(The Center Square) – Unaccompanied youth have faced a substantial increase in homelessness in Nevada recently, while the rise of chronic homelessness remains a serious problem.
The unaccompanied youth homelessness rate in Nevada increased by 27% from 2023 to 2024; its increase of 116 unaccompanied homeless children was the fifth-largest in the country, according to the 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Chronic homelessness is a big problem in Nevada. From 2007 to 2022, the state saw its number of individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness increase by 255.1% — an increase of 2,222 people. That’s the fourth-largest increase in that stretch.
Nevada had those increases despite being a smaller-than-average state in terms of population.
Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, has long been an epicenter of homelessness in the state.
Among the general population, the top five reasons for homelessness in Clark County are “job loss/unemployment (56.2%), mental health issues (44.7%), illness/medical problems (40.5%), alcohol/drug abuse (38.9%), and being asked to leave a family or friend’s home,” according to a report from The Nestled Recovery Center.
Those factors among adults have also contributed to youth homelessness, and Nevada has the highest youth homelessness rate in the country, according to a 2022 HUD report. Nevada has occupied that spot for several years.
The 2024 HUD report noted many national factors that have contributed to the rise of homelessness.
HUD cited economic reasons, the child tax credit decreasing from $3,000 per child to $2,000 per child, plus so-called “systemic racism,” among other factors.
“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,” the report said. “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.”
