Nevada Launches $500M Program to Increase Affordable Housing | Nevada News

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada officials are launching a $500 million program to help provide affordable housing by tapping federal American Rescue Plan funding and new borrowing authority approved by state lawmakers.

Gov. Steve Sisolak said the “Home Means Nevada” initiative that he and other officials announced Thursday is a beginning of an effort to put housing within financial reach of more people.

“This is such an enormous problem,” Sisolak said. “You can’t solve it in a day or week (or) in a year. But we’re making huge inroads and we’re going to continue along that path.”

Nevada’s increasing population and the pandemic have exacerbated housing shortages and rising home and rental prices in the state.

The goal of the initiative is to lower the cost of housing, help people stay in their homes and invest in construction jobs, Sisolak said.

The program is intended to work with developers to create up to 1,700 affordable housing units across the state and help about 7,000 seniors with accessibility and home repairs so they can stay in their homes.

“Getting just one more person, just one more person into a home, or keeping one more family in their home, is what this is all about,” said Sisolak, a Democrat running for re-election this year.

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