Recapping the 2025 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit Presented by Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth and Sands

The 2025 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit presented by Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY) and Sands on Nov.14 gathered statewide leaders to address Nevada’s rising youth homelessness rates, changing policies that are impacting vulnerable youth and the ground work needed to begin building Nevada’s first standalone plan to end youth homelessness.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, youth homelessness in Clark County increased 34% from 2023 to 2024. Statewide, the number of young people experiencing homelessness increased by 27% from 2023 to 2024.

“The emotional youth stories, important data and insights, and meaningful discussion at Summit 2025 provided great inspiration to continue driving our momentum toward ensuring safety nets are in place for our state’s most vulnerable youth,” Arash Ghafoori, CEO of NPHY, said. “We have more collaboration, youth involvement and critical insights than ever – and the urgency is greater than ever – as youth face mounting challenges to overcoming homelessness. With what we’re building, we’re in a promising position to address obstacles and accelerate solutions as we move into developing the plan to end youth homelessness in 2026.”

The following chronicles the key moments from Summit 2025.

Benny Tso, chairman of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, opened the 2025 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit with an overview of the local land, his personal connection to youth homelessness and acknowledgement of the contributions of indigenous people.

Taisacan Hall, a former youth with lived experience of homelessness and current lived experience specialist at Nevada Homeless Alliance, emceed Summit 2025. A veteran of many Summits as a presenter and performer, Taisacan was the recipient of the 2020 Sheldon G. and Dr. Miriam Adelson Corporate Citizenship Award during her time working for Sands as part of the company’s Young Achievers Program in collaboration with NPHY.

Ron Reese, senior vice president of global communications and corporate affairs at Sands, welcomed Summit 2025 attendees and provided perspective on how far the Movement to End Youth Homelessness has come since its beginning in 2017.

Creatively incorporating the voices and stories of youth with lived experience with homelessness is always a major component of the Summits. This year, Southern Nevada Youth Action Board secretary and youth advocate, Peaches, performed two original songs with lyrics depicting her journey.

Nariya and Ss’Vaya, NPHY program participants and youth advocates, performed a spoken word portrayal of the fear that was created by homelessness and its myriad of experiences.

“Act boldly. Build wisely.” is the mantra for the Movement to End Youth Homelessness, Ghafoori said in his update on the state of youth homelessness in Nevada and progress made over the past year.

Milestones have included opening new youth housing facilities in northern and southern Nevada;

“nuts-and-bolts” system improvements through the launch of additional youth housing and coordinated entry programs; introduction of youth action boards to guide statewide work; and completion of the first statewide study to assess youth homelessness.

Members of the Southern Nevada Youth Action Board provided an update on the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program, an $8.5 million investment in Clark County’s youth homelessness system that is driving project direction, design, evaluation and governance.

Dr. Dominique Mikell Montgomery, assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Social Work, and Melissa Jacobowitz, chief of impact, systems and policy at NPHY, updated attendees on the Youth Experiencing Homelessness Statewide Study, which was fielded to understand prevalence, characteristics, intervention needs, current system supports and gaps in existing solutions.

The study found that previous homeless youth counts may have been vastly underestimated. In 2023, the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) counted 2,868 Nevada homeless youth who accessed homelessness services, and found that when applying national prevalence numbers to Nevada demographic data, the count could be more than 10 times greater – up to 33,433 homeless youth.

In stark contrast to the numbers of homeless youth, Nevada has approximately 430 beds dedicated to youth experiencing homelessness available on any given night, and none in Nevada’s 15 rural counties. According to the study, it is estimated that the state requires at least 1,000 additional permanent housing units to address the needs of youth experiencing homelessness.

Ghafoori provided updates on NPHY and the Movement’s statewide projects currently ongoing under the Youth Homelessness System Improvement (YHSI) initiative, which coordinates youth homelessness approaches and response systems in Nevada. One of its first steps was to facilitate the creation of regional and statewide Youth Action Boards to ensure youth with lived experiences of homelessness can provide leadership on solutions and systemic change.

Kessa Lee, community engagement director at Reno’s Eddy House, and youth leader Azay shared updates on the Youth Action Board currently being formed in Washoe County, and members of the Southern Nevada Youth Action Board talked about their purpose and experiences in creating a space where youth can share their voices and help inform solutions.

The Summit’s creative centerpiece was the keynote youth StorySLAM featuring young leaders with lived experience of homelessness who performed spoken pieces they prepared with mentoring by faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and storytelling expert Dayvid Figler.

“As Dayvid Figler shared on stage, storytelling is the oldest creative art form, and we used that impetus to provide an engaging depiction of the inspirations that have helped youth process or overcome the negative experiences they encountered,” Ghafoori said. “From raw emotional accounts to anecdotes about the inspirational people in their lives, the seven youth who bravely shared their stories gave Summit attendees big motivation to charge forward.”

The afternoon featured a discussion on changes in federal youth homelessness policies with insights from Darla Bardine, executive director of National Network for Youth. Bardine then joined a panel discussion with Miles Dickson, president and CEO of Nevada GrantLab; Punam Mathur, writer, trainer and leader of Punam Mathur, LLC; Brenda Barnes, manager, community support for Clark County Social Services; and Shelly Aguilar, social services chief of the Nevada Department of Human Services, to consider funding avenues and ideas for Nevada to address changes at the federal level.

Summit 2025 was presented by NPHY and Sands with support from the UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. To learn more, visit https://nphy.org/themovement/.