Construction takes place on an apartment complex in the west Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Ronda Churchill/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The thousands of new affordable housing units Nevada is funding through the American Rescue Plan Act are still, at best, 18 months away from being available for rent, but developers say they are on track and working as fast as they can to help alleviate a housing crisis.

Nevada in October awarded $250 million in affordable housing funding.

Among the groups awarded dollars late last year were nonprofit developer Nevada HAND, Blind Center of Nevada, Washoe Housing Authority and the sober living community the Empowerment Center. They are expected to create about 2,800 new units throughout the state

Steve Aichroth, administrator of the Nevada Housing Division, which oversees the allocation of these funds, said projects are moving along as expected with most finalizing agreements to begin construction in the coming months.

“The bulk of them will take about two years –18 to 24 months – from the time the agreement is fully executed,” he said. “A little faster in Southern Nevada because they don’t have to deal with winters like we have to in Northern Nevada.”

The state, along with cities and counties, have used ARPA funds to invest in the massive shortage of housing units.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates Nevada is short almost 84,000 affordable units for extremely low income renters, or those earning 30% or less of the area median income.

Former Gov. Steve Sisolak pledged to direct $500 million of ARPA funds to address the housing crisis, with $300 million specifically directed toward developing multifamily units.

Another $130 million was allocated to preserve existing affordable housing to prevent units from converting to market rates, $30 million to increase homeownership, and $40 million for land acquisition.

The housing division received about $2.5 billion in requests for new development projects.  

“Out of the amount of funding in the new development, 2,800 new affordable units and 1,800 will serve 50% of AMI or below,” Aichroth said. “It’s the lion’s share going to help those populations.” 

Among the projects that received funds is Nevada HAND, which received about $51 million to develop four projects in Southern Nevada. 

“The beginning of 2025 we will begin seeing these come online, and over that 12 to 18 months we will start seeing people move into those units,” said Waldon Swenson, the vice president of corporate affairs for Nevada HAND. “We want to make sure we can build as responsible within the rules but as quickly as possible because we know the community needs these resources.”

Nevada HAND has developed 35 properties throughout Southern Nevada and maintains affordable units with average monthly rent of $789. 

Though they develop new projects each year, the need for affordable units is never ceasing, Swenson said. Anytime Nevada HAND is in the news, he added, “we probably get 1,000 inquiries.”

“On an average day, in the hundreds” each day, he said. “We have seen firsthand that Southern Nevada, and Nevada at large, is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis.” 

Despite a growing need, Swenson said there are lots of obstacles to creating affordable housing from zoning issues to the availability of land.

At the end of the day, he said the biggest hurdle is financing. 

With its ARPA funds, Nevada HAND is developing 565 units. HAND is simultaneously developing other affordable housing units using other funds. Swenson said altogether the organization has 2,278 units under development or in the planning process.

Swenson said they will finalize agreements on three projects in the next few months that will bring more affordable housing throughout the valley: Stewart Pines will add 178 senior units near downtown Las Vegas, a Buffalo and Cactus complex will add 125 senior units in the Southwest, and another 118 senior units will be at the Buena Vista Springs complex in North Las Vegas.  

There is also a 144-unit family complex, Sunrise Ranch near Boulder Highway and Gibson Road, in the planning process.

‘If you don’t start somewhere…’

Todd Imholte, president of the Blind Center of Nevada, said 95% of their clients live below the poverty level, surviving on up to $1,000 a month in Social Security benefits.

As rents have spiked since 2020, he’s seen more people become housing insecure and experience homelessness. There were few options for people to go. 

“We found in one example that $900 for a one bedroom had gone up to $1,300 after Covid,” he said. “The affordability for market rate rents for someone living off Social Security is just impossible.”

Imholte even contacted a nearby affordable housing complex to see about availability and learned there was a 2,300-person waitlist. 

“We found out we had 35 people from the Blind Center on the waiting list,” he said. “Many of these people it would be many years”.

The complex they plan to construct, which will be located next door to the Blind Center, would offer 100 units of permanent supportive housing, which include rental subsidies, wrap-around services and case management for those in need. In order to qualify, people have to be below 40% of AMI.

The project costs about $30 million. In addition to the $15 million from state ARPA funds, Imholte said Clark County along with the cities of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas contributed ARPA funds, which covered the entire project. 

Imholte said they are in the process of selecting a general contractor.

“The project will probably break ground in January of 2024,” he said. “We will finish the construction in about 16 to 18 months. We are looking at July 2025 for the project (completion).” 

Even though construction is months away, the complex already has a 290 person interest list. 

Imholte is already devising a plan to build another building with 100 to 200 more units if he can secure additional funding.

“This doesn’t provide an immediate solution to the problem, and that’s the one challenge we have,” he said. “If you don’t start somewhere you will never get there. We have to get moving.”

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Gov. Steve Sisolak says access to affordable, quality child care is essential to Nevada's economy. (Photo: Kingkini Sengupta)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Amidst a shortage of licensed care providers for “young Nevadans,” the Nevada Child Care Fund has received $50 million for child care subsidies that will help families expand the pool of caregivers for their children.

The fund originally extended only to licensed care providers will now be available to any individual who wants and plans to take care of a child. This includes not just daycare centers and trained child care facilitators but family members, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and friends.

