LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The air brake hiss of the bus leaving Chinatown is not a sound commonly linked with the housing crisis, but community leaders tell Nevada’s congressional leadership it’s a note in their chorus call for help.
There are 78,000 acres of underutilized land in the core of the Las Vegas Valley, according to a new report from the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) and ECONorthwest. Minjia Yan, director of Millenium Commercial Properties, highlighted the report during an affordable housing meeting with U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.).
“Some of these areas are an abandoned Kmart building on Rainbow and Spring Mountain that has been vacant for 20 years,” Yan said.
RTC bussing is also a part of the conversation as Yan said the cost of transportation and rent is connected.
“The true cost of housing is the cost of housing plus cost of transportation,” she said. “Where you live, you have to be accessible to where you work, where you go to schools, where you get access to the amenities that you need in your daily life.”
Surrounded by other community leaders, Horsford nodded along with Yan’s points and expressed gratitude to the number of viewpoints in the roundtable discussion.
“It’s about listening to the leaders in our community who both have the lived experience of housing and affordability,” Horsford said. “As well as advocates and organizations that are working on the solutions.”
Representatives from Compass Development, Nevada Homeless Alliance, Nevada Housing Coalition, Hopelink of Southern Nevada, and the Nevada Housing Division met with Horsford to discuss their view from the ground level of the housing crisis.
“WTF, who’s in charge?”
“It’s about land, lumber, labor, all of which are driving factors in the affordability crisis, not only for low-income and affordable housing but for housing at every level throughout the valley,” Horsford said. “And that’s something that we are working extremely hard on, and that will help inform our legislation.”
The cost of construction goods for new homes impacted by the Trump administration’s newest tariffs, according to Horsford. During a Wednesday hearing the Nevada representative grilled the White House’s top trade negotiator on trade strategy.
“So, the trade representative hasn’t spoken to the President of the United States about a global reordering of trade and yet he announced it on a tweet? WTF, who’s in charge?” Horsford said. “It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you and paused the tariffs, the taxes on the American people.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the president “is in charge” and that he doesn’t disclose his “conversations with the president.”
Sitting in his office, Horsford told 8 News Now he didn’t intend to create the viral moment but instead hoped to focus on the impact on Las Vegas-based tourism.
“I didn’t go into that hearing planning to talk about the tariffs and the pause,” he said. “I actually went into the hearing planning to talk about the effect of tariffs and its impact on our tourism economy, because we’ve already seen a decline of about 17% of international tourists coming from places like Canada, which is affecting our livelihood and those that work in the tourism.”
Horsford said what happened instead was Greer, who advises the president on trade strategy, appeared to be made aware of the recent tariff pause at the same time as others in the hearing room.
“Which then caused me to question, well, who’s in charge and who’s actually making these recommendations to the President,” he said. “And then as he’s answering the question, it became obvious to me. Oh, this was their plan all along, which led leads into the question was this market manipulation?”
The influence on the increasing cost of the Southern Nevada housing market also a target for Horsford who pointed to hedge funds as a major culprit.
“These hedge funds have come in and now own nearly a third of the homes in North Las Vegas in particular,” he said. “That’s one in three homes you can drive down certain blocks, and virtually the entire block is owned by these out-of-state hedge funds.”
Horsford said he has introduced legislation to crack down on corporate hedge funds and would address market manipulation.
“I’m about creating economic opportunity,” Horsford said. “While these other forces are trying to literally take that housing off the market.”
