Clark County approves $120M for affordable housing projects

Clark County voted Tuesday to allocate nearly $120 million to help build or renovate about 3,100 affordable housing units.

The capital originates from the county’s $160 million “Community Housing Fund” created in April in response to the pandemic, and the money — broken up as grants and loans — will be available to developers that need gap financing to supplement tax credits and “other financing resources.”

County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson touted the “Welcome Home” program as the first of its kind in Nevada.

“This is something that has never been done by local government in this state before,” Gibson told reporters after the measure passed unanimously Tuesday. “And it is something that can make an enormous difference.”

Clark County estimates a shortage of more than 85,000 affordable homes for low-income residents.

“It is solving for a group of people a challenge that by no fault of their own they just can’t solve themselves,” said Gibson, adding that the county has the largest shortage of affordable housing per capita in the United States. “It’s just really a milestone event when it comes to solving for affordable housing challenge that we face here.”

The funds will supplement the $800 million total price for the construction of 2,139 new housing units and rehabilitation of an additional 967 already-built units, according to the county.

The 30 projects were chosen from among more than 50 applicants, which went through a stringent selection process.

They include $12.5 million for 276 new units for seniors near Decatur and Rome boulevards just off the 215 Beltway, $4 million for 176 new family apartments at 4000 E. Desert Inn Road, near Lamb Boulevard, and $12 million to renovate 237 units at the Desert Rose Apartments near downtown Las Vegas.

The “Community Housing Fund” comprises multiple tax revenues, including those from legal marijuana, Gibson said.

The “Welcome Home” program will help residents of all ages, said Gibson, noting that the work would begin in a “matter of months.”

“Over the course of time, we really believe that we’re going to be able to grow the program and expand what we can offer, and hopefully, some day, we have home-ownership opportunities in addition to other for-rent opportunities,” he said.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.