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At the State of the State press conference last month, Governor Sisolak announced a $500 million "Home Means Nevada" affordable housing initiative as part of the federal American Rescue Plan dollars. The Nevada Housing Division will invest $500 million, along with other forms of available debt financing programs such as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), to lower the cost of housing, help seniors make repairs and accessibility retrofits to stay in their homes, and boost housing availability.
The initiative is projected to benefit 13,000 households throughout Nevada. The funds will be administered by the housing division pending approval from the Legislature’s Interim finance committee.
According to the Nevada Governor’s Office website, the funds will be used in the following four categories:
1) Multi-family Development - $300 Million
- As a stand-alone funding source, this investment could produce up to 1,000 new units for families and seniors earning less than 60% of Area Median Income (AMI). The funding would allow targeting of 10-20% of the units for those earning less 30, 40 or 50% of AMI.
- Leveraged with other debt funding, up to 1,700 new units could be developed with this investment.
2) Multi-family Preservation - $130 Million
- As a stand-alone funding source, this investment could rehabilitate and preserve over 3,000 units for families and seniors earning less than 60% of AMI. This would keep the units affordable for an additional 30-years going forward.
- If the funding can be leveraged with other debt funding, these funds could preserve up to nearly 4,000 units.
3) Land Acquisition - $40 Million
- Given the current land market condition, this funding could be used to secure nearly 100 acres of land to create 700-800 units of affordable housing.
- This could be leveraged with Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to help offset the current increase in interest rates and construction costs.
4) Home Ownership: New Development/Rehabilitation - $30 Million
- An incentive program to drop the cost of new homes from $500,000 to $350,000, land purchase or other mechanism, such as down payment assistance, would develop and make obtainable up to 200 new single-family homes.
- A portion of the funds would be earmarked for rehabilitation, including home accessibility improvements of existing single-family owned homes for up to 7,000 homeowners. This would enable Nevada’s seniors to age in place and could also provide substantial energy saving and safety improvements for most of the recipients.
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