LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – According to a recent report from Princeton’s University Eviction Lab, children are increasingly at risk of losing the roof over their heads.
Talking about this loss can be difficult for some families with kids. There are many reasons for evictions, the pandemic high among them. Regardless, the impact on families with children is great.
“This is Vegas! Get your [expletive] together,” Las Vegas resident Noelle Commarieu said. “I’ve been treated like [expletive].”
She is not holding back her frustrations.
Commarieu said the cost of everything is very unfair and she can’t get by. Now, she tells 8 News Now she can’t pay her rent and is facing eviction.
“It’s my daughter and I,” she said.
Like many parents, she said she is doing the best she can for her child. She said her daughter is depressed, angry, and frustrated.
“She needs a home, she needs her life back, she needs freedom,” Commarieu said holding back her tears.
She said she is disabled and is on nearly 20 different waiting lists for housing assistance.
“Help is there,” Valerie Whitfield said. “It’s just a waiting game.”
“They all take 30 to 60 days depending on what the funding amounts are they have at that time,” she explained.
Whitfield’s talking about groups in Las Vegas that assist low-income families. She said she volunteers for one.
“There’s a lot of evictions going on,” Whitfield said.
She said she was wrongfully evicted in March 2024.
“It went to court. The judge closed out the case because I was told I had until a certain day, but they did it prior to that day,” she said.
Day after day, her son is right by her side.
“He missed a week’s worth of school, he had no school clothes, no schoolbooks, no chrome book,” a tearful Whitfield explained.
No home to go to either.
After living in a friend’s garage for some time, they found warmth in a mobile home, but she said her son had different plans.
“He said if I stay here, I’m going to end up with a kid, locked up or dead,” Whitfield said.
He went school in another state looking for more.
According to experts, kids are truly the invisible victims of evictions.
Every year, eviction filings involve and affect 2.9 million kids, according to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Las Vegas is one of the places with the highest eviction rate, Princeton’s Eviction Lab told 8 News Now.
Since March of 2020, there have been slightly more than 199,000 eviction filings in Clark County. The amount is close to filling up the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium facility three times. On average, that’s at least a child or two in each of those homes.
“These processes are unfair and unjust and are impacting the most vulnerable which would be especially children,” Ben Iness with the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance said.
The group advocates for tenants, eviction reform in Nevada, and for a once young Ben.
Iness said he also faced eviction as a child and deals with some of the trauma still.
“I think in new ways I am learning; I definitely feel more and more bits, I am kind of healing some of those past wounds,” he said.
It’s the wounds that he carries to be the voice of resources and interventions for struggling Nevadans.
“Most of the evictions we are seeing are for non-payment of rent, people are not paying their rent because they are squeezed,” Jonathan Norman with the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers said. “For kids, that’s magnified, and evictions are the definition of uncertainty.”
For certain though, there’s also some good.
According to Clark County’s website, the Las Vegas Justice Court received a $1.25 million grant to strengthen eviction diversion efforts and improve the housing stability of families. This is just one of the many examples of how the city and county are working to improve the system.
Families who have faced eviction like Whitfield, Commarieu, or as a kid like Iness – their fight for fairness for evictions is just the beginning.
After this report aired on 8 News Now, Commarieu told 8 News Now she is now homeless.
Norman said in Nevada, once a tenant receives an eviction notice, the tenant must file a response with the court. If not, that’s when the landlord can file a complaint and get an order of eviction.
Clark County told 8 News Now so far this year, the Las Vegas Justice Court has granted 15,239 evictions. It also said there are situations where a landlord and tenant reach an agreement, or the tenant moves voluntarily, this is not always reported to the court.
Below are up-to-date filings from other jurisdictions provided by Clark County:
LAS VEGAS JUSTICE COURT
2023: 26,584
2024: 15,239
HENDERSON JUSTICE COURT
2023: 3646
2024: 2511
NORTH LAS VEGAS
2023: 2931
2024: 1627
