Residents of sinking neighborhood have a question: Where’s the money?

Residents who have fought for decades for a resolution to their sinking neighborhood in North Las Vegas are now asking the city to pay its share.

The residents of Windsor Park — a neighborhood in North Las Vegas that was built in the 1960s over an aquifer that is sinking little by little as water is pumped out — gathered Wednesday afternoon in the Macedonia Baptist Church to ask North Las Vegas to account for funds that were generated for the neighborhood as far back as 1999.

This year, the state passed $37 million through Senate Bill 450, which went into effect on July 1, to go toward relocating Windsor Park residents into a new house of the same size in North Las Vegas. State Sen. Dina Neal is now asking North Las Vegas to follow the law.

Barbara Carter, who has lived in Windsor Park for over half a century and sat at the front of Macedonia Baptist Church with other longtime residents, said she is concerned about when the residents will be able to move out of the neighborhood that is being engulfed.

The 90 remaining residents of Windsor Park live in single-family homes with lopsided roofs and cracked foundations.

Three years ago, Chelsea Mendoza moved into Windsor Park without knowing the neighborhood was sinking. With the delay in receiving the funding, she is concerned about when she and her family will be able to move into a safe home.

“It’s frustrating because they passed the law, the state has the funds, why haven’t they given the money?” Mendoza, 25, said in Spanish. “I have three years here, but the rest have so many years waiting and they haven’t given us answers.”

‘We’ll send it’

SB450 required the state to pay a total of $37 million from a combination of state housing funds and coronavirus recovery funds, but North Las Vegas must also send any remaining Windsor Park funds that the city had allocated for the residents.

“As soon as (the state) can tell me where to send the Windsor Park funds, we’ll send it to them,” Will Harty, an assistant city manager for North Las Vegas, told Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I don’t know if (the state is) ready for it yet. They told me they’d get back to me.”

Residents also want to know where the money from a 1999 Fannie Mae fund that was created for the neighborhood to cover moving costs is.

As of Wednesday evening, North Las Vegas said the Fannie Mae fund is now at roughly $2.5 million. But residents said Wednesday that the fund started with $4 million.

Neal, who was the primary sponsor of SB450, said that there is an audit of the funds. When Neal inquired about the money, she said she was told by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that Clark County was working to help North Las Vegas in managing the funds.

Harty denied that the city was made aware of an audit related to funds for Windsor Park.

Neal also said that the Fannie Mae fund is intended to generate $300,000 every year. But Harty said the $300,000 has been misunderstood as interest earned every year.

“It’s not,” he said. When money was borrowed, the city paid interest and didn’t collect money from the fund, he said.

North Las Vegas has committed to transferring the money, Harty said. As of Wednesday evening, he said the city is still waiting to send the remaining Fannie Mae funds to the state, as soon as the state tells them where to send the funds.

“I would love to work towards a resolution for these residents,” he said.

Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0350. Follow @jimi_writes on X.