Leah Bennett, an early childhood educator with Candelen, sees a need for quality child care in the Reno community. “Child care is expensive and a lot of people cannot afford it and so they are turning to friends, family and neighbors.”

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of infant care in Nevada is about $11,400, or $951 monthly.

The Children’s Cabinet, a nonprofit advocacy group, is conducting an analysis to find out what the current need is compared to the sources that are available for licensed care.

“Before COVID there was capacity and licensed care to meet about 32% of the need,” said Marty Elquist, department director for Children’s Cabinet.

The $50 million expansion aims to help families already eligible for federal child care assistance, by paying required copayments as long as funds are available. It also revises the income eligibility criteria for receiving assistance to include families with higher incomes.

Families of four that make around $72,000 per year now qualify for these funds, Karissa Loper Machado, agency manager of the Child Care and Development Program, said in an interview with KOLO 8 News.

“We now offer this federal child care assistance to any family making up to 85% of the state’s median income,” Machado said, adding that “anyone who is working, finishing their education or going through a job training program” would be eligible to apply.

Gov. Steve Sisolak launched the Nevada Child Care Fund officially on July 7, two weeks after the legislature expanded funding to the Child Care and Development Program.

At the July 14 opening of Northern Nevada’s Child Care Services Center in Reno, which is being lauded as the one-stop location for child care providers, Sisolak emphasized the need for quality child care and urged families to send in their applications.

“I encourage families to take the time to apply,” the governor said, reiterating that the support available is determined by the size of the family and their income level.

Applications can be submitted online but nonprofits like Children’s Cabinet in Northern Nevada and Las Vegas Urban League in Southern Nevada are available to answer questions.

Machado said that the Department of Health and Human Services is working in a variety of areas to support child care providers and families across the state. She added the Northern Nevada Child Care Services Center is a much needed resource for the Northern Nevada community.

The Reno center is the second one in the state, with the first opening in Las Vegas in February. 

Since many people do not have the training and skills to provide child care, Bennett said the Child Care Center will be a source of that help for the Reno community.

The center offers resources for providers in terms of training, financial support, child care subsidy assistance, licensing and access to business ideas through a partnership with early educational organizations Wonderschool and supportive services through Candelen.

“We have a deeply fractured child care system,” said Elquist, adding that child care providers have a difficult job and should not be paid poverty level wages while not having access to healthcare benefits.

“Anything that we do to take the burden off our providers is going to go a long way to help them continue working in this field,” she said.

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The state is expected to finish reviewing applications for the first half of $500 million in federal funding in August and award allocations in September. (Photo: Ronda Churchill)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The Nevada Housing Division told lawmakers this week it is reviewing $2.5 billion in requests for projects seeking to address the state’s affordable housing crisis, an amount that far exceeds the $500 million investment promised by the governor earlier this year. 

The division provided the Interim Finance Committee, which approved the $250 million of the half-billion dollar pledged funding in April, an update of the 234 applications submitted in the initial review process in May. 

Not all proposals met the needed criteria to move forward to a formal application process. 

“Of the 234, 180 pre-applications have been approved and moved on to the second round, which is the full application process,” said Michael Holliday, chief financial officer with the Nevada Housing Division. “It’s a much more involved process with much more documentation required at that point.”

The division is expected to finish reviewing applications in August and award allocations in September. The governor’s office said it planned to ask the finance committee for the remaining $250 million in the fall. 

Both Democratic and Republican members of the finance committee previously expressed concerns regarding legislative oversight of the housing investment.

That continued Tuesday when Republican Assemblywoman Robin Titus questioned how the committee reviewing projects was selected and wondered why the group didn’t include those experiencing homelessness or seniors. 

Titus was one of three Republicans who opposed the committee approving the $250 million in April. 

“I see nobody from the private sector on this committee on how to award these grants,” she said.

The seven member committee in charge includes Holliday along with Democratic Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, who is also a real estate agent; Kristin Cooper with Clark County Social Service; Christine Hess, the executive director or Nevada Housing Coalition, which consists of social service providers and developers; Brooke Page with the Corporation for Supportive Housing; Dena Schmidt, the administrator with the Nevada Aging and Disability Services Division; and Steve Aichroth, the administrator for Nevada Housing Division

Jauregui disappointed housing justice advocates in 2021 when she failed to give a hearing to a bill that offered modest tenant protections.  The bill was opposed by housing industry groups.

Holliday said everyone on the committee is “experts in the field” and would be able to “score neutrally across the board.”

“It was going to be difficult to have someone from those lines of private sector, developers for sure, because a lot of them would be applying,” Holliday said. “I think the level of expertise required, especially for the financial sections of the applications, would be difficult for someone who isn’t in this industry or works in this field.” 

Nevada, which has been dealing with a housing crisis for years, lacks an estimated 105,000 affordable housing units. 

The state’s greatest deficit is housing for extremely low-income renters earning less than 30% of area median income. Estimates from state and national groups say Nevada is 84,000 units short. 

During the state of the state speech in February, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced he would dedicate $500 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding to go toward the affordable housing crisis:

The state launched the “Home Means Nevada” initiative in April to start screening proposals. 

