LAS VEGAS — Maurice Clark huddled in his tent along dusty railroad tracks as two homeless-outreach workers began asking him questions to determine whether he would qualify for free or subsidized housing.
Did he use drugs? Had he ever been in jail? How many times had he been to an emergency room? Had he been attacked on the streets? Tried to harm himself? Engaged in sex for money?
Clark didn’t feel comfortable being honest with the two surveyors he’d never met before, who were flanked by police officers as they recorded his responses from a questionnaire on a tablet.
“I’ve done some crazy things to survive, but I’m, like, I’m going to say no because there’s these officers right there,” he said, recalling the encounter on a fall afternoon outside his tent.
“I’m a Black man in America, so asking this stuff hits a little bit different.”
National homelessness experts …