LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The City of Las Vegas plans to ask for help from state lawmakers to care for the medical and mental health needs of the Valley’s growing homeless population.
The city plans to sponsor a Bill Draft Request in the 2025 Nevada Legislative session in an effort to cover the funding gap.
The Courtyard, the region’s largest homeless shelter, houses hundreds of people a night. Those who have medical or mental health needs are brought next door to the Recuperative Care Center — which, according to Councilman Cedric Crear, has 38 beds that are consistently full.
There is a plan to double the number of beds and add a crisis stabilization unit, if the legislature approves a path for Medicaid funding.
“We need to double the capacity,” Crear said. There are doctors, there are nurses there. We have workforce development professionals there. The goal is to get you healthy, and not put you back out on the street, but to get you healthy and then put you into some type of transition housing,” Crear said.
The proposed legislation would create a new Medicaid code, helping expanded services get fully funded.
The annual cost to the city is $5.3 million to fully fund the RCC. To fund the expansion, costs would be $7.5 million.
Crear said the city already carries a massive responsibility: providing funding to maintain the region’s largest homeless shelter.
“We’re the only low barrier shelter in the entire region, which means that everybody brings their homeless persons or they end up at our Courtyard Resources Center. It’s a it’s a challenge for having funding. The city funds 100% of it,” Crear said.
In the spring, FOX5 told you how the Mayor of Las Vegas, Carolyn Goodman, called on other local jurisdictions to expand their own homeless facilities.
Governor Joe Lombardo’s office gave the following statement:
“Governor Lombardo has worked diligently to address homelessness through investing over $100 million in the homelessness prevention fund, expanding behavioral health centers, and increasing access to mental health services across the state, and he looks forward to new policy proposals about this issue next session.”
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