Area’s affordable housing problem commands imaginative solutions
Faced with an urgent need for more affordable housing in Southern Nevada, leaders in the public and private sectors are stepping up. A recent example, reported by Sun staff writer Bryan Horwath, involves a partnership between Clark County and local homebuilder Kavison Homes to construct 150 houses in the southwestern valley.
Sited on a 15-acre tract along Cactus Avenue east of Buffalo Drive, the homes would be made available to households making up to 80% of the area’s median income and would be priced at $208,000 to $240,000. As Horwath pointed out, houses in the nearby Mountain’s Edge neighborhood are marketed at $450,000.
The public-private venture isn’t a done deal, as it involves a prospective transfer of land from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to Clark County.
But the land transfer is in the works after a unanimous vote by the Clark County Commission to approve the project.
“This is a creative solution that will provide working families with an opportunity to own a home,” Commissioner Justin Jones told Horwath. “We’re already looking at other opportunities like this. We wanted to get this one rolling first to see how the process works and what the interest level is.”
Bravo to the commission and to Kavison Homes owner Todd Stratton for bringing this innovative project to the table.
Recognition of the need for affordable housing is growing in the valley, and with good reason in a community where the median home price of resold homes seems to set a record every month. That was the case in October, when the price hit $410,000 — eclipsing the previous record set in September and skyrocketing 20.5% from just a year prior.
These escalating prices put homeownership out of the reach of many working-class families, which is a problem for everyone in our community. For Las Vegas to continue growing and prospering, it’s a fundamental need to provide affordable housing to the individuals who form the backbone of our economy — resort workers, construction workers, etc.
Right now, we’re a long way from meeting that need. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the region is short of affordable homes for extremely low-income residents by nearly 85,000.
But we’re seeing progress. Local governments are getting more creative and are working with developers to make construction of affordable housing pencil out for them financially. Here are a couple of cases in point:
■ The Showboat Park Apartments, which opened this year on the site of the old Showboat resort grounds. The 344unit complex was made possible through cooperation with local developer Amador “Chi Chi” Bengochea, the city of Las Vegas and other governmental organizations. Those included the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which gave Bengochea offsets on its fees based on differences in water usage between the old resort and the apartment complex. Thanks in part to those offsets, Bengochea was able to build a complex with upscale amenities but with rental prices at below market value.
■ The Cine Apartments, 270-unit affordable housing development being planned for the complex anchored by Maya Cinemas in North Las Vegas. Developers of the $64 million project say 80% of its units will be designated for residents earning no more than 60% of median family income, with rents starting at $730 per month for a one-bedroom unit. According to Zillow, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas is $1,043. The city of North Las Vegas has worked closely with the owner of the Maya property, Moctezuma Esparza, a Southern California film industry executive and social activist, in developing the complex.
These are positive steps forward. We applaud the government leaders, developers and affordable-housing advocates who are doing this pioneering work.