Committee on Homelessness
For almost two years, the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition’s Committee on Homelessness has been engaged in an unprecedented regional collaboration to address homelessness between the local municipalities, public agencies and service providers.
The committee is comprised of management representatives from Clark County, the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City, and the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, U. S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health, Clark County School District, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan and North Las Vegas Police Departments.
We have made great strides, achieved many accomplishments, identified gaps and tackled many challenges throughout this period.
Dealing with homelessness has been costly – $25 million in FY 2004-2005 alone on intervention and prevention services which include financial (rental) and medical assistance.
We have vetted our regional dollars spent on homelessness to reprioritize and shift our resources to fill the gaps.
Due to our regional accomplishments over the past two years, we have secured federal and state funding for homeless prevention and intervention services.
We are happy to announce that just this week, the state of Nevada awarded Southern Nevada 4 million dollars to address homelessness.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Southern Nevada 6 million dollars for Continuum of Care.
We continue to consider and implement new ideas and approaches, so long as they can be built into the reprioritization of existing public dollars and can fill the priority gaps.
It is important to recognize that this is an evolving process. It is a difficult effort and topic to address. However, we believe that our regional effort and accomplishments are unlike any jurisdiction around the country has tackled.
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