The campus for Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services is slated to become a campus for homelessness services as part of a joint project between the state and the resort industry. (Photo: Hugh Jackson/Nevada Current)
A $200 million regional homelessness project backed by the resort industry and partially funded by taxpayers may disrupt existing mental and behavioral health services in Southern Nevada.
Bamboo Sunrise, a Las Vegas-based specialized foster care agency, tells the Nevada Current it fears its residential treatment facility for behaviorally challenged youth in foster care may soon be shuttered by the State of Nevada in order to make way for Campus for Hope, a regional homeless campus.
Additional providers and state agencies may also be displaced by the project, but to what extent has not been made clear by state officials or Campus for Hope.
The potential closures could leave 18 children without care they need. And many mental health advocates believe it would be a step backwards for a state that just last month entered into a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing adequate support for children with behavioral health disabilities.
Campus for Hope plans to take over 26 acres of the 70-acre Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services campus, located at 6161 W. Charleston Blvd, next to the College of Southern Nevada. The State of Nevada owns the property, which includes more than a dozen buildings, most of which were built in the 1960s and 1980s. The state will lease it to a foundation set up by the resort industry to run the homeless campus.
Bamboo Sunrise’s building is leased by Clark County, which has a contract with the nonprofit that allows them to operate there rent free. Neither the state nor county has provided Bamboo Sunrise with any sort of plan or timeline for relocation, according to Executive Director Michael Flynn.
“We were blindsided,” he said, noting that they’d had plans to expand from 12 beds to 24.
Flynn says one state administrator told him they will need to be out of their current space by the end of June, but others have heard it could be as soon as sometime this month.
A second provider, Silver State Adolescent Treatment Center, is also expected to shutter a six-bed residential facility for autistic youth to make room for the homeless campus, but state officials have announced plans to temporarily relocate those children to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children in Boulder City.
Lawmakers asked to scrap plan for autistic girls facility in favor of gaming-backed homeless campus
The impact on the autism program has received more attention from state lawmakers, who last summer allocated $3.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to renovate and expand their facility on the mental health campus to include an additional six beds. The governor’s office canceled that project, and in December asked the legislative Interim Finance Committee to reallocate the funding to unrelated projects. IFC denied the request, saying they were committed to spending the money on behavioral services for youth.
Jack Robb, the chief innovation within the governor’s office, appeared before state lawmakers at an IFC meeting last week to provide an update. He acknowledged that no plan was in place for the 12 foster care youth, saying only that plans are forthcoming.
Flynn tells the Current that Bamboo Sunrise has not been a part of any conversations.
Clark County spokesperson Jennifer Cooper called it “premature” to comment on the Campus for Hope project but said the county has “assurances from the state that services will continue and there will not be disruptions to caseload.”
Robb told lawmakers a long-term solution is expected “in six or eight weeks,” but he did not provide specifics. He said his office wants to use the ARPA funds to look for facilities “that we can acquire and improve” with the goal of having them “up and licensed within a two-year period, within the biennium.”
He added, “I’d love to give you more details but at this point I do not want to slow the process by giving you more details.”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for an interview or to a list of questions submitted for this story.
Private decisions, public funds
On the third-to-last day of the 2023 Legislative Session, Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager introduced an emergency bill to establish a $100 million matching fund to support the development and construction of a “transformational campus” that addresses the root causes of homelessness.
https://nevadacurrent.com/2023/06/04/resort-industry-pitches-regional-homelessness-project-asks-state-for-100-million-match/
Resort industry officials had indicated the proposal was driven by a desire to relocate homeless people away from the tourists on the Las Vegas Strip. Three gaming executives–from Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts–are listed as the principals of the Campus for Hope Foundation, which was established for the project.
After the bill’s speedy journey through the Legislature in June 2023, the Campus for Hope project flew under the radar until a December 2024 IFC meeting. Several lawmakers raised concerns about the planned location of Campus for Hope. In addition to its proximity to CSN, the property is near multiple K-12 schools, and it is miles away from the existing homeless courtyard in Downtown Las Vegas.
A spokesperson for the Campus for Hope project said the West Charleston Boulevard location was recommended by the City of Las Vegas and Clark County and is suitable because it “centrally located, (has) access to transportation, and the space needs to be updated.”
