Editorial: It’s squalor or the streets

Monday, Sept. 18, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

Apartments that are both well maintained and affordable for people with low incomes are a rarity in Las Vegas. That's why many people living on minimum wage, scant retirement benefits or disability checks are living in places that do not qualify as habitable.

Such places are inevitably inspected by the city or county governments, usually because someone complained, and just as often as not they are shut down.

Sometimes the rental units are so bad the government orders them closed down immediately. Other times the government orders extensive repairs and the landlord, unable or unwilling to spend the money, shuts the units down himself.

Where does that leave the tenant? Desperate to avoid homelessness, he tries to find another place where his monthly $400 government housing voucher will be accepted, or where he can live without the rent being double that of his entire monthly income.

In a story last week, Las Vegas Sun reporter Timothy Pratt talked to several people in this situation, people who are worried about ending up on the streets even though they have incomes. Today's reality is that the average rent for an apartment in Las Vegas exceeds the ability of most low-income wage earners to pay.

We cannot fault government code inspectors for citing uninhabitable buildings. Such places need to be repaired or closed before tragedy strikes in the form of fire or disease.

But we do fault the elected officials of our local governments for not having long ago established a workable housing policy. A large and growing metropolitan area like we have in the Las Vegas Valley should have enough low-income housing. People with incomes should not have to choose between squalor or homelessness.

Other cities and counties in the country have come to terms with their responsibilities to provide sufficient low-income housing. We believe local governments in the Las Vegas Valley should cooperate on a regional policy that would respond to the fact that average rents are now out of reach for so many people.