Projects were broken down into four categories to align with funding priorities – developing multifamily housing, preserving affordable housing, increasing homeownership and home rehabilitation, and land acquisition. 

Of the dedicated funding, $300 million was directed toward developing new housing units.

Holliday said there were 140 applications for developing multi-family housing submitted to the state in May. Of that, 112 moved into the formal application process: 67 from Clark County, 33 from Washoe County and 12 from the rural counties. 

Clark County has also allocated $130 million of its share of ARPA dollars toward affordable housing. 

“We’ve also been engaging in weekly conversations with Clark County discussing their community housing fund and how it can interact with the Home Means Nevada initiative to make sure we can leverage both sets of funding to make sure we get as much affordable housing development as we can,” he said. 

Democratic Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton asked if there was any information for how many projects dealt with seniors. 

“One thing that I’m hearing four or five times a day is from seniors that are having a very tough time paying their rent because the rents are going up and it’s going to be more than the money they are bringing in on their fixed income,” she said.

Holliday wasn’t able to provide a breakdown, but said he could before the August finance committee meeting.  

The state also pledged for at least 20% of the funds to go toward projects that build permanent supportive housing programs and serve populations who make less than 30% of area median income.

Holliday didn’t provide information on that goal.

The state is putting $130 million into preserving existing affordable housing and preventing units from converting back to market rate. 

The division received 40 initial applications in May but is currently moving forward with 38 proposals, including 19 in Clark County, 17 in Washoe County and 2 in the rural counties. 

For land acquisition, to which the state directed $40 million of funding, there were 20 initial applications, with 15 moving to the final review.

Applications focusing on homeownership and rehabilitation received 20 initial applications, with 15 moving forward to the final review. The state is putting $30 million toward each category. 

There were eight proposals focused on Clark County, one from Washoe County, five for rural Nevada and one statewide application. 

Holliday said while the committee is working on getting through applications for homeownership and rehabilitation, they are prioritizing new development and housing preservations. 

“Those projects will take a lot longer to come to fruition so we want to get a head start on those,” he said.  

The post Requests for affordable housing project help total five times program’s funding appeared first on Nevada Current.

U.S. Rep. Susie Lee hosted a roundtable to talk about pressing issues for mothers in Southern Nevada. (Photo: Michael Lyle)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The 2022 election is about “electing someone who is going to stand up,” for women, U.S. Rep. Susie Lee said Monday at a roundtable centered around Southern Nevada moms.

“I think women in this country are very fearful,” Lee said. 

Lee, a two-term Democrat who is seeking a third term, said she hosted the event in order to hear pressing issues ahead of the 2022 general election, where she will face Republican April Becker, a real estate attorney who lost a bid for state Senate in 2020. 

That fear has much to do with the Supreme Court’s June decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and gut federal abortion protections, which left the decision of abortion access up to state. But fear is also being fed by rising costs of groceries, child care and housing.

Republicans, including Becker, have hammered Democrats on rising inflation and skyrocketing gas prices, which have declined in recent weeks but remain well above usual levels. 

In an interview after the roundtable, Lee pushed back on Republicans who talk about inflation but don’t support legislation she said could help lower costs. 

“I sort of chuckle when Republicans wanna talk about inflation because it’s actually Democrats that have moved legislation and passed legislation that will bring down costs for American families and it’s Republicans who block it at every step of the way,” Lee said.

She pointed to legislation the House passed, including legislation to address food and gas costs, a bill capping out-of-pocket costs of insulin at $35 a month, and a measure to send $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration to boost formula supply during the shortage. 

Only a few Republicans voted in favor of each legislation in the House. Every bill Lee referenced is stalled in the Senate in the face of Republican filibuster. 

Becker, who released an ad in April using a theme used by various Republican candidates showing them pumping gas, has also attacked Lee on inflation. 

“Democrats fighting inflation?” Becker said in a June tweet. “Give me a break. Remember when they told us it was all transitory, then it was actually good, then they wouldn’t apologize for it, then Putin caused it, now she’s fighting it.”

Nevada Current asked Becker’s campaign how she plans to deal with inflation if elected as well as questions about what legislation she would propose or support that addresses child care costs, lack of housing supply and federal paid leave – policies referenced by the women during the roundtable that Lee has supported. 

The campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

During the roundtable, women shared stories of coping with suicidal thoughts after miscarriages and struggling to find mental health services. 

Several spoke about having adult-age children who had either completed or were still finishing college but were forced to move back home because of low wages and crippling student loan debt.

Others talked about the challenges of finding affordable child care and being forced to choose between staying home or re-entering the workforce and paying tens of thousands of dollars each year in child care. 

Andrea Goeglein, one of the women who attended the event, said people don’t understand how economic issues and mental health are connected to the conversation about reproductive rights. 

“The complexity of what it takes to live today and what it takes to take care of our children today, there is something about the way we are telling the story that’s not serving us,” she said.   

Access to reproductive rights has become central to Lee’s campaign following the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

Lee, along with other Democrats heading into the general election, warned voters that if the Republicans retake Congress they will work to pass a nationwide abortion ban. 

On her campaign website, Becker said she is “pro-life, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.”

