Three projects will cut waiting lists for apartments

Diana Sahagun

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 11:20 a.m.

In the next 12 months North Las Vegas will gain almost 200 new housing units for low-income senior citizens who are now languishing on waiting lists.

Three major housing projects are opening this year, offering some help to the North Las Vegas Housing Authority. Hundreds of seniors are on the housing authority's waiting list, and their wait now is projected to be six months to a year for smaller apartments and a year to 18 months for larger units.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, more seniors have moved into the Las Vegas Valley over the past five years than any other area in the country. From 1998 to 1999 the number of retirees coming to the valley increased by 26 percent. There are now about 236,000 seniors residing in the valley.

The growth has left many seniors without affordable housing.

Nevada HAND, a nonprofit housing development company, will open the city's first new senior housing complex next month. Buena Vista Springs III, located at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Helen Avenue, will offer 36 one-bedroom apartments and 20 two-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors.

Michael Mullin, president of the organization, said seniors are already signing up to lease the units.

The Owens Senior Project, helped along by the city's redevelopment agency, will open a 72-unit senior complex at Owens Avenue and Davis Place in July. The $4.7 million project received 3.9 acres from the city's redevelopment agency.

The developers are a partnership between Alliance Property Group, Kaufman & Broad, and the Community Development Program Center of Nevada.

The complex will offer 60 one-bedroom units and 12 two-bedroom units as well as a community center. Seniors will qualify according to their monthly income.

Former Las Vegas City Councilman Frank Hawkins, the executive director of the nonprofit group Community Development Center, expects the units to be completely filled.

"I think it was the City Council's original goal to put some senior housing in there, and we're just thankful we were selected," Hawkins said. "It takes a piece of property that has been vacant for many years and provides a need."

The housing will look similar to Whispering Timbers, a complex being built by Hawkins' group at the corner of Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards.

The Salvation Army will follow soon thereafter, opening the first senior housing project of its kind in the Las Vegas Valley by the end of the year. The 60-unit Silvercrest will be funded by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant.

The $5.2 million grant awarded in 1999 will provide almost $4 million to build the complex and $150,000 a year for rental assistance over five years.

The complex will be located next to the Salvation Army at 2828 E. Cheyenne Ave. Seniors will pay 30 percent of their total income for rent on the one-bedroom units.

Lt. Jim Sullivan of the Salvation Army estimates ground will be broken on the project in March.

"We're very excited. We think there is a real need, particularly in the North Las Vegas area," Sullivan said.

"This will be an excellent project, and we hope to do more than just provide a place to live. We want to do some things for the seniors that will keep them active."