LETTER: Rent increases are too much for many Nevadans to bear

I’m a single, working mother who worked very hard to pull my family out of poverty. Every extra dollar in income that I earn goes straight to these constant and unrelenting rent increases.

Every time that I renew my lease, the rent goes up. In the past five years that has equaled nearly a $1,000 increase, from $900 a month in 2018 to $1,800 in the past year. To keep up, the average person would need to double his or her income, something that isn’t possible for the majority of the population. I am no longer in poverty by measurement standards, but because of housing costs I still find myself on the cusp of homelessness.

For so many families, there is no path upward. These rent prices — while a boon for landlords and corporations — are holding down the many people who can no longer change their families’ circumstances. With costs rising astronomically each year, the only path left is down. There is no assistance for many of these people because assistance programs are guided by official poverty measurements that do not take rent into account. A family of two earning $15 an hour is not in poverty according to the poverty guidelines, but they certainly cannot afford a single unit that’s on the market today.

Senate Bill 426 would alleviate some of this burden. It would do nothing to decrease already inflated housing prices, but it would prevent landlords from doubling rent prices in such a short amount of time again.