Lee told the roundtable the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6 and access to reproductive care “are fundamentally linked.”

“I believe my fight for access to choice is related to this and the fight to preserve our democracy,” Lee said. “When you see democracy starting to fail, the first thing that goes is women’s rights.”

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears on a video screen above members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol during the seventh hearing on the January 6th investigation in the Cannon House Office Building on July 12, 2022. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The U.S. House panel investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results described Tuesday how the president explicitly called on his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 for a “wild” protest — resulting in an insurrection.

Trump exerted extraordinary influence over the mob, who marched to the Capitol on his orders and undertook the violent attack, testimony showed. Many dispersed only when Trump asked them to do so, hours after mayhem broke out.

Members of the violent extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and other Trump supporters interpreted a Dec. 19 tweet from Trump to attend a “wild” Jan. 6 rally in Washington as a call to arms to fight election certification, according to testimony at the  wide-ranging hearing, the seventh by the panel.

The three-hour session touched on the former president’s social media influence, a militia group’s desire for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and a shouting match between White House staff and outside Trump advisers over whether to try to cancel the results of the election.

Democratic members Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Stephanie Murphy of Florida led the meeting.

‘Will be wild’

Much of the committee’s discussion centered on a 1:42 a.m. tweet from Trump on Dec. 19, 2020.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Trump wrote.

“When Donald Trump sent out his tweet, he became the first president to call for a crowd to descend on the capital city to block the constitutional transfer of power,” Raskin said.

Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said both violent extremists and “average Trump supporters swept up in the fervor of the day” participated in the attack, and the panel heard testimony from one of each type.

Stephen Ayres, a northeast Ohio man who participated in the assault on the Capitol, testified that Trump’s tweet inspired him to travel to Washington.

Ayres told the panel he’d been interested in his family affairs and ordinary hobbies but was “pretty hardcore into the social media,” he said. He believed Trump and was angered by the president’s claims that the election was stolen, he said.

On Jan. 6, Ayres said he “was worked up” by Trump’s speech on the White House Ellipse. He joined an angry group that marched to the Capitol after Trump directed them there.

“Basically, the president got everybody riled up, told everybody, ‘Head on down,’” he said. “So we basically were just following what he said.”

Ayres and the crowd expected Trump to join them, he said.

Ayres only left the Capitol after Trump tweeted a video instructing his supporters to do so.

“We literally left right when that come out,” he told the panel. “If he would have done that earlier in the day, we wouldn’t be in this bad of a situation.”

Tweeting to the extremists

None answered Trump’s call faster than dangerous extremist groups, who interpreted it as a call to arms and immediately began organizing, Raskin said.

“Seizing upon his invitation to fight, they assembled their followers for an insurrectionary showdown against Congress and the vice president,” he said.

The mob Trump summoned “came prepared to do battle against police and politicians alike,” Thompson said.

A former Oath Keeper, Jason Van Tatenhove, testified that the group’s leader, Stewart Rhodes, routinely sought ways to legitimize the organization and said Trump’s messaging would have encouraged him.

Van Tatenhove left the organization before the lead up to Jan. 6. He called the Oath Keepers “a very dangerous organization” controlled personally by Rhodes.

Rhodes sees himself as “a paramilitary leader” and wanted Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act — which lets a president deploy the military inside U.S. borders for the purposes of law enforcement — to allow for paramilitary action on Jan. 6, Van Tatenhove said.

Messaging from Trump in advance of the attack “gave (Rhodes) the nod” to pursue a violent agenda that could have sparked a second civil war, Van Tatenhove said.

Rhodes and other Oath Keepers have been indicted for seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6 attack.

Van Tatenhove said he joined the Oath Keepers after meeting them at the stand-off at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch in 2014. At the time he left the Oath Keepers, he lived in a small town in Montana. He now resides in Estes Park, Colorado.

Ties to Proud Boys, Oath Keepers

Trump advisers Roger Stone and retired General Mike Flynn had ties to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, Raskin said.

Stone communicated regularly with both groups between the November election and Jan. 6, Raskin said.

Flynn was photographed on Dec. 18, 2020, walking with indicted Oath Keeper Roberto Minuta and Rhodes, the committee showed.

Rhodes was in Washington for a Trump event on Dec. 12 and called for Trump to invoke martial law, Raskin said.

“If he does not do it now, we’re going to have to do it ourselves later in a much more desperate, much more bloody war,” Rhodes said in a video shown Tuesday.

Trump knew of danger

Katrina Pierson, a former Trump campaign staffer who helped plan the Jan. 6 rally, reached out to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 2, concerned that speakers planning to speak at the rally were dangerous.

“Things have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction,” Pierson said in a text message the committee showed Tuesday.

In a phone call eight minutes later, Pierson told Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman, that some speakers “were very suspect,” she told the committee in taped testimony.

The panel also showed evidence Trump planned to send supporters to the Capitol, though he didn’t publicly say that until his Jan. 6 speech.

Allies in right-wing circles anticipated that Trump would “unexpectedly” initiate a march toward Congress, according to a Jan. 4 text message the committee obtained from rally organizer Kylie Kremer to MyPillow CEO and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.

