Washoe County presents updated homeless-services data; officials stress need for more permanent housing

Dana Searcy, division director for Housing and Homeless Services at the Washoe County Human Services Agency, told the Board of County Commissioners on June 17 that the county has substantially expanded shelter capacity since homelessness services moved to the county in 2021 and has improved data collection — but that rising rents and a shortage of affordable units remain the primary barrier to reducing homelessness.

Searcy said the county has increased reporting into the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) from roughly 40% to more than 90% of programs, tripled single-bed shelter capacity from about 228 beds to more than 750, and placed more than 1,100 people into permanent housing through county programs since July 2023. "There is a lot of content in these slides. Definitely not gonna be able to do a lot of detail in 10 minutes, but I wanted to get this in front of you," Searcy said during her presentation.

The presentation included two new datasets the county is publishing: (1) the recorded origin of people who were already homeless when they moved into the area, and (2) a revised by-name list that counts people active in homelessness-related programs over a 90-day window rather than by a single-day point-in-time snapshot. Searcy said the change to a 90-day activity window yields a larger, more comprehensive count and explains much of an apparent historical increase in the county's counts: "For this count... different than our point in time count... we look at activity over a full 90 days," she said.

Commissioners and Searcy discussed the share of people who arrive in Washoe County already homeless; Searcy said work to track those inflows shows most of those people come from California and elsewhere in Nevada, and she described outreach to sending jurisdictions to ask them not to transport people into Washoe County when local supports do not exist. "We've worked with our staff to directly communicate out to those jurisdictions who are sending people here and communicate that we cannot accept people from outside our area," Searcy said.

Board members pressed staff on three recurring themes: (1) the need for more permanent and supportive housing, (2) the persistent role of rental affordability and limited subsidized units, and (3) continued efforts to improve HMIS participation and data. Commissioner Jeanne Garcia asked why the remaining organizations were not reporting to HMIS; Searcy answered that licensing costs and dual data systems for health-care partners were the primary barriers and described steps the county is taking to reduce licensing costs and bulk-purchase access.

Searcy also described program-level outcomes: tenancy-support approaches that connect a case manager with people after placement are producing strong retention — she said emergency housing voucher placements show over 90% of people remain stably housed — and county-funded placements from the CARES campus, Our Place, and the sheriff's HOPE team show approximately 18–24% recidivism at six months. "We're floating somewhere between 18–24 percent recidivism in there," Searcy said, describing ongoing efforts to lower that rate by expanding tenancy supports.

Vice Chair Jean Herman and other commissioners urged continued emphasis on regional coordination, including sharing Washoe County's lessons with other Nevada jurisdictions, and suggested asking the Nevada Association of Counties (NACO) to examine statewide approaches to the movement of people between counties. Commissioners also requested additional breakdowns of waiting lists and an updated accounting of the number of permanent supportive units needed versus available.

Searcy told the board the county is continuing to pursue a combination of tactics — more data sharing, mandatory HMIS reporting for programs that receive county funds, shallow-subsidy ARPA-funded programs, and continuing work with the corporation for supportive housing — while noting federal funding and regulatory changes add uncertainty to the near-term outlook.

The presentation concluded with commissioners agreeing to follow up on housing-unit counts, the county's wait-list numbers for permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing (Searcy identified roughly 500 people on the community queue in the priority range for permanent housing), and possible regional strategies to limit interjurisdictional transport of people who are already homeless.

Searcy closed by thanking staff and community partners and said the county would continue to refine reporting and publish the updated dashboards online. "This is hot off the press," she told the board about the new datasets that will appear on the county website.

Follow-up items requested by commissioners included a breakdown of the county's wait-list and supportive-housing gap, documentation of the 90-day by-name methodology, and continued updates on HMIS enrollment and participation.

The presentation did not require a vote; commissioners moved on to other agenda items following questions and discussion.