LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A new apartment complex is set to provide affordable housing to senior citizens in the valley.
Five acres was conveyed to Clark County in a special ceremony on Thursday.
The project will be located at the northwest corner of Pebble Road and Eastern Avenue and is one of the first projects in the county's "Welcome Home" initiative, which is Clark County's Community Housing Fund.
There will be 195 apartments that the county said will be rented out at below-market rates to seniors whose income falls below 30% of area median income.
According to the county, when looking at 2022 statistics, a single senior making 30% could earn no more than $17,190 a year.
The county said rent won't be more than $460 a month.
The facility will also include a swimming pool, meeting areas, a hair salon, wellness center, exercise room, and community gardens.
County manager Kevin Schiller said the complex has been needed to address affordable housing in the community, which he said was already struggling before the pandemic.
"We started on this almost five and a half years ago in terms of providing dollars that can fill the gaps to support the housing needs and that was before we had COVID," Schiller said. "It's so significant to see the first project and to see the results of our labor and really the template for lots to come."
The county applied for the parcel of land through the Bureau of Land Management and provided $11.8 million in funding for the project.
Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft said it's been a long road to get to this point.
"It's an incredibly complex process, more complex than it ought to be, to get a project like this up and running and allowing residents to move in but it's really exciting when it does," Naft said. "We're learning from lessons and we're making this process smoother than it has been is something that's really important to us because we know we are in a housing process. We know we have a lot of work to do. We know by housing people of all kinds in our community in safe, affordable, and beautiful housing, it lifts everybody up."
The apartment complex is expected to start construction this fall and be finished in early 2025.
Other projects are on the horizon as part of the Welcome Home initiative. Back in September, the county commission approved nearly $120 million in funding to provide more affordable housing options in the valley. The county said that funding will help build or maintain 3,106 units of rental housing for low-income residents.
The county Welcome Home funds are also being used to create a community land trust that could allow up to 150 families to buy homes.
County officials said it's needed and they believe there is currently a shortage of more than 85,000 homes for residents that are considered extremely low-income and very low income, which means earning less than $37,500 a year.
