Nevada has an affordable housing crisis. A new report shows ways to fix it.
The following excerpt is from an article originally published in the The Nevada Independent, Nevada has an affordable housing crisis. A new report shows ways to fix it.
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For Anna Woods, housing isn’t guaranteed.
She’s lived in two student dorms, a room shared with a friend at a house, and now a student apartment with one bathroom for $2,700 a month shared by four roommates who split the costs.
Each week, the 23-year-old UNR undergraduate student checks her bank account to make sure she has enough money to afford rent.
“My first initial savings is definitely depleted,” Woods said. “I feel like a few more big expenses would take me out.”
She isn’t alone.
A recent report from the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities, a statewide nonpartisan policy research center, indicates housing and rental costs in the Silver State are more expensive than ever.
Like Woods, the report shows that more than half of Nevada renters and nearly a quarter of homeowners are cost-burdened, defined as at least 35 percent of gross monthly income spent on housing costs. It comes as average rent in the state’s two largest counties has increased exponentially since 2018 — a more than 55 percent average increase in Clark County and a 46.5 percent jump in Washoe County.
Nevada ranks second in the nation for cost-burdened renters, behind only Florida, and fifth in the country for states with the most excessively cost-burdened homeowners. As the report notes, this isn’t a recent trend.
The lack of supply has also led to Nevada having the least affordable housing units in the country for those living below the poverty level, defined as making 30 percent of the area’s median income.
In 2017, state lawmakers conducted a study on affordable housing issues that noted, “Nevada faces an affordable housing crisis.” The study indicated an imbalance in supply and demand, shaped by population and economic growth — and not much has changed in the eight subsequent years.
“ For 70 consecutive years, Nevada was the fastest-growing state in the nation,” Executive Director of the Guinn Center Jill Tolles said. “Essentially, due to that exponential growth and the impacts of two major pauses, the Great Recession and COVID-19, housing supply just didn't keep up with demand.”
But the report doesn’t just focus on the overwhelming problems. It also offers more than 20 policy options that local governments and state officials can use to address the housing crisis from various avenues.
Those include redeveloping existing vacant properties, working with the federal government to expand land availability, pursuing zoning reform by allowing for multifamily construction and reduced lot sizes, expediting the permitting process and bolstering the state’s construction workforce.
“The good news is this situation is not fixed or unchangeable,” the report states.