2025 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit Preview: A Look at the Movement to End Youth Homelessness

On November 14, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY) and Sands will present the 2025 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit to address the growing youth homelessness crisis in Nevada, which has had one of the highest incidence rates in the nation.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), youth homelessness increased 34% in Clark County and 27% statewide from 2023 to 2024.

While the annual Summit serves as a crucial gathering to propel the state forward in turning around these increases, the event also puts a spotlight on the ongoing work of the Movement to End Youth Homelessness.

The Movement is a coordinated statewide effort that brings nonprofit, business and government leaders together to address youth homelessness from all angles. Year-round efforts lay the groundwork for important conversations, collaborations and updates at the annual Summits.

Because youth homelessness encompasses a complex range of intervening factors and lasting solutions require collaboration by multiple entities, the Movement’s multi-faceted work focuses on transforming systems, support networks and the overall safety net for vulnerable youth –

with the goal of making any incidence of homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.

“The Movement works year-round to tackle the root causes of youth homelessness and drives a complex set of initiatives to appropriately address the needs of vulnerable youth in our state,” Arash Ghafoori, CEO of NPHY, said. “Through the Movement, we’ve built a coordinated statewide effort that has been on the forefront of advocating for the needs of young people facing homelessness and is leading the charge to address the systems-level change required for lasting solutions.”

The Movement works to address systemic change in three core areas:

1. Breaking Down Barriers

Efforts to address systems and processes that contribute to or sustain youth homelessness take many shapes, and advocating for state-level policy change in areas that can help youth chart a pathway out of homelessness is key.

For example, in 2019 the Movement worked with lawmakers to enact a law enabling youth under 25 to obtain vital documents such as birth certificates and state identification cards for free, removing barriers to registering for school, pursuing employment, securing housing and obtaining social services.

Similarly, a 2021 law expanded healthcare access for unaccompanied youth, including homeless minors, by removing barriers to physical, behavioral, dental and mental health care without parental consent.

The Movement also has been working on legislative efforts to break down barriers to public higher education for young people who have experienced homelessness. Though these policy efforts have not yet resulted in concrete legislation, Ghafoori says the increase in knowledge and awareness about youth homelessness among Nevada legislators is still a huge win for driving systemic change.

2. Increasing Access to Resources

The Movement is working on designing and implementing several strategies to increase young people’s access to resources. One of the Movement’s current priorities in this area is supporting the youth homelessness component of Southern Nevada’s coordinated entry system, a federally-mandated process that connects people in need with housing resources.

Due to unintentional barriers created by the initial implementation of this system, youth have experienced wait times of up to six months and exhaustive requirements to get into safe, stable housing, which is first step to exiting homelessness.

NPHY and the Movement are working with young leaders, Clark County and social service agencies to improve and streamline this process for youth to access housing, including creating

new youth-driven assessment tools and redesigning procedures so that the most vulnerable youth are connected to best-fit housing resources more efficiently and effectively.

3. Strengthening Resources

Thanks in part to the Movement’s efforts, federal funding is being infused into Nevada to improve resources for vulnerable youth.

Because of the Movement’s work, NPHY has received a Youth Homelessness Systems Improvement (YHSI) grant from HUD on behalf of the state to coordinate youth homelessness response systems. As a first step, the grant is facilitating creation of regional and statewide Youth Action Boards to ensure youth with lived experiences of homelessness can provide leadership on solutions and systemic change. The YHSI grant also will help fund development of Nevada’s first standalone plan to end youth homelessness.

In addition, the Movement supported the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care in its efforts to obtain another HUD grant for the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program. This initiative helps communities develop and implement a coordinated approach to preventing and ending youth homelessness and expands resources for housing and services for youth.

“The extensive work the Movement is pursuing to address the many facets that contribute to and sustain youth homelessness is geared to transforming the way we deliver services, build support systems and remove systemic barriers,” Ghafoori said. “For community members who want to get involved, we have roles that anyone can fill – from getting involved in advocacy to providing volunteer support. Summit 2025 is the best place to learn more.”

To attend the 2025 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit, visit nphy.org/Summit25.

Summit 2025 is presented by NPHY and Sands with support from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.