A public relations blitz has various national media reporting bold claims about Reno’s homeless situation.

“Reno is beating the odds in solving homelessness; number of unsheltered dropped by more than half after large tent to house its homeless was built,” the Wall Street Journal wrote in late November. 

NewsNation claimed, “Reno got more than half their [sic] homeless population off the streets.” It further noted, “Homeless dramatically drops in Reno, NV.” 

It added that “the city was able to drop the number of people living on the streets by nearly 60%.”

ABC 7 News in San Francisco claimed, “Reno successfully cut unhoused population by half. Can San Francisco do the same?”

These reports, and a handful of others, were shared by Grant Denton of the Karma Box Project and Safe Camp, Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve, a developer and anonymous Reddit users.

What’s accurate? While based on a precise data point, the claims are misleading and false depending on the context and how they are stated. The reason is because those broad claims are based on incomplete data and a very narrow timeline.

PIT count data are incomplete

While the Wall Street Journal accurately reported the 50% unsheltered reduction is from Washoe County’s point-in-time count (PIT) reporting, it is unclear, given greater context, how this is “solving homelessness.”

KSL.com in Salt Lake City and its reporting was accurate: “Despite homelessness increasing slightly, fewer people are living unsheltered and are accessing services and housing quicker in Reno.”

ABC 7 News in San Francisco’s report accurately covered many of the region’s issues and some of the successes, but there is no evidence Reno cut its unhoused population in half. ABC’s and NewsNation’s claim that homelessness has dramatically dropped by as much or more than 50% is false when considering numbers over time.

“The PIT count serves a purpose, but it’s not the full picture.”

The 50% figure is based on an annual point-in-time count (PIT) and the change in unsheltered homelessness from 2021 year to 2023. The PIT count is a snapshot in a short period, a single night. It is widely acknowledged PIT counts undercount homeless populations, are not a comprehensive measure and, therefore, should not be used to make generalizations about homelessness, which is what much of the news reporting appears to have done. 

“The PIT count is largely seen as a severe undercount of the homeless population,” a University of Minnesota report stressed in 2021. “We know that certain populations are more mobile, transient, living doubled-up or in other hidden areas and, therefore, missed in this yearly count.”

For the past two years, Washoe County has claimed the region has seen a decrease in homelessness. Those claims were also based on PIT data, and county spokesperson Bethany Drysdale acknowledged those numbers do not tell the whole story despite the county headlines claiming the numbers show an overall decrease in homelessness.

“The 50% comes from the PIT count of unsheltered individuals since Washoe County took over homelessness in 2021: 780 down to 329,” she said. “Washoe County conducts the point-in-time (PIT) count because it provides data and is required by HUD. But it is not all that we rely on to really measure success. It serves a purpose, but it does not give the full picture of the change in homelessness data over time.”

Even if the news reports relied on just PIT data, Washoe County dramatically increased overall homelessness from 2015 to 2023—a total of 907 up to 1690, or nearly double. A state report confirmed in 2020 that Washoe County’s increase surpassed the national average and even Clark County’s count.

County removed more than a year’s worth of data from website

The county’s “built for zero” dashboard, using the homeless management information system (HIMS), presents the more reliable picture of homelessness in the region. 

“HMIS data is much more accurate, but until we just recently got everyone on board with entering their data into HMIS, that was lacking as well,” Drysdale said. “We’re now at around 90% of organizations that interact with the unhoused using HMIS to track their data. The closer we get to 100%, the more accurate that data will be.”

HIMS numbers document those who are homeless and sheltered as well as those who are homeless and unsheltered. Sheltered homeless are those living in a shelter—likely the Nevada Cares Campus. 

However, it doesn’t help that Washoe County removed more than a year of data from its built-for-zero dashboard. Rather than showing data from as far back as June 2021, as it initially did, the dashboard now shows just 12 months of data. Despite requests, county officials refused to expand its dashboard to show a longer timeline. Instead, below the dashboard, a statement was added that people can request historical data by contacting the county.

Those data, which the county started documenting in 2021, also do not show a 50% decrease in the area’s homeless population. They reveal instead a fluctuation averaging around 2,000 homeless people, both sheltered and unsheltered, for about the past two and half years.

The total subpopulation in June of 2021 was 1,845. Today, that number is even greater—1,935. The peak was in February of last year: 2,436. The low was in November at 1,723.

As many commenters noted after the PR blitz that generated inaccurate headlines, what has changed is that the Nevada Cares Campus has effectively taken more people off the street. Many in a shelter environment have jobs, but they are still counted as homeless.

“Washoe County increased shelter capacity significantly from 200 to 1,000 beds between 2008 and 2021,” said Monica DuPea, who runs the Nevada Youth Empowerment Project. “This led to a decrease in unsheltered homelessness. However … this doesn’t necessarily mean homelessness as a whole has been reduced.” 

Has the situation improved? In many ways, yes. There are more service options, and the county—not the City of Reno—is working hard to get people at Cares and other shelters into homes. They are seeing some success. 

Other measures continue to paint a bleak picture of homelessness in the region, however. Those include chronically full shelters, questionable conditions along Fourth Street, rising home prices, a persistent lack of affordable places to live, and, perhaps most dire of all, the ever-rising death rate among those living without a stable residence. 

It is understandable that PR people, politicians and developers want to foster a vision of success—they have a vested interest in painting a positive picture. But doing so by spinning numbers and ignoring the obvious suffering experienced by many in the community minimizes the persistent situation that is homelessness in the Reno area.