By Lizzie Ramirez — When Emma Goabel moved into her first apartment, her washer, dryer, dishwasher and back door lock were all broken. 

It took a month for the landlord to fix the appliances and replace the locks. 

“We couldn’t lock our door at night,” said Goabel, 20. “We just locked our bedroom doors at night [and] pray[ed] for the best. They said it wasn’t that big of an issue.”

Many renters face similar issues. But finding a new place with a better landlord isn’t easy in Nevada’s pricey rental market.

A recent report from the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan policy research center, shows that housing unaffordability in Nevada has reached an all-time high. More than half of Nevada renters are considered cost burdened, defined as spending at least 35 percent of their gross monthly income on housing. Statewide rental costs started increasing dramatically relative to income starting in 2020.

This year, the Legislature is responding to the housing crisis by bringing new bills back for consideration, and reviving some of the concepts Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed last session. The Republican governor himself has used one of his five main policy bills to help address the housing issues.

Common themes this session include renter protections, easing construction burdens for new housing and helping first-time homebuyers.

“I do hope to be able to [own a house], but I know the ages at which people are able to buy houses, it’s getting older and older,” Goabel said. “Maybe by the time I’m 40 or 50, I want to have a house.”

Capping rent hikes

Several bills aimed at shielding renters from price hikes have drawn pushback, including AB280, which would cap rent increases at 5 percent annually for tenants who are 62 and older, or who rely on Social Security payments, for a year and a half starting in July. The bill was passed out of committee in late March.

The measure sponsored by Assm. Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) is identical to a bill she proposed in 2023 that passed with some bipartisan support but was vetoed by Lombardo.

“I brought back the same bill. It’s a very simple bill,” Jauregui told The Nevada Independent in an interview. “It is a pilot program to stabilize rent and give those people who need the most assistance, the assistance right now.”

Opponents, including Realtors and landlords, argue that any form of rent control will hurt Nevada’s housing market and have made the policy the focus of a major ad campaign. Instead, they say the Legislature should focus on building more housing units to increase supply and satisfy demand. 

The Nevada Realtors supported the idea of rent caps for seniors last legislative session, but now oppose the bill. 

“It’s no longer a pandemic … we need to let the market figure itself out,” Azim Jessa, an executive board member for the Realtors, said in an interview.

Jessa said he believes the housing market is already fixing itself — rental rates are down 1.4 percent in Southern Nevada and down 9.5 percent in Northern Nevada from July 2023 to December 2024.

But a former employee of Adult Protective Services (APS), who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions, believes AB280 would greatly help the senior population, especially those with disabilities. They cited a client in Fallon who was unable to get their landlord to fix their home and was evicted. 

“It was in complete disarray. There were holes in the roof, holes in the walls, there was a mice infestation. There were mushrooms growing in the walls,” they told The Nevada Independent.

The former employee said the landlord didn’t do anything about the habitability issues and even increased the rent. The client’s husband was bed-bound, causing the client to refuse to leave the home once APS got involved. A week later, the client was hospitalized, and then diagnosed with cancer. The APS employee said the client’s case was still open when they left and that they hope AB280 passes this session “our duty [is to] to protect our elderly, our disabled, as a community.”

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council (NNCLC), a union whose members include laborers in the construction industry, is also lobbying for the bill on behalf of retirees. 

“We’re not doing a good enough job of taking care of our older community and at a national level, we’re actively working to make sure that they’re even worse off personally,” NNCLC President Ross Kinson said.

Tightening renter protections

Similarly, proponents say another bill, AB223, would create safer and healthier living conditions by giving Nevada renters more recourse when a home is in disrepair. The bill was passed out of committee in late March.

This bill would remove vague terms such as “adequately” and “materially” from state law dealing with a landlord’s responsibilities when a home is in disrepair.  Sponsor Assm. Venicia Considine (D-Las Vegas) said it would close loopholes that allow unsafe conditions to persist.

Under the proposal, tenants could also reduce or withhold rent if their home doesn’t comply with habitability laws. The bill also empowers tenants to file a complaint in court of unhealthy living conditions not being fixed by the landlord, and the tenant could use that complaint as a defense against eviction.

AB223 received more than 50 opposition letters, largely through a letter-writing campaign coordinated by the Nevada State Apartment Association. Opponents argued there already is a fair balance between tenants and landlords; one critic wrote that Considine is trying to “impress the more extreme-left wing” — an assertion she rebuked.

“Tenants that are living with no air conditioning, with doors that don’t lock, they’re not left-wing people,” Considine told The Nevada Independent. “They’re working class people that are trying to live in a safe environment.” 

