Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Las Vegas in role of landlord?

Las Vegas would become the landlord of one of the city's most notorious slums under a plan to purchase the now-shuttered Monterey Villas apartment complex and use it to provide affordable housing.

Although the city has never been a residential landlord, some say that with the area in an affordable housing crunch, it needs to try new programs and approaches.

This project, if approved, would be the latest of several city programs launched to help make homes affordable for working families. Others include mortgage down payment grants, mortgage and rental assistance for teachers, and grants for nonprofit organizations to launch their own affordable housing projects.

The Monterey Villas plan not only would take the city in a new direction - that as Las Vegans' landlord - but it would also be the city's most expensive affordable housing-related program to date.

The proposal, however, still faces some hurdles.

The City Council will decide today whether to purchase Monterey Villas for $5 million. The current owner bought the 80-unit, 1.3-acre complex for $2.4 million in 2003.

The price is not based on an appraisal, a fact that could give some council members pause. Top city directors, however, said the price was in line with land values in the area. In addition, Deputy City Manager Orlando Sanchez said there is concern that an appraisal could put the land's value at more than $5 million, potentially upping the cost.

The $5 million would come from new tax revenue from the city's redevelopment areas, money that can be spent only on affordable housing projects.

An additional $500,000 would be spent to renovate Monterey Villas, Sanchez said.

Until the city closed Monterey Villas last year, its litany of problems included seeping sewage and drug dealing.

The complex closed in August after the owner refused to get a new business license, but the complex had been in trouble even before then. In June, unsanitary conditions forced the city to close 23 of the apartments, and in July, a police raid netted marijuana, crack cocaine and a handgun.

Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, whose ward includes the complex, said even though she believes the land is worth $5 million, she wants to see an appraisal before voting on the proposal.

Even if the council supports the purchase, the city might not end up with Monterey Villas.

The property is in the process of being sold to a private party, and the city is waiting to see whether that deal goes through, Sanchez said.

Tarkanian said she suggested that the city look into buying Monterey Villas when she heard it was for sale.

"I asked if we could look at it for affordable housing," Tarkanian said. "As we're facing problems we have never before faced, we need to try new things."

Tarkanian pointed to the city's housing and rental assistance program for teachers, which has yet to find any takers, as another way city leaders are trying to make homes affordable for working families.

Mayor Oscar Goodman would not comment on the proposal, expressing concern that anything he said could affect the cost of the deal. But he said that the city should work to find more affordable housing.

"It makes sense for the city to do everything it can to foster affordable and attainable housing," Goodman said. "It's to help the teachers and nurses and firefighters, the backbone of our community."

The city's list of affordable housing programs includes several aimed at immediate and direct assistance, as well as some with a longer-term impact.

Las Vegas has spent more than $600,000 on seven properties in West Las Vegas, and Sanchez expects the city to acquire another four or five sites within the next few weeks through a county tax sale. Those properties will be packaged and sold to a developer to build affordable housing, Sanchez said.

Another 600 households have been helped with down payment and rental assistance programs, and the city recently expanded its program offering housing grants to teachers .

Other local governments in the Las Vegas Valley have helped nonprofit groups with affordable housing projects, or plan to work to set aside federal land for affordable housing. But if Las Vegas becomes the owner of Monterey Villas, it would be the first city-owned apartment building in the valley.

Las Vegas Housing Authority Executive Director Parviz Ghadiri, whose agency has two affordable housing projects under construction and a third in the planning stages, lauded the Monterey Villas plan.

"We need this kind of housing," he said, noting that some households earn too much to qualify for traditional Housing Authority apartments but not enough to afford the increasingly expensive homes on the market.

The Monterey Villas complex and the Housing Authority projects would be available for households with an annual income in the $30,000s and $40,000s, he said.

A year ago, a Clark County growth task force identified affordable housing as a top need for the valley, where the average price for a resale home is more than $280,000.

Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with the Las Vegas research firm Applied Analysis, has studied the local affordable housing issue and said anything that local governments can do will help.

Even so, he said that Monterey Villas' 80 apartments, "while a meaningful step forward," also could be viewed as being "like throwing a bucket of water in the ocean."

archive