CCMC 8.03.110.”
The proposed 8.03.110 dictates such personal property be inventoried and stored by the city for a minimum of 30 days before disposal.
“Except as otherwise provided in this section, personal property that is stored by the city must be released to a person who can reasonably demonstrate ownership of the property before the expiration of the period described in this subsection,” reads the new ordinance.
Any illegal property such as drug paraphernalia may be seized by the Carson City Sheriff’s Office, and dangerous or unsanitary items may be disposed of immediately.
“I don’t have any major concerns with the agenda item. This follows court rulings on actions that can be taken by officers for the betterment of the community and businesses,” Sheriff Ken Furlong said by email on March 13. “Much of what is being proposed as directed by the Board of Supervisors is, and has long been, in place in this community.”
After a hearing last year on possible effects of the Supreme Court decision — amid concerns criminalization would compound the problem of homelessness — the sheriff maintained local code provides officers with discretion. CCSO MOST units, for example, pair social workers with peace officers to respond to people in crisis including unsheltered individuals. The goal of the MOST units is to deescalate situations and connect distressed individuals with services instead of hospitalization or jail.
“The recommendations were presented to me by the District Attorney this week and I am pleased with the citations of the code,” the sheriff said March 13. “Bringing our code up to current standards is a necessary and prudent action by the community. Within its contents, enforcing officers still retain the latitude to make judgement and critical decisions that will likely avoid altering our jails into homeless shelters.”
The new ordinance additionally revises the existing disorderly conduct code by clarifying unlawful behavior as being done “maliciously and willfully.”
The last part of the proposed ordinance revises Title 13 on Parks and Recreation. It says, “It is unlawful for a person to lie down, sleep or lodge in any public park or open space between sunset and 8 a.m. except in an area specifically designated for such purpose.”
• In other action, supervisors will consider appointment of two at-large members to the 911 Surcharge Advisory Committee, each for a two-year term.
“The committee must have at least five members but no more than seven. There are currently three at-large vacancies. New applications were submitted by Jessica Carpenter and Ryan Mcintosh,” according to the agenda.