NLV Section 8 voucher program to be run by Las Vegas housing unit

The North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday voted to strip the failing city housing authority of its Section 8 housing voucher program for the poor and transfer the program to another agency.

The North Las Vegas Housing Authority's nearly 1,400 Section 8 vouchers, which can be used to rent housing, will be transferred to the Las Vegas Housing Authority.

The move is the latest in a series of changes at the North Las Vegas agency and leaves it with 132 non-federally funded, low-income housing units to manage.

Eleven employees, who make up most of the North Las Vegas agency's remaining work force, also will transfer to the Las Vegas agency.

The city of North Las Vegas took over management of the troubled housing authority in December, not long after embattled housing authority CEO Don England resigned.

The housing agency has faced numerous financial and administrative problems in recent years, including criticism over its management of the crumbling Casa Rosa public housing complex for families.

North Las Vegas is in the midst of an audit of the housing authority, which so far has found that the agency failed to spend at least $800,000 on federal housing programs for the poor.

That amount could balloon to $2 million as the audit continues, the city said.

"We're trying to determine how the monies were actually spent," said Gregory Rose, North Las Vegas city manager.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is conducting its own audit of the agency.

A 2007 HUD audit found that the housing authority failed to use $4.4 million in public money that was supposed to be spent to house needy people.

Carl Rowe, executive director of the Las Vegas Housing Authority, which took over management of the North Las Vegas agency's public housing units last year after HUD said they were being incompetently managed, said the North Las Vegas agency got in trouble this time for moving money around.

"They were sucking money from one program to pay for other programs," which is not allowed under federal guidelines, Rowe said.

But Rowe said poor residents who depend on public housing programs shouldn't worry.

"The (Section 8) program is covered," Rowe said. "No residents will be put out on the street."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.