During the period of January 30-31, 2007, Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition conducted the 2007 Southern Nevada Homeless Count. In attempt to end homelessness, the U.S. Congress has required that governments receiving federal funds under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act must conduct regular counts of their homeless population. The County undertook this homeless census and survey for this reason, and for the desire to obtain more accurate and useful data.

It was the intention that the results of this research will assist service providers, policy makers, funding sources, and local, state and federal governments to better understand and plan for the needs of the homeless population by examining current statistics in various geographical contexts. The information for the 2007 Southern Nevada Homeless Census and Survey will hopefully help policy makers and service providers more effectively develop services and programs to serve the County's homeless population.

The census and survey data will help the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition to further understand likely causes contributing factors of homelessness, and thereby, develop the best possible strategies to address remedies and mitigating efforts.

On July 31, 2007, the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition conducted the 2007 Southern Nevada Summer Homeless Census. The goal of this census was to determine if there are significant seasonal changes in the size of the homeless population that require different fiscal or service planning actions in order to respond more effectively.

The Summer Homeless Census is the final component of the 2007 Southern Nevada Homeless Census which took place on January 30-31, 2007. While the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) mandates that a HUD-reportable count be completed in the last week of January, this time period may not be best suited to visually observe the unsheltered homeless in a desert climate like that of Southern Nevada.

Assumptions are held within this community that the Southern Nevada region does see great fluctuations in the size of the homeless population based on the time of year. Therefore, a supplemental sample enumeration of homeless people in Southern Nevada was conducted to investigate the seasonal weather effects of the desert climate on the homeless population.