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Lombardo to propose expansion of governor’s office
Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposals to effectively create a new layer of executive management for several state departments drew sharp questions from lawmakers Wednesday morning. The governor’s chief of staff, Ben Kieckhefer, told a joining committee of Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance the administration wants to create multiple new cabinet-level positions. The office is […]
State lawmaker drafting bill to give local governments power to tackle rent, housing
Democratic State Sen. Edgar Flores plans to introduce legislation this session to make it “abundantly clear” that local officials have the ability to implement their own regulations to address housing affordability. Amid skyrocketing rents, local and county officials said “Dillion’s rule,” a governing principle that limits local powers to those expressly granted by the state, […]
Dems, Latino caucus outline plan to expand Medicaid eligibility
A group of Democratic lawmakers proposed expanding Medicaid for Nevadans regardless of immigration status and vowed to address housing affordability and expand mental health access on the first day of the 82nd Legislative Session. Ahead of the official start of the session Monday, members of the newly renamed Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus outlined priorities that […]
Center offering legal information on eviction, civil matters sees high volume of clients
Attorneys with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada liken the Civil Law Self-Help Center to a legal emergency room. People find themselves at the center when they become overwhelmed by an often confusing, cumbersome legal system and need help finding a resolution. That’s exactly what Rudy and Liza, who are married, needed when they […]
Some Nevada households paying a fifth of their income – or more – on child care, report says
The average household in Clark County spent nearly 20% of their income on rising costs of infant and toddler child care, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Women’s Bureau within the department issued a report in January that based findings from the National Database of Childcare Prices. The Department […]
Housing justice advocates weigh in on White House plan to bolster tenant protections
Amid rising rents nationally and people still struggling to maintain housing, the White House released a series of non-binding guidelines Wednesday in an effort to connect renters to affordable housing and direct agencies to bolster tenant protections. In the “Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights,” the Biden-Harris Administration outlined efforts to address fair leasing, […]
Legal Aid urges lawmakers to reconsider previously declined eviction bills, tenant protections
Lawmakers failed to pass several bills during the 2021 session that would have offered modest tenant protections against a Nevada eviction system that has been characterized by critics as one of the most tenant-hostile in the nation. Ahead of what they are seeing as an emerging eviction crisis, attorneys with the Legal Aid Center of […]
End of rental assistance program prompts fears evictions will spike
To prevent a tsunami of evictions in the first two years of the pandemic, policymakers set up a safety net that included eviction moratoria, an expanded rental assistance program and passing legislation to postpone court proceedings while rental assistance applications were processed. As a result, the much-feared wide scale eviction crisis was mostly held at […]
240 unhoused individuals died in Southern Nevada last year
While attending last month’s vigil in Southern Nevada remembering unhoused people who died in 2022, Clark County Human Services Administrator Tim Burch took note of many of the stories circling in the background. An estimated 240 unhoused people died in Southern Nevada between Nov. 1 2021 and Oct. 31, 2022, which was around the same […]
Southern Nevada has limited options to house domestic violence survivors
Sixteen. In a range from one to 20 on a lethality scale, an assessment that SafeNest does with those experiencing domestic violence who are looking to leave an abusive partner, you would need to score a 16 in order to secure a bed and a safe place to stay. Assessment questions include asking if the […]
Organizers call on Congress to pass last-minute immigration reform, pathway to citizenship
As a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, David Beltran Barajas lives his life two years at a time. The DACA program, created through an executive order by former President Barack Obama, protects eligible immigrants who arrived in the United States as children from deportation, but they have to repeatedly reapply. The legality of […]
Horsford to chair Congressional Black Caucus; Lee gets Dems to add new ‘Battleground’ post
U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford was elected to serve as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, which advocates for policy priorities important to the Black community, while U.S. Rep Susie Lee is among moderate Democrats pushing to create a leadership position focusing on perpetually vulnerable Democratic members serving in congressional swing districts. Horsford, who recently won […]