In a Jan. 5 meeting, Trump asked White House staff about the best route from the White House to the Capitol, former White House photographer Shealah Craighead said in taped testimony.

Several right-wing media personalities, including Steve Bannon, a former Trump campaign manager who remained in contact with the president, promoted that Jan. 6 would be more than a presidential speech at the White House.

Bannon and Trump spoke for 11 minutes on Jan. 5, Murphy said, citing White House call logs. Following that conversation, Bannon spoke on his own podcast.

“All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” he said. “It’s all converging, and now we’re on, as they say, the point of attack.”

Bannon and Trump spoke again for six minutes later in the day, Murphy said.

In a previous hearing, the committee heard that Trump had been informed before sending them to the Capitol that his supporters were armed.

‘I feel guilty’

In another text exchange with Pierson, former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale blamed Trump’s rhetoric for the violence and the death of one supporter, Ashli Babbitt.

“I feel guilty for helping him win,” Parscale texted Pierson on the evening of Jan. 6.

Pierson responded that Trump’s rhetoric wasn’t responsible for the violence.

“Katrina,” Parscale wrote back. “Yes it was.”

‘UNHINGED’ meeting

Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet followed an all-night White House meeting that devolved into a verbal brawl between Trump outside advisers who sought to overturn the election, including a proposal to seize voting machines, and White House lawyers who thought those efforts were “a terrible idea,” in the words of former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who gave a deposition to the committee only last week.

The meeting started with Flynn and attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani gaining direct access to Trump without any White House staff present for 10 to 15 minutes, according to Powell. All three favored trying to overturn the election.

Once Cipollone found out what was happening, he raced to the Oval Office.

In taped testimony to the committee, mutual animosity between the two camps seemed to have lingered.

“I bet Pat Cipollone set a new land-speed record,” Powell told the panel in a deposition, referring to the White House counsel breaking up the Dec. 18 meeting.

“I was not happy to see the people who were in the Oval Office,” Cipollone said. “I did not think any of these people were providing the president with good advice. I didn’t understand how they had gotten in.”

Joined by other White House lawyers, including senior adviser Eric Herschmann, the meeting became an insult-laden shouting match.

“It got to the point where the screaming was completely out there,” Herschmann said. “What they were proposing, I thought was nuts.”

“A general disregard for actually backing up what you say with facts,” Cipollone said of the outside advisers.

Powell said the White House lawyers were showing “disdain” for Trump.

“I’m going to categorically describe it as, ‘You guys are not tough enough,’” Giuliani said in taped testimony. “Or maybe I put it another way: ‘You guys are a bunch of p—ies.’ Excuse the expression.”

Overhearing the meeting, Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson texted another staffer, “The West Wing is UNHINGED.”

Meeting with GOP House members

The committee also documented a Dec. 21 meeting Trump had with Republican House members to strategize about how to reverse the election results.

Members who attended included Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Harris of Maryland, Jody Hice of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Brian Babin and Louie Gohmert of Texas.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’d been elected but was not yet a member of Congress, was also present, according to the committee.

The Dec. 21 meeting centered, in part, on Vice President Mike Pence’s role in verifying Electoral College votes and on the pursuit of Trump outside lawyer John Eastman’s strategy to replace legitimate slates of electors in several states with fake electors who would cast ballots for Trump.

Asked about the committee’s assertion, Greene spokesman Nick Dwyer said the description was “all wrong” and that Greene had been focused on objecting to Electoral College votes from certain states Trump lost.

Dwyer forwarded a video Greene posted to Facebook on Dec. 21 leaving the White House.

“We had a great planning session for our Jan. 6 objection,” Greene said in the video. “We aren’t going to let this election be stolen by Joe Biden and the Democrats. Donald Trump won in a landslide.”

Gaetz tweeted Tuesday that the meeting was collegial.

“Pence actually joined this meeting,” he wrote. “We ate Swedish meatballs in the Cabinet Room. Pence thanked us all for our service there.”

Representatives for the other named House members did not return requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Witness interference

At the end of the hearing, Vice Chair Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, said that Trump had recently personally called a witness whose testimony had not yet been publicized.

The witness did not take the call and instead called their lawyer, who told the committee. The committee referred it to the Justice Department as possible witness intimidation.

“We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” she said.

The committee’s next hearing, next week, will provide a “minute-by-minute” account of Jan. 6 and will include more from Cipollone’s deposition, Cheney said.

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A Korean Airlines plane on the runway at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. (Photo: Harry Reid International Airport)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Visitation rates in Las Vegas have stalled as fewer international travelers arrived at Harry Reid International Airport in April compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In April, 4.25 million travelers passed through Reid’s gates, a slight dip from March’s 4.27 million passenger count, according to data by the Clark County Department of Aviation.

Passenger volume for international travelers is still far below pre-pandemic inflow. The Las Vegas airport tallied about 200,000 international passengers in April—nearly 40% below the more than 322,000 passengers that arrived in the same month three years earlier, prior to the COVID pandemic.

“International travel has lagged for multiple reasons,” said Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wik during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing Tuesday. “The pandemic created a lot of unknowns and I think travelers just decided to wait and see.”

