Affordable housing sites scouted downtown

Erin Neff

Friday, Sept. 29, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

As Alex Guillen hopped off a CAT bus on East Fremont Street Thursday afternoon, his gaze turned down to the crumbling sidewalk in front of him, and he didn't look up at the surroundings.

That's because for Guillen, a busboy at a downtown restaurant, there isn't much worth looking at in this, his new neighborhood.

"Things are just so rundown here," said the 22-year-old recent arrival from Los Angeles, slinging his apron over his bare shoulder. "I just go to work and come home and try not to think about the surroundings too much."

But long-forgotten pockets of despair like Guillen's neighborhood east of downtown will be getting some attention Monday from people able to make a difference, and pledging millions to do so.

Henry Cisneros, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and executives of Kaufman and Broad Home Corp. of Los Angeles will tour downtown Las Vegas looking for prime spots to build hundreds of affordable homes.

"This could be as big as anything happening downtown," Mayor Oscar Goodman said Thursday. "We're trying to look at revitalizing areas that have been neglected."

Kaufman and Broad and Cisneros have partnered in a venture called American CityVista, which aims to build large distinctive communities in areas where new residential development has not occurred in recent years.

The partnership is expected to result in 2,000 new homes a year for the next three years in cities in California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado, which have good housing markets but a lack of moderately priced offerings.

"The demand for homes in central neighborhoods, or 'infill housing,' is at an all-time high," Cisneros said in a statement last month to announce the project. "Nationally, there is great momentum for new development in central cities, and city leaders recognize that large-scale homeownership provides community stability."

But home ownership for many in Las Vegas is still an unattainable American dream.

Roughly 20,500 new homes will be sold this year in Las Vegas at an average price of $156,000. Another 33,000 existing homes will be sold at an average of $130,000, leaving a gap in affordable units.

Ultimately Goodman hopes to see new self-sufficient neighborhoods emerge throughout downtown, similar to the ethnic enclaves he remembers growing up with in Philadelphia.

Decent housing is the first step in that mix, he said, with services and retail outlets owned and operated by residents springing up next.

Cisneros, former president of Univision Communications, also will be in Las Vegas on Monday stumping for votes for Al Gore in the Hispanic community. He has previously said one of the goals of American CityVista is to create the type of neighborhood Goodman remembers -- a community where residents become advocates for themselves and have a pride of ownership that helps spark additional revitalization.

American CityVista's projects will target a variety of demographic markets, including black, Hispanic and immigrant home buyers.

None of the specific details about the project in Las Vegas have been released. But Monday's tour, led by Goodman, will be one of the first steps to identify sites and plan the neighborhoods.