Cost of housing at issue

Jennifer Shubinski

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

Providing affordable housing is becoming increasingly difficult in the Las Vegas area, industry officials said Wednesday during a round table discussion.

The discussion -- hosted by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Scott Syphax, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Nehemiah Corp. of California, a privately funded provider of down-payment assistance -- was organized so members of private and nonprofit organizations could discuss how to deal with housing issues facing the valley.

One concern many at the discussion had was the number of seniors in the valley who need, or will need, affordable housing.

"The looming challenge is how to deal with affordable housing for seniors," said audience member Ken LoBene, field office director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In a Census Bureau report released in September, Clark County ranked third in the nation in the number of seniors gained in the first two years of this decade. The population of people 65 and older grew by 16,713 from April 2000 to July 2002, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Poor credit ratings were also a much-discussed topic at the roundtable.

"The credit quality issue is really challenging," Syphax said, as is keeping people able to continue making payments once they have moved into their home.

Many attendees said the rising price of housing makes finding a house they can afford difficult in the valley.

"For a family of three even to make it into a rental (unit) they need to make at least $12 an hour," said audience member Patrick Leary, executive director of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada.

In September the median price of a new home was $208,265 while the median price of a resale home was $174,900, Home Builders Research Inc. reported. Those prices are a 13 percent increase over the same month last year.

Rents for apartments have remained flat over the last year, at an average of $766 per month during the third quarter 2003, brokerage firm CB Richard Ellis reported.

One reason for the roundtable discussion was to introduce the community to the Nehemiah Corp., which since it entered the Las Vegas market about three years ago has given more than $14.1 million in non-repayable grants to low- and moderate-income home buyers.

In that time period, 2,168 home buyers have been given down payment assistance for a new home and 1,954 home buyers were helped to get into pre-owned homes, the Nehemiah Corp. said.

"We are the provider of down payment assistance to 3,000 home buyers every month (nationwide)," Syphax said. "These are people that have decent income, decent credit but don't have families to help."

The average grant amount in the Las Vegas Valley from Nehemiah is $3,427, with a maximum amount of $8,750 and a minimum of $1,240. The average sales price of a home bought with Nehemiah home buyer assistance was $109,923 and the average family income was $50,694.

The Nehemiah Corp. works with home builders and private sellers to provide the assistance to someone who is having trouble buying a home. Nehemiah gives the grant to the homebuyer and the builder, or seller, provides a matching contribution back to Nehemiah. The contributions are not tax deductible.

Syphax said the group works to keep builders or sellers from padding the contribution amount into the price of the home.

But some at the roundtable said groups should increase the monetary amount of down payment assistance, because it often is not enough with rising housing prices. Many also said it only allows buyers to buy homes in less desirable areas, which they are "desperate to get out of" after moving in.

The Nehemiah Corp. also provides community development loans to nonprofit organizations through its Nehemiah Community Reinvestment Fund.

Syphax said the group's new initiative in the Las Vegas area is to make short-term, low interest loans to community and faith-based nonprofit organizations to provide affordable, workforce, special-needs housing, community facilities and economic development to low-income and underserved communities.

"We can change communities block by block, not house by house," said presenter Hazaiah Williams, executive director of the Nehemiah Foundation.

The loans ranging in size from $10,000 to $750,000 will have terms extending up to five years.

Syphax said Nehemiah has not provided any of the short-term loans to groups in the Las Vegas area, and hopes to make connections at Wednesday's discussion.

"This is day one, that's why we're here," he said.