Under LV homelessness tracking, permanent housing mostly means bus tickets out of town

Unhoused folks gather around fans set up inside the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center. (Photo: Michael Lyle/Nevada Current)

Of the 814 people categorized as receiving permanent housing last year through the City of Las Vegas’s Courtyard Homeless Resource Center, all but 12 received bus tickets out of town.

The Courtyard provides various services including laundry facilities, showers, substance abuse referrals, housing assessments, assistance with getting identification, and an open-air sleeping space at night.

People coming to the facility can also be connected to the “ticket-to-home” program –  a one-time relocation assistance in the form of a bus ticket to leave Las Vegas.

Maurice Cloutier, the City of Las Vegas community resources manager, said the city categorizes the “ticket-to-home” program as permanent housing.

Cloutier said many states “have gotten in trouble … and rightfully so” for busing people out of town without verifying they had a place to go. The city, he said, conducts extensive phone calls on the front end to ensure there is a place for the unhoused to go.

“Anyone who has or claims to have a safe place to go where someone will support them and not make them literally homeless when they get there, then we will go ahead and purchase a Greyhound ticket one way after verifying at the end location that the individual will allow them to stay there and won’t put them back out on the streets,” he said.

There isn’t a city policy requiring staff follow-up to ensure the person is still housed weeks or months later.

Staff checks the county-wide homeless management system, which stores information on those receiving services and housing assessment, to learn if people who left town might have returned.

The city identified a 16% recidivism rate last year of people returning to Las Vegas after receiving a ticket to somewhere else.

Rates of homelessness in Southern Nevada have increased in recent years, and local and state officials have implemented, proposed, and differed over plans to address the growing crisis.

The upcoming election for city mayor, which includes the Courtyard and the city’s designated corridor for homeless services, is likely to influence the city’s homelessness policies.

Both candidates stressed the importance of expanding mental health services for the unhoused and the need for another similar to the courtyard — they both support legislation passed in 2023 that establishes a $100 million fund to support the buildout of a “transformational campus” in Southern Nevada.

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, who is running for mayor, said the “ticket-to-home” program shouldn’t be categorized as permanent housing.

“It would be my hope that when they arrive at the destination there is somebody waiting for them to help with their challenges,” Berkley said in an interview. “If there is no follow up, which apparently there isn’t, how do we know that? All we are doing is moving the problem and giving it to someone else.”

Las Vegas City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman, who is also running for mayor, said the goal of the Courtyard is to get unhoused people into transitional programs. If people are going to live with family, “that is housing because they are going home.”

“I’m not opposed to someone who is here falling on hard times or they want to start over and they want to do it around the support system” to get a bus ticket back home, Seaman said.

“We are not in the business of telling people when they try to get them help what kind of help that they need,” she added. “We want them to tell us. We are helping people get onto their feet whatever that is.”

Like Berkley, Seaman, who has served on the city council since 2019, wasn’t aware  that the city doesn’t track the fate of people the city buses out of town. but said she would look into it.

Not ‘wildly successful’

The Courtyard, which began offering services in 2017, is located in what is known as the “Corridor of Hope,” an area north of downtown Las Vegas where shelters operated by Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and Salvation Army are also located.

The concentrated services model is based off the Haven for Hope based in San Antonio, Texas

Berkeley said the Haven of Hope has been considered “wildly successful.”

“I don’t think anybody would claim the courtyard is wildly successful,” she said.

She added that it’s not from lack of intention, adding those providing services are “doing yeoman’s work.”

“They are very dedicated to helping people living on the streets,” she said. “My goal and my vision is not to provide help to maintain people living on the streets. I want to be able to get people off the streets, be self-sustaining and be able to take care of themselves. That is quite different from maintaining people living on the streets.”

Seaman said the courtyard has improved since it first began offering services in 2017.

“When I first toured it when I got elected I thought, ‘this is not where we want to be,’ ” she said. “In the five years I’ve been (at the city), we’ve given such good resources. Last time I toured it I was amazed, our money we put forward really went to good use.”

The facility has been remodeled in recent years and incorporated additional services, including efforts to connect people with health care and working with nonprofits to provide case management and housing assessments.

The 2023 “Programs Outcomes” report, which identifies where individuals were discharged from the Courtyard, lists 814 people as placed in permanent housing:

• three were placed in rentals (two with subsidies, one without);
• another six were housed by reconnecting with local family;
• three were connected with friends to stay;
• and the city confirmed with the Current that the remaining 802 categorized as connected with friends or family received bus tickets through the Courtyard as part of the “ticket-to-home” program.

The report also breaks down how many people were discharged to temporary housing.

There were 25 people categorized as “staying or living with family” on a temporary basis, 32 people temporarily living with friends, two people were placed in transitional housing, two were in a long-term care facility and one received an emergency voucher for a hotel or motel.

The report notes that 6,305 people who came through the courtyard in 2023 didn’t complete a placement interview or indicate where they went after the courtyard.