“Campus for Hope will not begin construction until every individual currently living on the site has been relocated to housing that is significantly better than the current buildings,” read the provided statement. “Efforts will continue to ensure that each resident is placed in housing that best meets their specific housing needs.”
The statement cited a shared services agreement between Campus for Hope and the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services stating the latter is responsible for relocating current occupants “on or before June 30, 2025.”
“The parties agree that the population served by these facilities are particularly vulnerable, and interruption in services shall not be caused by such relocation,” read the cited paragraph of the shared services agreement.
Campus for Hope was approved to access the $100 million in matching funds by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development last month. No public hearing or meeting was required for that approval, which GOED announced via a press release on Jan. 16.
Robb is quoted in that release as saying the state “thoughtfully planned the relocation of all the services currently offered.”
The Current submitted a public records request to GOED for the Campus for Hope application but the department has not yet provided the records.
A website for Campus for Hope suggests the campus will have 900 residential beds and more than 300 employees.
Neither the governor’s office nor Campus for Hope responded to requests to clarify which buildings on the existing mental health campus are expected to be impacted and who precisely is getting displaced.
Yeager, who was one of the lawmakers who appeared concerned about the project in December, seemed more chipper about it last week. He said he took part in a meeting about the project and was confident solutions were in the works.
Yeager did not respond to the Current’s request to elaborate on that meeting or provide additional comment.
Lack of services for youth
Mental health advocates recognize there is a need to expand services for the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless. But they question why that has to come at the expense of behavioral services for youth.
“Eliminating these buildings and their services, especially without a thoughtful and thorough plan for relocation, would have a ripple effect on the entire health ecosystem for decades,” said Rebecca Acosta, a pediatric health advocate, during the IFC meeting last week.
Bamboo Sunrise strives for its residential program to be as home-like as possible, since its goal is to eventually transition the children into a home setting. A staffed residential home would be ideal but homeowners associations fight their presence and push them out, says Flynn.
While their building on the mental health campus is aging, the program is working, said Flynn. Since early 2023, they have successfully transitioned 15 children into family homes.
“They are the most vulnerable kids,” he said. “I’ve had kids break windows, put holes in walls. I’ve had to call the fire department to get them off (the roof). … I’ve got 6-year-olds trying to rob a convenience store.”
Kids with these types of behavioral issues don’t do well in an overcrowded setting that feels like a compound. Their flight or fight instincts kick in.
“We want them in a family setting,” says Flynn. “Our (program) is a family setting, even though staff is going in and out. They know the staff, they cook and clean with them. We’re doing all this work to get them to go to an actual family.”
In addition to the 18 residential beds currently on the mental health campus, additional beds tied to other programs were supposed to be on the campus. One, operated by Bamboo Sunrise, was shut down because of financial feasibility problems related to Medicaid. Flynn says they weren’t getting the referrals they were supposed to. Other providers wanted to step in and fill other voids in the behavioral health system, but were told the property was no longer an option, Flynn said.
Flynn feels the state is prioritizing the resort industry, and the resort industry is prioritizing keeping the Strip free of homeless people.
“I’ve never seen the gaming industry or the state invest $100 million in youth mental health,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 found the State of Nevada to be out of compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and failing to provide adequate support for children with behavioral health disabilities. The DOJ on Jan. 3 announced it had reached a settlement with the State of Nevada.
That settlement emphasizes the need for home- and community-based care. Bamboo Sunrise, Silver State Adolescent Treatment Center, and other programs originally planned for the mental health campus are part of that infrastructure.
Tara Raines with the Children’s Advocacy Alliance told lawmakers the state needs to stop being reactive and start being proactive on the issue.
“We were assured that the children’s mental health programs will continue and a plan to make this happen will take priority, however, this felt like an afterthought in response to a public outcry rather than a carefully considered priority,” she said. “This is troubling.”
She added, “This must be an ‘and’ not an ‘or.’”
Cynical as it may be, Flynn said he wonders if the state simply wants nonprofits like his to fail.
“They’ve never given us the proper resources,” he said. “Now we’re having to close the program. They can go back to DOJ and say, ‘We tried. We can’t do it.’”