Ensign urges HUD to drop LV complex

Tuesday, April 15, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has urged the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department not to renew its contracts with a local subsidized apartment complex that neighboring property owners complain is a haven for crime.

In an April 8 letter to HUD Secretary Mel Martinez, Ensign recommended instead that residents of the 160-unit Sierra Pointe Apartments at 1064 Sierra Vista Drive be given federal Section 8 housing vouchers "so that they may live elsewhere."

The Sun reported last month that neighboring property owners had petitioned Nevada's congressional delegation to do something about Sierra Pointe, which was the subject of 497 calls to Metro Police last year. The Clark County Housing Authority, which administers the property for HUD, has also said it wants to sever its ties to the property when the current HUD contracts expire later this year.

"While crime near densely populated public housing is not in itself uncommon, the residents of the Sierra Pointe Apartments in this particular case would obviously be much safer by receiving Section 8 vouchers so that they may live elsewhere," Ensign wrote.

"The centralization of public housing has been in most cases an absolute failure and it is time to end this glaring example of a property that does nothing but serve as a crime incubator. It is absolutely unacceptable to me that above-market rents -- provided courtesy of the American taxpayers -- are subsidizing the wholesale decay of a neighborhood and the lives of several innocent people."

Las Vegas HUD office director Kenneth LoBene and Philip Dabney, attorney for property owner Sierra Vista Housing Associates, were unavailable for comment Monday. They defended the property last month, as did Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams.

LoBene and Williams, who have met twice this year with Metro officials and others to discuss alleged problems at Sierra Pointe, said that Sierra Vista is doing all it can to clean up the property and is committed to making improvements.

Among the housing authority's complaints is that Sierra Vista gets above-market rents with HUD's approval, and that the property has a long history of crime and high turnover of on-site property managers.

Sari Mann, Ensign's press secretary in Nevada, said the senator's staff had contacted Betty Turner, the housing authority's executive director.

"The fact that the Clark County Housing Authority no longer wishes to administer the Sierra Pointe Apartments Section 8 contract is clearly telling," Ensign wrote to Martinez. "I agree with Ms. Turner's wishes and respectfully ask that you direct your HUD staff not to renew these contracts through HUD or another housing authority upon expiration and expeditiously offer vouchers for impacted residents.

"I believe your intervention is warranted given the incomprehensible alternative solution offered up by a senior HUD official in Nevada that another housing authority, located 400 miles away in Reno, could administer future subsidies for Sierra Pointe. The subsidies for Sierra Pointe need to end altogether."

Ensign wrote that it was not his intent to "disparage" the owner of Sierra Pointe but that it is "well-documented that repeated attempts to eliminate drug activity in this neighborhood have failed."

"Regardless of whether the landlord/owner is responsible, we should not unconscionably continue to pour federal rent subsidies into the Sierra Pointe Apartments and hope for the best," Ensign wrote.

Mann said that Ensign plans to discuss the Sierra Pointe issue after this month's congressional recess with Martinez and with Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation.

In a letter to the Sun following articles on the apartment complex, Dabney wrote that allegations of criminal activity were overblown because most of the calls to Metro have been for domestic disturbances and "other minor issues unrelated to drugs and gang violence."

"Sierra Pointe has successfully provided safe, clean and decent housing in this troubled neighborhood for more than 15 years," Dabney wrote. "The owners of Sierra Pointe invested more than $3 million renovating the property to the satisfaction of HUD and the Clark County Housing Authority more than 15 years ago.

"Each unit at Sierra Pointe is inspected by the Housing Authority every time a vacancy occurs. The entire property is inspected yearly by the Housing Authority, the state and HUD. The owners of Sierra Pointe have invested substantial sums since then in constant upkeep and maintenance."

Dabney wrote that one reason Sierra Pointe has come under criticism is due to complaints from neighboring property owners who are "upset because Sierra Pointe is probably the only complex in the area that is nearly fully occupied."

"Some of these neighbors figure if they can get rid of Sierra Pointe, all the needy tenants will flock to their dilapidated apartments and fill them up," he wrote.

Dabney also wrote that the housing authority had an "axe to grind" because it has been sued by Sierra Vista over allegations that the county agency diverted prospective tenants to other properties during the late 1990s. A court injunction was issued in 1999 that transferred responsibility to the property manager for screening and processing prospective tenants.

But the housing authority has denied allegations that it steered tenants elsewhere to the financial detriment of Sierra Vista. A Clark County District Court trial in the dispute has been set for June.