In 2019, the Las Vegas airport received 5.7 million international passengers, accounting for 15% of total visitation, said Wik during the hearing. Data shows that international visitation for 2021 was about 20% of pre-pandemic volumes, or slightly more than 1 million travelers.

“This continues to be one of our top priorities and there is a simple reason why,” said Wik. “International visitors spend 40% more on average than domestic visitors. International visitation supports both business and leisure segments for us.”

Overall passenger counts in April were nearing pre-pandemic levels due to an increase of domestic flights, which were higher than 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

The hearing, hosted by Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, examined efforts to improve and encourage international travel to and from the U.S. It focused on initiatives by the Department of Homeland Security to streamline safe traveling processes, bolster workforce hiring and retention, and protect employees and the traveling public from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we bounce back from the economic downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that we ensure no tourist or visitor is discouraged from traveling to our country because of processing delays or long wait times,” said Titus. “Despite low travel rates due to the pandemic, air travel is making a significant comeback, particularly as we approach the summer months.”

While visitation trajectories in March were 50% above what they were the same time last year, international travel has struggled to pick up despite an increase in vaccinations and looser travel restrictions worldwide. 

Still, international travel is on an upward trajectory, said Titus. Reid Airport had about 200,000 international air passengers in April, a slight increase from the 154,104 passengers in March.

“We must continue to support our travel agencies so that tourists come to our city with positive travel experiences, a sense of trust in our security processing, and a desire to come visit again,” said Titus.

Titus said Nevada neighbors major tourism destinations, like Disneyland in California and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, giving the state an opportunity to market itself as an additional stop to international tourists exploring the U.S. West.

During the hearing, California Rep. Lou Correa said international travelers were still apprehensive about traveling to the U.S. because they are not fully informed about updated COVID travel guidelines, adding that DHS and its partners need to form a cohesive messaging campaign to inform international tourists.

“What can we do to get the message out that if you’re fully vaccinated, you shouldn’t have issues coming or leaving?” Correa asked.

Wik of the LVCVA said the agency is working to actively market Las Vegas as a safe and accessible travel destination to international travelers.

The airport recently announced that 16 airlines will start nonstop service to cities in Mexico, Canada, Panama, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in an effort to increase international travel.

Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of aviation for the Clark County Department of Aviation, asked Congress to provide more funding to increase CBP and TSA staffing levels at U.S. airports to handle expected growth. She also requested the U.S. to fully exempt vaccinated air travelers from pre-flight testing requirements, which she said would increase international passengers.

Airports have benefited from new technologies to enhance screening, including “biometric technology,” said airport officials, adding that the new tech has allowed airports to decrease processing times and meet travel demand. However, officials made it clear that airports are also facing a shortage of at least 900 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers across ports of entry.

Federal Security Director for the State of Nevada Karen Burke said Nevada has experienced the same staffing shortages as other states.

“We are under what would be an ideal amount of manpower,” said Burke. “We have found that our turnover rate has been up over 25% for a number of months this year. It goes in spurts.”

Las Vegas travel officials emphasized that International travel is an important slice of the leisure and hospitality economy

“Pre-pandemic tourism provided $36.9 billion in direct economic impact and nearly $64 billion in total economic impact per year to our economy. Las Vegas is more dependent on hospitality employment than any other large metro area in the nation,” Wik said. 

“When visitation does not flow it affects the livelihood of the estimated 2.3 million residents in Las Vegas,” added Wik.

The post International travel to Las Vegas still far below pre-pandemic levels, warn officials appeared first on Nevada Current.

Republican candidates for Nevada treasurer Manny Kess and Michele Fiore.

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

In a way, the race for Nevada treasurer started with a viral campaign video of Las Vegas councilwoman Michele Fiore driving a Ford pickup truck into the desert with a handgun strapped on her hip.

At the time, Fiore had announced her intention to run for governor in a crowded Republican primary. 

But after months of marketing herself as a gubernatorial candidate and spending thousands of dollars in campaign funds on television ads, including a 60-second segment in Palm Beach, Florida, the home of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, she never filed to run for governor.

On Twitter Fiore announced she would be running for Nevada State treasurer instead. In a less viral campaign ad rolled out alongside the announcement, Fiore explained the switch was at the behest of Trump’s team.

As a self-described “Lady Trump” Fiore took up the call to pivot and filed to run for another statewide office, that of Nevada’s chief financial officer.

Her campaign for treasurer has been notably less active than her months-long run for governor, and even less so since she suffered a concussion and several broken bones from a car crash in a BMW sport sedan earlier this month.

For voters who don’t have much interest in down-ballot races, here are a few things to consider:

The person in charge of Nevada’s treasury is responsible for maintaining and investing every tax dollar that comes into state coffers. Their choices impact the state’s ability to borrow money at favorable interest rates, and the overall cost of a public project.

The office manages a portfolio of about $7 billion in state money investments that affect everything from unemployment benefits to the state’s education fund. The treasurer is also in charge of managing the state’s multimillion dollar budget.

In other words, the state chief financial officer— who’s paid $112,462 annually — has a wide ranging and critical job. 

This year, Republican primary challengers—Fiore and entrepreneur Manny Kess—are vying for the chance to run against Democratic first-term incumbent Treasurer Zach Conine in the November general election.

