1. What was the proposal that was shot down?
The revenue this would have created a dedicated stream of funds to expand the help for Clark County's homeless population. But there was no specific plan for how to spend the money, which is one of the reasons commissioners voted against it.
2. Many cities and counties do an annual homeless count in January – what do our Clark County numbers show?
A: This census includes both unhoused (street) homeless and housed (in shelters, transitional housing, safe havens). Everyone does these in January but it usually takes until the summer to release the numbers.
Last January’s count was the highest ever recorded for Clark County – 7,928 people. That’s up almost 21% from 2023 - that’s a huge increase. That’s 46% up from 2022 and 56% more than in 2021.
This is after numbers had gone down for a while – 10 years ago they were 7,400/7,500 then went down in the 6,000s and then 5,000s and that was a good trend. But they have been increasing since 2022.
3.How much does Clark County pay for homeless services?
A: So far this year, the county has paid $39 million to contractors, outside companies to provide services like supportive housing, providing permanent housing for the chronically homeless, homeless outreach and more. Last year it paid $36 million.
That doesn’t include paying the people who work on homeless services in the social services dept. They have a $112 million budget this year. Obviously not everyone in that department works on homeless services but their records don’t say who does and exactly what line item spending is for homeless services and what isn’t
So tens of millions of dollars every year.
A small portion of that is subsidized by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which last year gave the county $15 million spread over three years til 2025.
The City of Las Vegas paid vendors almost $19 million for homeless services for the fiscal year that ended in June.