‘Restructuring’ plea to be pursued

Reeling from a negative federal audit, high staff turnover and cuts in funding, the North Las Vegas Housing Authority has asked for help in "restructuring" that eventually could translate into money from the city.

"I'm going to be frank, it means we may be asking, Should the city step in and subsidize it?" said North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon, who along with three of the four other City Council members also serves on the housing authority's board of commissioners.

Such talks have not yet begun. But the City Council on Wednesday agreed to let city staffers "perform an analysis of available options for restructuring" the agency.

The housing authority is one of three valley public housing agencies charged with helping provide affordable housing to the poor. The others are the Clark County and Las Vegas housing authorities.

The North Las Vegas entity is the smallest of the three agencies, with a budget of about $12 million, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The agency manages 220 public housing units and administers 1,371 Section 8 housing vouchers. The vouchers allow people to rent housing, provided landlords are willing to accept them.

The agency has run into financial and administrative problems in recent years, including difficulty managing its Section 8 program.

A HUD audit, released in September, found that the agency failed to use $4.4 million in public money that was supposed to be spent to house needy people.

The money was earmarked for the agency's Section 8 program, and not using it meant that many of those eligible for vouchers didn't receive them as quickly as they should have.

The audit looked at the authority's program from January 2005 through March 31, 2007.

Don England, director of the North Las Vegas agency, said the issue has been addressed and that the housing authority's Section 8 program is "now 95 percent leased up."

He blamed the agency's problems on funding cuts from HUD.

"The federal government has been shorting monies to all housing authorities for years."

This year, HUD provided the North Las Vegas agency only 82 percent of the funding it should have, he said.

Because of similar cuts over the past several years, England contended, the North Las Vegas agency has not been able to hire and retain enough staff to adequately manage its operations. It also has had difficulty attracting top-notch managers.

"Obviously, we need to correct the problems. But they've got us in a Catch-22 situation."

England and others believe HUD is trying to force smaller housing authorities out of business.

"HUD has made it clear that is one of their goals," Montandon said, adding that a HUD official told him the North Las Vegas agency would be "squeezed" until it no longer exists.

Ken LoBene, field office director for the Las Vegas HUD office, admitted that small housing authorities would "have to find ways to not be so reliant on HUD dollars."

But he said the small agencies would be "forced to change, not to close."

"National budget realities make it extremely difficult for a small housing authority to compete any longer," he said. "Long term, I don't think anybody has any answers right now."

England and others thought the answer to the agency's woes might come by consolidating with the other two local public housing agencies, a move favored by those who believe such a merger would save money that could be put toward housing.

But consolidation talks broke down because of questions about who would manage the combined agency and concerns about the merger voiced by the healthier Clark County Housing Authority, among other issues.

Montandon said the city will do what it can to help the North Las Vegas Housing Authority.

"As a city, we recognize that the housing authority is really important because the people who live there are human beings," he said. "We want to see it survive."