Every year, former prisoners participate in state-sponsored reentry programs and receive aid to help them transition into life outside of incarceration, but that help is all for naught if they cannot find housing, Sen. Dina Neal (D-Las Vegas) said.

Supporting housing acquisition for formerly incarcerated people is essential for preventing recidivism and establishing re-entry into the community, Neal said during the bill’s first hearing in late March. She added that the housing protections will also combat the disproportionate effect of mass incarceration on communities and families of color.

As a crowd protested outside of Las Vegas City Hall on Thursday, Mayor Carolyn Goodman defended the city’s efforts to end homelessness, describing them as “humanitarian and compassionate” and pushing back against critics of an ordinance that makes it illegal to sit or lie down in public rights-of-way. Criminal penalties for the ordinance are scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 1.

The Las Vegas City Council has postponed a vote on a proposed ordinance that would allow city officials to set hours for “sidewalk cleaning” during which it would be a misdemeanor to sit or lie down on public rights-of-way, punishable by a $1,000 fine or arrest. The vote on the ordinance, originally scheduled for Wednesday, has been delayed until Jan. 15.

Outreach teams are dedicated to finding people on the streets and connecting them to pathways out of homelessness — most often emergency shelters, drug detox and transitional housing programs. Demand for the MORE teams may change in coming months because of a new ordinance that makes it a misdemeanor to sit or camp in public rights-of-way in parts of the city.

Board Co-Chair Kathi Thomas-Gibson, who is the director of the Office of Community Services for the City of Las Vegas and responsible for providing homeless services, fielded pointed questions from her peers for an ordinance passed by the City Council.

In Southern Nevada there are more people experiencing homelessness on any given night than there are shelter beds or other resources. As a result, the shelters are full most nights of the year and thousands of people sleep on sidewalks, in storm drains and other places where no human should live.

If passed, the ordinance would make it a misdemeanor to camp or sleep in any public right-of-way downtown and in residential areas in cases where beds are available at at the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center or another service provider along the “Corridor of Hope."