LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Governors from around the west — facing shortages of affordable and workforce housing — on Monday discussed hurdles and solutions to a thorny issue that affects all of their states.
At the winter meeting of the Western Governors Association held in Las Vegas, six governors from as far away as Hawai'i discussed how to provide entry-level homes to lower-income residents, asking questions of experts and sharing ideas with each other.
In Nevada, a decades-old law allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell federal land to local governments for a cut-rate price, even if it's worth much more. Since buying land is a significant part of the cost of development, cheaper parcels are an incentive to builders. The catch: The land must be maintained for affordable housing in perpetuity.
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Jon Raby, the state director for the federal Bureau of Land Management, said his agency supports the goal of building more housing.
"We decided to go ahead and institute a policy that allows us to sell at $100 an acre, which is significantly discounted below the fair market value of what would normally go for $800,000 or $1 million an acre to be our contribution to BLM lands playing a role in helping solve the affordable housing crisis that we have in this state," Raby said.
"So we're leaning into it. It's important to us."
Land costs, however, are just one part of the issue, as New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — the incoming chairwoman of the Western Governors Association — explained at an afternoon news conference.
"How do we acquire the land?" she asked. "How do we add new, meaningful building strategies? How do we make sure they are affordable? What financing tools and techniques can we adopt that make sure that a variety of individuals and families get into that mix, don't get left behind?"
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During a panel discussion, governors heard from developer Jess Molasky of Ovation Development about some of the barriers to building, including the length of time to get approvals, the costs of installing utilities such as water, sewer and electrical infrastructure, and gaps in financing for projects. Ovation — a storied Las Vegas company that built the city's first hospital and mall — has 1,000 affordable housing units in the pipeline, Molasky said.
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Lombardo mentioned another idea during the panel discussion — a housing endowment that could help low-income residents with down payments on a house or with rent. That idea could come up for debate when the Nevada Legislature gets started in February.
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