‘Lady Trump’

Republican firebrand Fiore was elected as a councilwoman for the City of Las Vegas in 2017. Prior to her election, Fiore served in the Nevada Assembly for two terms before leaving to run for Congress, but did not make it past the primaries.

She also served as Las Vegas Mayor Pro Tem until she stepped down from the position after facing criticism for racist comments at the Clark County Republican Party convention in June.

In a text last week, Fiore said she is still recovering from the collision and was unavailable for an interview but was able to provide prepared statements to a list of questions

Fiore characterizes herself as something of a political outsider despite her long time involvement in state government. The self described “Lady Trump” said she would use her role as state treasurer if elected to “apply pressure from the outside” if fellow Republicans “stand in the way of me helping Nevadans.”

“I have a loyal base of supporters for a reason- I work for them and nobody else. No special interest. No party bosses. They know I’ll go to bat for them when they need me to,” Fiore said in an email.

In addition to Trump, Fiore has been endorsed by controversial Republican politicians and personalities including Sheriff Joe Arpaio, far right talk radio host Wayne Allyn Root, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She’s also been endorsed by the Nevada Republican Party and the Nevada Veterans Association, and several Republican county commissioners in Nevada.

Fiore’s history in Nevada politics also includes a number of financial controversies, including “ at least $91,000 in undisclosed tax liens” and a recent FBI investigation into her campaign finances, first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal last year.

However, Fiore said her role as a businesswoman means she knows “what it is like to keep a budget, improve an operation, and expand to meet people’s needs,” qualities she said she would bring to the office if elected. Fiore said she believes the office of the treasurer lacks transparency and argues that she will do more to “keep a just, true and comprehensive account of all money received.” 

The treasurer’s office is “a fundamentally conservative position,” said Fiore and pointed to her record of voting against tax increases, regulations, and fees in the Nevada Assembly.

“I see the Treasurer’s office as a place where a conservative like me can really make a change for the better,” Fiore said in an email.

“I think only a conservative with respect for the taxpayer’s dollars can be successful as treasurer. That does not describe my opponents in either the primary or the general elections. It does describe me. They don’t call me Lady Trump for nothing.”

If elected, Fiore said her top priorities for the office would be improving the economy, job numbers, and education.  She advocated for state money to be rerouted to vocational training programs, similar to a grant program implemented in Tennessee. 

Transparency about how much money received by the state is another priority listed by Fiore, who vowed to keep Nevadans “up to date on social media and in our searchable state databases.”

Nevada is set to receive billions in federal relief money and the state treasury office will have a big role in shaping how and where money will be spent. That money is largely earmarked for specific uses, however, Fiore said she would prioritize getting funds “back to the hands of individual Nevadans” and businesses.

During the first fundraising quarter, Fiore reported receiving $142,097 in contributions and spending $262,946. Going into the second quarter,  Fiore reported $35,722 cash on hand.

‘Business friendly’

First-time candidate Manny Kess is the founder and president of The Kess Group, a Las Vegas- based hospitality company. He moved to Las Vegas from New York in 2011 after losing his family restaurant during the Great Recession and eventually filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after years of financial issues including state tax liens. 

“I lost it all after the 2008 economic collapse and I fought hard to build myself up again to where now I’m very successful again,” Kess said. “Who better to lead us than someone who’s dealt with adversity and hardship.”

Nevada’s “business friendly” regulations, low-cost of living, and favorable tax environment allowed Kess to create a thriving business in the state, he said. In the years since moving to Las Vegas, Kess said Nevada has become a “fly-over state” for companies leaving California due to the high cost of business.

“We have to get back to the strengths of why people like myself move to Nevada,” Kess said. “It was because it was a state that offered opportunity and offered you the ability to work hard and make something of yourself.

Kess is also a co-owner of a sports bar in Hollywood, California called 3rd Base LA., and partial owner of several other businesses including a firearms manufacturer, an interior design firm, and a sports nutrition company. 

Kess said he believes his experience growing several companies in the state qualifies him for the position of state treasurer. If elected as state treasurer, Kess said his priority would be to make the office “the most transparent in the country.”

As part of his commitment to transparency, Kess said he would submit a bill draft request to create an “independent Office of the Inspector General with the power to audit Nevada’s public K-12 education system.”

If Democrats retain the governor’s seat, Kess said he would act as the “voice of reason” to provide political balance.

“Our current elected officials are not doing what’s best for the constituents,” Kess said. “They need to do better and we need to hold them accountable.”

Kess has been endorsed by Former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, Las Vegas City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman, Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony, and Douglas County Commissioner Danny Tarkanian.

During the first fundraising quarter, Kess reported receiving $125,543 in contributions and spending $46,027. Going into the second quarter, Kess reported $516,885 cash on hand, part of which is self-funded.

“My primary opponent is a career politician and I’m better suited because these career politicians constantly let us down and fail us and all they do is try to reinvent themselves so they can stay in power,” Kess said.

The post First-time candidate goes up against high-visibility firebrand in GOP treasurer primary appeared first on Nevada Current.

Byron Williams died while in police custody in 2019.

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

It’s been nearly two years since Byron Williams, an unarmed Black man who was pursued by officers because of a broken bicycle light, died in police custody after uttering “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times. 

