Summer is coming. For many of us, that means spending all day holed up in air-conditioned buildings and avoiding the outdoors entirely.
Yet for Nevada’s unhoused population, which is the ninth highest in the nation, this isn’t an option. As Las Vegas’ summers get longer and hotter, heat-related deaths among the unsheltered are skyrocketing, increasing by nearly 100 percent between 2020 and 2021.
Dr. Marc O’Griofa, the medical liaison and coordinator for homeless healthcare for the City of Las Vegas, said that the influx of elderly people now on the streets will likely lead to more reports of heat-related illnesses among the unhoused.
“We have these little old men and women now on the streets, lost, homeless and anxious,” O’Griofa said. “Now with the summer coming in and the temperatures rising, the medical component of what we’re about to see this summer could be absolutely devastating for these newly homeless seniors, unfortunately.”
This new wave of homelessness can be partially attributed to eviction rates rising and affordable home stocks failing to keep up with demand.
As UNLV’s Dr. Nicholas Barr explained, “When you have this kind of deficit of affordable housing for people working in the valley trying to build a life here, I think you need to consider — and I’m sure some people won’t like this — who is the valley for? Is it for real estate speculators, who are looking to become wealthy, or is it for people who live here, work here, and want to raise families here? And when you have this type of resource constraint … I don’t know that you can have both of those things, at least not right now.”
That’s why he and other advocates are hoping the recent Senate Bill 426, currently making its way through the state legislature, will help to stabilize rents and keep people who are on a lower income housed. The bill, dubbed the Neighborhood Stabilization Act, would prevent landlords from raising rent on their tenants in their first year, then limit increases to 5 percent each following year.
President and CEO of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, Deacon Tom Roberts, said that the need for legislation like this, and affordable housing in general, is acute.
“People that are in our shelter, of the 450 that are in our shelter, about 50-60 of those guys are going to work every day, and they simply cannot afford the rent,” he said. “So, the polarity of need is growing, and [Catholic Charities is] trying to make sure the people that are the highest frequent fliers of mental and behavioral health issues get resources so they don’t end up in the legal system and in the jail system.”
Homelessness by the Numbers
- Last year’s Point-in-Time (PIT) Count found 5,645 people staying in shelters or on the streets on February 23, 2022.
- That same homeless census estimated there would be nearly 14,000 Las Vegans who would experience homelessness at some point during 2022.
- 2022 marked the highest number of unhoused recorded by the PIT Count since 2018. (Help Hope Home)
- 2022’s numbers were a 7% increase from 2020’s count and marked the eighth highest increase in homelessness in the nation. (KLAS)
- Of those numbers, 10% were veterans, 6% were unaccompanied minors, and 9% were families with children. (Help Hope Home)
- The results of the 2023 PIT Count, conducted January 26, have not been released yet.
- Nevada has the ninth highest homeless rate in the nation. (Security.org)
Exacerbating Factors
- There have been 118,975 eviction filings in Clark County since March 15, 2020.
- Filings were up 59% from the average in February 2023, and just last week alone, there were over 500 filings. (Eviction Lab)
- Nevada has a shortage of 83,994 homes available or affordable to low-income renters. (National Low Income Housing Coalition)
- Las Vegas was ranked by the National Low Income Housing Coalition as first in the nation for severe housing shortages .
The Heat and its Impact
- Las Vegas has been named the second-fastest warming city in America, the first being Reno.
- Las Vegas saw a 5.8 degree increase in summer temperatures since 1970, while Reno saw a 10.9 degree increase. (Climate Central)
- Rising temperatures have put stress on the unhoused population: The Clark County Coroner’s Office reported 83 heat-related deaths among the unhoused in 2021 — an almost 100% increase from the year before, when 46 unhoused individuals died from the same causes. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Responses
- Senate Bill 426 (the Neighborhood Stabilization Act) is making its way through the legislature. It would prevent landlords from raising the rent on tenants in their first year and will limit increases to 5% after that. It must still make it through the Assembly and the governor. (KTNV)
- Late last year, Clark County received $1.25 million in grant money from the Eviction Diversion Initiative to stem new evictions. (Clark County)
- Each summer, Clark County establishes Emergency Cooling Centers to help people escape the heat. (Clark County)
- It’s hard to estimate how many shelter beds the valley has — guesses range from 1,300 to 2,000 .
- The Courtyard has space to shelter 800 people (Homeless Services) and its Recuperative Care Center has 38 beds and has helped 261 patients as of the end of their 2021 fiscal year. (Helping the Homeless; RCC FY21)
- The Courtyard is actively expanding, according to Dr. O’Griofa, with a new building added just last week (a day center where people can escape the heat) and a new administrative building.
Guests: Dr. Nicholas Barr, assistant professor, UNLV School of Social Work; Dr. Marc O'Griofa, medical liaison and coordinator for homeless healthcare, City of Las Vegas; Deacon Tom Roberts, president and CEO, Catholic Charities
