Lombardo approves $25M more for North Las Vegas housing project
Gov. Joe Lombardo approved spending an additional $25 million on a program to build homes for residents of a sunken North Las Vegas neighborhood.
Lombardo on Thursday signed a bill that allocates more money to develop a new subdivision for residents of Windsor Park, a historically Black neighborhood that has grappled for decades with widespread structural damage.
Nevada lawmakers passed the bill during a special session of the Legislature that ended Wednesday night.
Lombardo had signed a bill in 2023 that allocated $37 million for the project, and construction of the new housing tract, along Carey Avenue just west of Martin Luther King Boulevard, has already started.
The bill, introduced by State Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, allowed Windsor Park homeowners to exchange their houses for the newly built ones nearby.
Project plans approved by the city called for a 93-lot subdivision, and the developer’s $37 million contract with the Nevada Housing Division stipulated the construction of up to 93 single-family homes, records show.
Neal told lawmakers last Friday that there was only enough money, under the previously approved legislation, to build 59 houses.
Windsor Park was built in the 1960s over geological faults, and its homes, roads and utilities started sinking decades ago after groundwater was pumped from an aquifer.
The neighborhood, near North Las Vegas Airport, is now laced with empty lots, cracked roads and damaged houses.
Last year, the Housing Division awarded the contract to develop the project to Community Development Programs Center of Nevada, a nonprofit affordable-housing firm led by former Las Vegas councilman and Raiders player Frank Hawkins.
North Las Vegas’ Planning Commission approved his project plans this past June, followed by the City Council’s approval in July.
The bulk of the initial project funding, at $25 million, was allocated from federal COVID relief funds, while the remaining $12 million came from the state.
Earlier this year, during Nevada’s regular lawmaking session, Neal sponsored a bill that sought an additional $26 million from the state for the project, but the measure ultimately fizzled out.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
