Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposal for addressing Nevada’s affordable housing crisis includes down payment and rental assistance for working families and incentives for homebuilders, the Republican governor said Monday.

His legislation, called the Nevada Housing Access and Attainability Act, would create the Nevada Attainable Housing Fund and put forward $250 million in state resources to support more than $1 billion in housing through grants, loans and rebates.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Lombardo said the first of his five priority pieces of legislation came out of the concerns constituents have about the future of Nevada’s housing market.

“I think it is the governor’s role to engage in that,” he said in his office near Harry Reid International Airport. “If we have the ability to incentivize or abate or provide, we need to be in the business. That’s what the intent of that act is.”

The governor’s bill text was not available Monday evening but is expected to be published soon. Other bills on education, health, crime and economic development are also pending. The bills received exemptions that allow them to be introduced after Monday’s deadline for most other legislation considered this legislative session.

Lombardo proposes expanding affordable housing eligibility to households earning up to 150 percent of the area median income. He said another incentive program would address low-income earners making 60 percent of the area median income.

Clark County’s median household income is $73,845, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The 150-percent ceiling is intended to help Nevada’s workforce, including teachers and first responders, and the fund will help families cover down payments or rent, Lombardo said.

Lombardo’s bill would also create a council to provide oversight of the Nevada Attainable Housing Fund.

Local agencies to ID recipients

Under the legislation, the state would match local grant funds from local agencies, according to Lombardo.

“It’s a little bit easier to identify the people in need at the local level versus the state level, and so they could do all that due diligence, and we can provide matching funds to address that,” the governor said.

His bill also aims to provide incentives to homebuilders through the Nevada State Infrastructure Bank and low-interest loans, he said.

Attainable housing projects funded through the Nevada Attainable Housing Fund would be exempt from prevailing wage requirements, which are the minimum hourly rate that workers must be paid in public works projects.

The prevailing wage varies by region in Nevada and job. A cement mason in Clark County, for instance, receives a prevailing hourly wage of $68.81, according to a report from the State of Nevada Department of Business & Industry Office of the Labor Commissioner.

Lombardo’s bill includes a preference but not a requirement for paying prevailing wages, in an effort to encourage fair labor practices while maintaining cost efficiency and give flexibility for developers, according to the governor’s office.

It also calls for expedited review and permitting processes for attainable housing projects, as well as streamlining the approval of contractors’ licenses in rural areas, according to the governor’s office.

His proposal is just one of the housing-related bills on the table this session, as legislators try to find solutions to a longstanding housing crisis that has plagued the Silver State.

Las Vegas Valley residents face an affordable housing crisis caused by elevated interest rates, a slowdown in building, a lack of buildable land and increased construction and labor costs.

Nevada is short more than 78,000 affordable rental units, and the urban area is landlocked with 88 percent of Clark County controlled by the federal government.

Legislative Democrats have re-introduced bills the governor vetoed last session, including authorizing rent control for seniors and those with disabilities, and putting limits on land purchases by out-of-state corporations.

“Under Joe Lombardo, Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and its ongoing housing crisis is leading to skyrocketing eviction rates and homelessness,” Tai Sims, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party, said in a statement. “Despite this, Joe Lombardo still refuses to offer a plan that holds large corporate investors accountable and limits their ability to buy up housing stock and artificially increase costs, leaving everyday Nevadans with little to no affordable options. The cost to buy a home is now at record highs in Nevada, but when Joe Lombardo had the opportunity to sign legislation that would lower rent costs and keep more Nevadans in their homes, he vetoed the bills. He owns Nevada’s housing crisis.”

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com and McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah and @mckenna_ross_ on X.