Clock starts for construction of $200M ‘Campus for Hope’ in Las Vegas

Elected officials shoveled dirt to cap off a ceremonial “groundbreaking” at the future site of the $200 million “Campus for Hope” that will offer temporary housing and social services for underprivileged locals.

A couple dozen protesters who oppose the project as it was proposed stood outside the event Thursday morning near the intersection of Charleston and Jones Boulevards, where the project will be built. They held signs and decried Nevada lawmakers who have approved facets of the development, which is expected to be completed in 2028.

Two of the residents have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to pause the development.

The mood at the ceremony, held inside a spacious and air-conditioned tent, was more jubilant.

“We all should be absolutely excited for today,” Gov. Joe Lombardo said. “This is the perfect partnership of what we’re trying to accomplish in the state of Nevada,” he added.

Lombardo was referring to the “public-private” collaboration between the state and the resort association and other private companies to make the 900-bed resource hub a reality.

The facility, which will sit on about 20 acres of state-owned land, was approved in the 2023 Nevada Legislature. The proposal called for $100 million in public funding to be matched by the private entities.

“This project that brings us here today,” said Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, “has the potential to have the greatest and the longest lasting impact of them all.”

Public funding

Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, along with the state, will fund operational costs. The facility seeks to centralize social services for housing insecure residents.

“An individual who is dealing with homelessness has no idea where the borders are, has no idea where the city and the county meet, and where the resources are,” Lombardo told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The Campus for Hope nonprofit was created to see the project through. The opening of the hub coincides with a rise in homelessness in Southern Nevada and a critical shortage of affordable housing.

Construction is expected to begin later this year after services at a mental health facility on the site are relocated, the nonprofit said.

A census of the Clark County homeless community in January 2024 counted 7,906 people living on the street or staying in public shelters.

That was a 20 percent increase from the previous year’s census and deemed the highest total number of sheltered and unsheltered people counted in a decade. The figures tracked with an upward trend nationally that year, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which requires the census for certain federal funds.

Local officials didn’t conduct a count in 2025, but said they would restart it in 2026.

Lombardo said the public-private funding approach was necessary and propelled the project’s momentum forward.

“Quite often, people depend on the government to fully provide the ability and the authority, and they want the money to go along with it,” he told the Review-Journal. “In this case, we didn’t have the money and could only provide a portion of it.”

‘Bigger and better than ever’

The governor cited a tour he took about a decade ago — before he was elected Clark County sheriff — at the “Haven for Hope” campus in San Antonio, Texas, which inspired the Southern Nevada project.

“It could be done (here),” said Lombardo.

Inaugural Campus for Hope CEO Kim Jefferies previously headed the San Antonio facility.

Haven for Hope has reported a 77 percent reduction of homelessness in the Texas city’s downtown area since it opened in 2010, according to officials. More than 90 percent of its clients had obtained more permanent housing for at least a year.

“I’ve already learned,” Jefferies said Thursday, “that Las Vegas has a way of reinventing itself in big ways, and Campus for Hope is no exception. The model from San Antonio will be reinvented and enhanced and bigger and better than ever in a way that only Vegas can.”

She added: “Campus for Hope is built on the vision that everyone deserves a place to call home and an opportunity to reach their full potential.”

Opponents demand transparency

“Protesters told the Review-Journal that they are seeking transparency about the project and for officials to reconsider the campus’ location and size.”

“This should’ve been open to the public, why is it private?” Gail Johnson said about the event, which wasn’t open to the general population. “They won’t talk to us.”

She cited concerns about increased traffic and public safety.

“It should be maybe 100 beds, not 900,” Johnson added.

James Root, one of two plaintiffs in the District Court suit, suggested more resident input. He said the tax dollars could’ve better been used to fund multiple proven nonprofits.

“Leave the homeless out of it altogether,” he said. “If you were to put 900 apartments here, I would be upset. If you were to put 900 offices here, I would be upset. The sheer size of this facility is ludicrous; it’s ridiculous how big they’re doing it.”

Lombardo said his office has received the complaints. He noted that the government already provides social services in the area.

“It will be a campus of safety, too,” he said. “This is something that’s going to build up the community.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.