By Michael Lyle, Nevada Current
The number of unhoused people in Nye County, the third largest rural county in the state by population, was slightly lower this year than last, but remains the highest among non-urban Nevada.
Meanwhile, Lyon County – the state’s most populous rural county – and Churchill County both saw nearly double the number of people experiencing homelessness this year, according to recent data.
The Rural Nevada Continuum of Care Point-in-Time Count, conducted once a year to give an annual snapshot of homelessness, found the number of people experiencing homelessness in grew 7% in rural areas.
The count was conducted in January, and compiling the results takes months.
The increase mirrored trends in Nevada’s urban counties – Clark and Washoe – where rates of homelessness have likewise increased.
The rural count tallied 439 adults experiencing homelessness across the 15 rural counties during its 2024 PIT count.
About three-fourths of them – 348 people – were unsheltered at the time, while 91 were in either transitional housing or emergency shelter beds.
Data showed among those residing in shelter at the time, 52% reported a consistent source of income. The report didn’t specify the type of income.
Another 39% of those unsheltered had a consistent source of income while it was unknown for 47% of people.
A third of those counted reported experiencing homelessness chronically, or those who have been unhoused for at least a year and struggle with serious mental illness, substance abuse or a physical disability.
A quarter of the total rural unsheltered population lived in vehicles, and another 11% lived in outdoor encampments.
While the number of unhoused adults is growing in both rural and urban Nevada, the number of rural, school-aged youth experiencing homelessness reached a five-year low with 1,037 counted. It was 1,151 the previous year.
The data showed that the majority of youth, 752, were doubled up and living with other families or individuals while 92 were unsheltered.
In a previous interview with Nevada Current, Michele Fuller-Hallauer, the chief strategist of Winged Wolf Innovations, which coordinates the Rural Nevada Continuum of Care, said counting in the rural areas comes with unique challenges.
When the count was being conducted in January, Fuller-Hallauer said they were making changes to get a better understanding of the numbers, including only counting people staying in motels if rooms were being paid for by social service agencies.
Nye County still has the largest unhoused population among the rurals, though there was a slight decrease from the previous year according to the report.
There were 123 who were experiencing homelessness in Nye at the time of the 2024 count compared to 139 last year. Only 13 people were staying in transitional housing at the time.
The largest portion of the 110 living unsheltered were staying in vehicles or in outdoor encampments at 37% and 23% respectively.
Lyon County reported 112 people experiencing homelessness this year, a 72% jump from the 2023 count when 65 people were counted. The entire population is unsheltered.
The overwhelming majority of people in Lyon County experienced homelessness, 74%, were living in vehicles.
The report found 43% of unhoused folks in Lyon County had a consistent income source.
Churchill County also saw a significant increase with 42 people experiencing homelessness. There were 23 people counted the previous year.
Only four people in Churchill County were staying at an emergency shelter at the time of the count. The rest were unsheltered.
Carson City, which recorded the second largest rural unhoused population in 2023, saw a significant drop in its results from last year.
There were 70 people found during the 2024 PIT count with 39 unsheltered. The count found 130 people the year before.
During previous PIT counts, some counties didn’t provide data.
“We are asking that if they did a canvassing and saw nobody to identify that as a zero rather than an ‘N/A’ so we can truly identify those folks that did something and found zero versus N/A meaning they didn’t do anything,” Fuller-Hallauer told the Current in January.
Pershing County, which did not conduct a count from 2015 through 2023, found six unhoused people this year.
Lincoln, White Pine, Eureka, Lander and Esmeralda counties all reported zero unsheltered people at the time of the count this year.
