Merger talks dwindle at housing agencies

Talks about consolidating the Las Vegas Valley's three independent public housing authorities as a cost-saving measure have basically died with no timeline for a resurrection, officials with the agencies confirmed this week.

"The merger would have made sense, but it's no longer an option on the table from my perspective," said Don England, director of the North Las Vegas Housing Authority.

The Clark County, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas housing authorities are charged with helping provide affordable housing to the poor.

The agencies collectively have a budget of about $107 million and administer more than 9,000 local Section 8 housing vouchers.

Some observers long have argued that combining the agencies would save money needed for housing by curbing staffing, paperwork and other costs. The agencies agreed nearly two years ago to consider the idea.

But the potential consolidation has fallen apart because of questions about who would manage the combined agency, concerns about merging with "troubled" housing authorities and other issues.

"I think it got off on the wrong foot initially," said Carl Rowe, director of the Las Vegas Housing Authority.

"The whole question is on hold."

Rowe said Clark County Housing Authority commissioners were concerned about the merger because they thought the Las Vegas authority might be planning to take over the entire operation.

"None of them liked the idea," he said.

The Las Vegas Housing Authority is the largest of the three agencies, with a budget of about $60 million.

Tim O'Callaghan, chairman of the Clark County Housing Authority's board of commissioners, said commissioners had concerns about "internal problems" at the other agencies.

"It just didn't seem responsible to Clark County as a whole that we would take on some problems we weren't ready to deal with or couldn't handle," he said.

England said he was disappointed by the failure of consolidation talks, particularly in light of funding cuts to public housing agencies nationwide in recent years.

"I was encouraged that we were going to look at this issue," he said.

The upside, Rowe said, is that representatives of each of the three agencies now meet on a regular basis to discuss how to work together to save money and be more efficient.

But he said that he, too, was disappointed about consolidation talks breaking down.

"They could have had a sober discussion, because it's a legitimate question," Rowe said.