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State leaders are seeking to establish a wide-ranging homelessness assistance and prevention fund to build out supportive services in Southern Nevada through a project that could leverage as much as $200 million from the state, the gaming industry and other partners.
Sources said the measure is a joint effort between Gov. Joe Lombardo, Democratic leadership in the Legislature and the gaming industry. The funding mechanism comes in the form of a bill (AB528) introduced as an emergency request from Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) Friday with fewer than four days left in the Legislature’s 120-day session. The measure is up for a hearing in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee on Saturday.
Under the measure, the state would appropriate $100 million to a new “Homelessness Support Services Matching Account,” which could be used to provide awards to a developer that pledges at least a $75 million capital investment for the construction of a project meant to help individuals and families experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness through services including emergency shelters, navigation centers, health care, job training and employment assistance, transitional housing, integrated social services and community education and engagement.
It’s a project that sources said would build upon existing homelessness services in Clark County and work with local nonprofits to further develop services aimed at addressing the root causes of homelessness. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because the bill had not yet been formally presented to lawmakers.
A 2022 Homeless Census conducted by Clark County found more than 5,600 people living in shelters or on the streets and estimated that nearly 14,000 people experienced homelessness in Southern Nevada at some point during the year.
As part of that plan, sources close to the project said $100 million could come from the gaming industry with other potential partners. That money would double the proposed $100 million in state money appropriated in AB528.
The bill would require the project’s total cost to be at least $150 million and have a nine-person board of directors to provide oversight. Under the bill, none of the board members could be an elected official, and there would be an advisory committee made up of nonprofits, community members and other groups involved in addressing homelessness. Sources said no specific location has been picked yet, and the bill is aimed at creating a mechanism to establish the project.
Though the details of the project have not been solidified because the first step is securing the funding via the bill’s passage, sources close to the proposed project said it would be similar to the Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas, a place where people experiencing homelessness can go to receive shelter, housing and skill development along with counseling and wrap-around case management with an “emphasis toward addressing the root causes of homelessness.”
San Antonio’s Haven for Hope features a low-barrier, safe sleeping program that offers shelter and basic resources and a center that offers services and more traditional enclosed shelter space.
Sources said the Southern Nevada project would operate as a hub-and-spoke model that would incorporate existing service providers as well as offer permanent supportive housing, a central campus for services and transitional housing, along with other services, shelters and resources.
Like a handful of other major deals — including a new potential stadium in Las Vegas for a relocating Oakland A’s, or a $4 billion film tax proposal — the measure comes with little time for public vetting as part of the Legislature’s increasingly narrow operating window. The measure is one of the last bills to be introduced as part of the state’s 120-day legislative session, which will adjourn sine die at midnight on Monday.
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