Building more housing

Lawmakers are also focused on speeding up delays in housing development, which stem from building slowdowns during the 2008 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the rising costs of housing materials, zoning regulations, permitting processes and widespread federal land ownership.

Many bills this session are focused around building more housing in nontraditional areas as a solution until more federal land opens up in Nevada.

Another Jauregui measure, AB241, would expedite approval of multifamily homes to be built on commercial properties. The bill was passed out of committee in early April.

Supporters say the measure will help create more walkable, all-encompassing communities, similar to Northern Nevada’s Reno Experience District (RED), which has faced criticism for being unaffordable for the average renter in the city. 

Though NNCLC’s Kinson acknowledged the bill would accelerate housing development, he said he was worried that the bill failed to include project labor agreement requirements or other labor standards.

“We should be building local. We should be buying local. We should be staying local because that helps our local communities continue to grow,” Kinson said.

Opening up more federal land

Another popular approach to the housing shortage is urging the federal government to release federally owned land, which accounts for 85 percent of land in the Silver State. Lombardo advocated for this during his State of the State address.

Lawmakers in both parties support the idea. Jauregui introduced AJR10, urging the federal government to release land for housing. 

However, the Guinn Center warns that it could take years for Congress to release the land, and construction costs will continue to rise in the meantime.

Kinson said continuing to build outward would create additional problems and instead urged lawmakers to support concepts such as a light rail system. AB256, a bill sponsored by Assm. Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Reno), would start the process of creating a regional train system in Nevada. The bill was passed out of committee in late March. 

“Good cities become great cities because they invest in their infrastructure [and] public transit,” Kinson said. 

Incentivizing more projects

Lombardo also introduced his own housing bill, AB540, which would put forward $250 million in state money to support housing projects. This bill also creates a new tier of affordable housing eligibility, known as attainable housing, for homeowners earning between 120 percent and 150 percent of an area’s median household income. The bill has yet to pass out of committee.

When developers undertake affordable and attainable housing, they can tap into certain government incentives and expedited processes for their projects. However, the bill exempts attainable housing developed from the Nevada State Infrastructure Bank funding from prevailing wage requirements — which is a sort of minimum wage for construction workers based on the local standard for that kind of work. 

Wendy Colborne, chief of staff for the Building & Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada, called that problematic. 

“You actually make the problem worse because you’re not paying people enough to live in the very homes that they’re building,” Colborne said. 

Tina Frias, CEO of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, said during the AB540 hearing last week that prevailing wage requirements would make it “extremely difficult” to construct attainable housing. 

Frias contends higher labor costs would increase home prices beyond what low- and middle-income families could afford, pointing to a University of California, Berkeley study that found prevailing wage increases residential construction costs by $94,000 per unit. 

Nevada Realtors are also on board with Lombardo’s bill, arguing that more supply is key to resolving the state’s housing crisis

“It doesn’t matter how much people earn, because there’s not going to be availability or homes for them to be able to buy,” Jessa told The Nevada Independent. “We are really trying to help the working folks in Nevada … We want the people who work in Nevada to be able to buy a home in Nevada, and this is a bill that will get us there.”

Tackling high interest rates

With rising interest rates in the last few years further driving up the cost of buying a home, Sen. Fabian Doñate (D-Las Vegas) is hoping  to minimize those burdens through his bill SB193, which would require the state’s housing division to establish a pilot program to help eligible families buy down the interest rate on mortgage loans. The bill passed out of committee in early March.

To participate, families must meet criteria such as being first-time homebuyers, having a household income not exceeding 160 percent of the county’s median income, and qualifying under certain underwriting standards.

The bill is aimed at helping buyers such as Olivia Claypool, a self-employed cosmetologist who recently bought her first home. New to the process, Claypool was confused about what interest rates were and what role they played when she was signing her mortgage contract. 

Claypool was offered two options — a conventional loan or an unconventional loan. She learned through the experience that if she took out the unconventional loan, her interest rate would have increased by 2 percent, which equates to paying an extra $100,000 over the course of Claypool paying off her mortgage. 

Doñate said his bill will help families who make too much to be eligible for affordable housing, but are still struggling to afford groceries and additional bills they may have. 

If approved, eligible Nevadans would be given between $10,000 and $15,000 to buy down their interest rate.

It’s estimated homeowners would save about $300 per month, and between $50,000 to $100,000 over the course of a 30-year loan, he said. 

“People want to buy a home. They just don’t feel like the economy allows them to, and that’s what we’re trying to do right now,” Doñate said. 

— Reporter Tabitha Mueller contributed to this article. This story is used with permission of The Nevada Independent. Go here for updates to this and other Nevada Independent stories.

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