County lauds intake center to help unhoused, but federal funding cuts threaten resources

By Michael Lyle

Nevada Current

Clark County officials have recently touted its Navigation Center, a 70-bed noncongregate shelter that stabilizes unhoused people before referring them to other transitional housing programs and treatment, as the model that could help address Southern Nevada’s growing homelessness crisis.

Speaking at an event Wednesday honoring its two-year anniversary since opening the facility, Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom said local officials have discussed replicating the intake center valley wide.

It’s still uncertain how the slashing of federal funding, including major cuts to Medicaid, might undermine the county’s goal to build additional centers and connect unhoused people staying at those facilities to services.

Many of the resources provided through the Navigation Center, like referrals to health care providers or mental health treatment, are paid through various types of federal funding, including Medicaid, Segerblom said.

The county is taking into account “what we will potentially lose” from all the federal cuts, he added.

“We are all terrified, frankly,” Segerblom said. “We are very aware all this is on a house of cards.”

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that was signed into law this month features steep reductions to the social safety net, including major cuts to Medicaid and food benefits.

Nevada stands to lose about  $590 million annually in federal Medicaid funding for the next 10 years and more than 114,500 Nevadans are estimated to lose coverage, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Trump is also proposing additional cuts in his 2026 fiscal budget across various agencies, including slashing U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development budget by more than 40 percent.

The cuts include a $532 million decrease in homeless assistance programs and a consolidation of several grants, like those provided by the federal Continuum of Care program that states use to address homelessness.

John Fernandez, program manager with WC Health, which the county contracts to provide case management at the Navigation Center, said they are still waiting to learn how cuts could impact operations and efforts to refer people to services.

“If they don’t have Medicaid, it will make it difficult for them to receive any mental health providers or even doctors and get some of the assistance they need,” he said.

Stabilizing people

The Navigation Center is located in East Las Vegas in a former Motel 6, which was converted into the 70-bed intake center with semi-private rooms for unhoused people.

During the height of Covid when it wasn’t safe for unhoused people to remain in large, congregate spaces like emergency shelters, the county converted former motels into noncongregate shelters.

Since opening in 2023, the Navigation Center has been used by the county as a starting place for people seeking to exit homelessness. They are usually referred to the facility by either a service provider or law enforcement.

Once at the center, people can stay roughly 30 days, receive required case management twice a week, are assisted with getting vital documents like birth certificates, and begin to get connected to other housing resources or mental health assessments and treatment.

“It gives them a chance to decompress from being unsheltered and then moving on where they can get more intensive wrap-around services and focus on long term housing solutions,” said Brenda Barnes, the social services manager.

The county said that nearly 1,800 people have cycled through the center since it opened.

While county officials said they are tracking what services people are referred to, how many were housed and recidivism rates of how many end up on the streets, they didn’t provide those figures Wednesday.

For Justin Golden, a 37-year-old staying at the Navigation Center, the facility has become the place he has needed to stabilize his life.

After being released from City of Las Vegas jail in early June, he began couch-surfing as he tried to get connected to resources, like getting a new EBT card for his Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and finding employment.

Three weeks ago, while sleeping in a park in Henderson, outreach workers from the Salvation Army referred him to the Navigation Center, he said.

Golden lost his identification when he was arrested and struggled to get new documents since he was released, delaying the process of exiting homelessness.

Less than three weeks into his time at the Navigation Center, he has been able to start collecting the documents needed and plans to transfer to another transitional housing program offered by the county by the end of the month.

Since coming to the center, Golden has shared a room with 27-year-old Steven Martin, who has been experiencing homelessness for nearly a year after moving to Southern Nevada from California.

Because of a criminal record, Martin said he has struggled to find employment and earn enough money to get back on his feet.

He didn’t know where to turn, or where he could get resources, until he was referred to the Navigation Center by a provider. Martin also plans to go to a 90-day transitional housing program after his time is done at the Navigation Center.

Though Fernandez has seen the center has been successful, he said the facility is often at capacity.

The other noncongregate shelters he refers people to for the next part of their efforts to exit homelessness are also reaching capacity.

It will likely create a backlog in the system.

“I think if we could open up another navigation center it would be beneficial for everyone,” he said. “At this point, we are getting to a capacity where we can’t take too many people in. We only have 70 beds here. All the other properties are getting full as well. If we’re not able to transition people in 30 days to another property, then we can’t take more people.”

While opening the navigation center is one of the many steps the county is taking to address the homelessness crisis, the lack of permanent housing remains a fierce and stubborn barrier to addressing homelessness in Southern Nevada, Segerblom said.

“We need more housing,” he said.

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Michael Lyle (MJ to some) is an award-winning journalist with Nevada Current. In addition to covering state and local policy and politics, Michael reports extensively on homelessness and housing policy. He graduated from UNLV with B.A. in Journalism and Media Studies and later earned an M.S. in Communications at Syracuse University.