Workforce housing to be discussed

Monday, March 13, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

There was a time when housing in Southern Nevada was so affordable that Clark County School District officials would tell teachers it recruited from other states that they would have no trouble finding a good home in Las Vegas.

"Now the district tells them we'll help you find a good roommate," said Ken Lange, executive director of the Nevada State Education Association, the union representing the district's teachers.

"This is a big problem. Affordable workforce housing affects every sector of Nevada's economy. We want to take a leadership role to bring the people involved in it together."

Today the union is planning to announce a meeting this spring that will bring together 200 educators, developers, lawmakers, builders and others to hammer out workable solutions to the workforce housing shortage.

Lange said tens of thousands of new homes will be needed in the next decade to accommodate the growing number of teachers and others who are paid salaries ranging from $30,000 to $75,000 a year.

Local studies, however, show that good housing in Southern Nevada often is not affordable for many people.

The Lied Institute 2005 Real Estate Roundtable study found the median income for Clark County residents was $56,550 while the median price of a home was $320,000. A household in Clark County would have to earn a combined $100,000 a year to afford the current median- priced home, that study said.

Lange said on many occasions, qualified teachers from other parts of the country have visited Las Vegas, been unable to find affordable housing and turned down job offers.

Other sponsors of the conference include American Nevada Corporation, Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association, the Nevada Community Foundation, ACORN, Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo, city of North Las Vegas and Focus Property Group. American Nevada is owned by the Greenspun family, which owns the Sun.

Homebuilders association spokeswoman Monica Caruso said solutions will have to be innovative.

Proposed solutions, she said, could include creative financing with lower down payments for new homes or rehabilitating houses in older neighborhoods.

Caruso said roadblocks to building local workforce housing have been soaring land prices, government impact fees and zoning restrictions, and rising building costs such as cement, lumber, labor and insurance.

Mike Curzan, chief executive of UniDev in Bethesda, Md., said his company, which has built more than 1,000 workforce units, has addressed such concerns.

"Obtaining land is the key," he said. "Usually you can get land from a school district that is phasing out some older schools. Also, a city or redevelopment agency usually has available land."

UniDev has built workforce housing in Santa Barbara, Calif., where the median price of a home is about $1 million, Curzan said, noting his company also has negotiated with governments to minimize impact fees.

"You do what you can to keep homes as affordable as possible," Curzan said.