Lawmakers were told Tuesday that affordable housing is a crisis in Nevada now.
Nevada Rural Housing Authority Director Bill Brewer said that inflation, labor costs and demand are driving prices through the roof. He said the authority is trying to build a 60-unit complex in Mesquite but the price has gone up $3 million in just the last 100 days.
“That makes it really difficult to meet the needs of rural Nevadans.”
But some of the strongest comments came from two members of the joint interim Government Affairs Committee.
“We’ve got families all over rural Nevada living in camp trailers,” said Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka. “That really isn’t a home. They’re lucky to have electricity and plumbing in them.”
He said there are just 30 buildable lots in Fallon right now.
He was joined by Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, who said it isn’t just the poor with an average monthly income at or below 60 percent of the area median. She said rising prices caused by the demand as more and more people move to Nevada is making those with upward of 80 percent of median income unable to afford rent now.
Christine Hess of the Nevada Housing Commission said the percentage of people paying more than 30 percent of their monthly income just for rent is more than 80 percent in hotspots like the Reno area.
Heidi McKendree of the Reno Housing Authority said rents have gone up 91 percent to more than $1,200 a month in the Reno area since 2017.
Brewer along with Lewis Jordan of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority and McKendree all told the joint Governmental Affairs Committee that, while money isn’t the only solution, it’s a vital component.
Goicoechea said for some small communities, infrastructure to support housing construction is a serious problem and fixing that will take money that small communities don’t have as well.
Brewer said lack of rural housing is also hurting potential development with some companies interested in locating to Nevada pulling out because there’s no housing for their workers.
Jordan said the 40-year-old formula for determining how many Section 8 vouchers Nevada gets must also be amended. As an example, he said Nevada has about the same population as Chicago, just over 3 million, but receives just 13,000 vouchers to help people afford rent while Chicago received some 50,000 vouchers. He said the existing formula penalizes rapidly growing states like Nevada.
All urged support for Gov. Steve Sisolak’s plan to provide up to $300 million in bonding capacity to support affordable housing projects and his $500 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for his “Home Means Nevada” initiative that is intended to benefit up to 13,000 homes and apartments across the state.
