Cleaning house

Adrienne Packer

Sunday, March 12, 2000 | 8:45 a.m.

Pilot program

Homeowners who live in the area of the pilot program and are interested in the housing rehabilitation program may call Richard Sevigny in the Clark County Community Resources Management Division at (702) 455-5025.

Richard Sevigny is too good to be true.

Leaning over an artificial wood counter in the dim kitchen of a home on the east side of the Las Vegas Valley, the Clark County housing rehabilitation specialist checks off a makeover list.

The priorities are set. The 20-year-old air conditioner needs to be replaced, as does the roof. The windows should be double-paned for energy conservation and the tattered and warped patio isn't up to snuff.

Cosmetic improvements are next on Sevigny's mind. Both the matted, burnt-orange carpet and 1970s-style linoleum with an avocado-colored pattern must go.

"We'll do landscaping too, does that sound good?" asked Sevigny, who actually waited for a response.

As Sevigny sauntered out the front door into a light drizzle, the Bridgette Way homeowner called to him. He pointed to the home's eaves, where water poured from the roof, and Sevigny nodded. That, too, can be fixed with an interest-free $20,000 loan.

"Rain gutters are no problem," he hollered back to the resident in his thick East Coast accent. "We can put those in easily."

Sevigny has been slapped with the bureaucratic title of Management Analyst II but he's more in line with the idealistic Century 21 commercial in which master chef Emeril Lagasse delivers new home buyers a welcome dish.

Sevigny is a one-man staff assigned to launching a housing rehabilitation pilot program that is paid for with county general funds and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) money.

His sole task is to refurbish old homes and bring them up to code.

Clark County is already short about 80,000 affordable housing units. It can't allow any of its existing affordable housing stock to go to waste. The theory is by keeping homes up, it keeps demands -- and housing costs -- down.

Whether county officials have awakened to the problem of deteriorating neighborhoods too late depends upon who is asked.

"We're behind the times," Sevigny said. "There is slow institutional negligence that would eventually result in slums. We're not that far away."

Sevigny has about $500,000 to work with this year after receiving HUD money and after Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates convinced her colleagues something needed to be done to preserve affordable homes.

Gates said most HUD grants have been used on other projects such as parks and roads that have been higher priorities. It wasn't easy to explain the importance of keeping up affordable homes -- houses that are not public housing but still inexpensive enough for newlyweds, single parents and retirees.

"It's an out of sight, out of mind problem," Gates said. "If you don't deal with it everyday, you're not in tune with the need for it."

The county's pilot program is concentrated in a neighborhood of about 2,500 homes between Nellis Boulevard and Boulder Highway. Eligible homeowners must have annual incomes below 80 percent of the county's median family income of $50,700.

Sevigny said about a dozen homes have been refurbished with various improvements and typically a fresh coat of paint and landscaping, which is done voluntarily by the Boy Scouts of America.

Each homeowner has received a no-interest loan of about $20,000. The loans only need to be paid back if the homeowner sells the house. And Sevigny said after construction crews finish a home, its value increases by at least $20,000.

Sevigny is proud of the work that has been done and offers a broad smile when asked about how residents feel.

"We see a change in their outlook and their attitude," he said. "After we finished a home for a single woman who is a schoolteacher, the first thing I knew she had a big party and invited her family over."

Residents who take part in the program have requested that their names not be released for privacy purposes.

Sevigny's job is rewarding, but it is also a never-ending endeavor. He estimates 100,000 homes are eligible for the program, and whether the funding will be increased or even renewed is uncertain.

HUD community builder Roy Porter's perception of Clark County's progress, however, is much more positive than the officials who have been working to protect older homes.

Porter said Clark County isn't like East Coast communities where houses are 100 years old. Homes that were built in the late 1960s and 1970s are almost considered historic landmarks in Southern Nevada.

The houses might be in need of a paint job and electrical rewiring, but they are far from becoming slums, Porter emphasized.

"They're not trying to play catch-up at all, they're just trying to put a program together," Porter said. "It's a smart approach by the county. They realize this will become a growing problem so they're establishing a program now."

A growing problem it is not, according to Sevigny. It already is a problem and the county's goal to renovate those 100,000 homes probably will never be met.

The county acknowledges the projects will be completed piecemeal, but that's difficult to accept for those who have pushed the program. Sevigny and Gates' frustration only grows when they look across the city boundary.

The city of Las Vegas has had a rehabilitation program since 1978 and spent $2 million fixing up homes last year.

A look across the state border and Sevigny's task seems hopeless.

Phoenix embarked on its first rehabilitation program in 1979 and has since become a model for large cities across the nation. It has built an annual budget of $3.5 million and a staff of 10.

The Arizona city's rehabilitation programs range from simple weather fixes like double-paned windows to completely reconstructing a dilapidated home.

Mike Kearns, Phoenix's housing rehabilitation supervisor, said his department repairs more than 500 homes a year using HUD money and county funds.

"There were significant declines in the condition of neighborhoods and we decided we needed to do something," Kearns said. "We started in a geographic area that was only a few square miles and grew.

"We have a huge investment in housing stock built 75 years ago. It's an uphill battle, but there are changes in property values that any observer would note."

Gates said she plans to renew the county's financial commitment to the housing rehabilitation effort. In addition to the county and HUD money, she intends to ask that a portion of the state's residential transfer taxes be used.

"In my opinion we are far behind the 8-ball on this," Gates said. "If we could allocate $500,000 out of the general fund and use transfer taxes, it will make a significant dent in solving the affordable housing problem."

Meanwhile, Sevigny will use the money available to him. And he will continue to be bombarded with phone calls from interested residents like the man who lives on Bridgette Way.

The resident, retired and living with his wife, said he took a look at his neighbor's refurbished home and dialed the county. Now neighbors on the other side of the renovated house are asking for Sevigny's number.

"It looks like a new house when they're done," said the resident, who took advantage of the county's privacy policy and asked that his name not be used. "I've wanted to make these improvements myself, but I couldn't have ever afforded it. It's too good to be true."

Adrienne Packer covers county government for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2310 or by e-mail at adrienne@lasvegassun.com.

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