Williams’ family is still seeking answers and trying to find justice after Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson decided last year not to file charges against the officers involved in his death.

Standing beside prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump and local attorney Antonio Romanucci on Thursday, Williams’s family fought back tears as they called for transparency and announced a federal civil lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Nevada. 

“The part that hurts the most is the fact that he is not only no longer with us, but the fact we have asked and continued to ask for transparency,” said Teena Acree, Williams’s niece. “We have continued to ask the police department for an unredacted video of what happened to our family. We have not received all of that” 

The 44-page federal lawsuit names the City of Las Vegas, Clark County, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and Sheriff Joe Lombardo as well as four officers, Patrick Campbell, Benjamin Vasquez, Alexander Gonzalez and Rocky Roman.

Attorneys say Metro has not released all the body camera footage from Williams’ arrest. The lawsuit also claims officers violated William’s 4th and 14th Amendment rights. 

In an email, Metro said it does not comment on pending litigation. 

Crump said the fact there were changes brought against the officers is “fertile ground for inquiry.” 

He added he would like “higher authorities” such as the Nevada Attorney General’s office and the U.S. Justice Department to investigate, but hasn’t formally asked those offices for intervention.

“This family is not going to give up on getting full accountability,” Crump said. 

Nearly nine months before Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer triggered nationwide protests in May 2020, Williams died Sept. 5, 2019 shortly after his arrest. 

As dawn broke on the horizon that morning, officers attempted to stop Williams because his bicycle’s safety light wasn’t on. Metro said he fled, which resulted in officers chasing him. 

On the video that Metro has released, Williams can be seen placed face down with his hands cuffed behind his back, and can be heard repeating over and over again, “I can’t breathe.”

“Because you’re fucking tired from running,” one officer responded. 

Crump said in some ways the circumstances of Williams’s death “might be worse than George Floyd,” because officers were joking about the situation. 

“We saw similar indifference and inhumanity here in the state of Nevada and the City of Las Vegas when Byron Williams was detained by police and said ‘I can’t breathe’ 24 times,” Crump said. “Like they gave George Floyd no consideration and no humanity, they gave the same exact thing to Byron Williams … A lie won’t live forever and we’re going to expose this lie. Byron Williams should not have been killed by the police for riding a bicycle while Black.” 

Bhavani Raveendran, another attorney who spoke Thursday, said while Metro has released some footage, they haven’t been able to obtain the complete footage and “there are at least 10 minutes where there is no video footage.”

“But what we did see officers do is put pressure on Byron Williams head, neck, shoulder blades and buttocks,” she said. 

Williams was pronounced dead less than an hour after his arrest. His death was ruled a homicide a month later by the Clark County Coroner’s Office.

“What we saw, what I saw, was the inhumane treatment of my uncle for not being given proper care,” Acree said. “He said he could not breathe over 21 times. I’m so tired of hearing this across America.”

While there was some local outrage immediately after his death, there was no national attention. 

Following Floyd’s death and nationwide protests around police violence against primarily Black communities, other cases around the country of mostly Black and Latinx people dying in police custody began getting attention.

Williams’s death was one of those. 

“Had George Floyd not been murdered, had he not been tortured for nine minute and 29 seconds, had Darnella Fraizer not videotaped George Floyd being murdered, these voices like Byron Williams across the country and the hundreds before him would have been silenced forever,” Romanucci said.

Last summer, Crump released a statement calling on Metro to release all the body camera footage. He said in that July 2020 statement, and reiterated on Thursday, that if the footage had been available in its raw, unedited form it might have sparked national outrage.

The civil lawsuit is as much about bringing closure and justice for Williams’s family as it is about bringing nationwide changes to policing and racial disparities in the justice system. 

Joining the Williams’s family Thursday morning was the brother and nephew of George Floyd, who both travel the country to speak about police reforms. 

“The dead cannot speak out for justice so we will do it for them,” said Philonise Floyd, George’s brother. 

While offering support for the Williams family, he also called for Congress to pass legislative reforms, specifically the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. 

The bill, which passed the House in March, would implement various police reforms including addressing police misconduct, enhance federal oversight over local police departments and making racial profiling illegal.

“Until the George Floyd police reform bill gets signed in Washington D.C., until that Senate decides there needs to be institutional accountability and transparency, we’re not done,” he said. 

Crump urged for reforms to be passed before there is “another George Floyd.”

“If we don’t do something, there will be another Byron Williams,” he said.

The post Metro sued in federal court over death of Byron Williams appeared first on Nevada Current.

In heat and drought like the western U.S. and Canada are experiencing in 2021, all it takes is a spark to start a wildfire. (Photo: Jim Watson/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The heat wave hitting the northwestern U.S. and Canada has been shattering records, with temperatures 30 degrees Fahrenheit or more above normal. With drought already gripping the West, the intense heat has helped suck even more moisture from millions of acres of forests and grasslands, bringing dead vegetation in many regions to record-dry levels and elevating the fire danger to its highest categories.

With this combination of extreme drought, heat and dry vegetation, all it takes is a spark to ignite a wildfire.

That’s why over 100 fire scientists, including us, along with fire officials across the West, are urging people to skip the fireworks this Fourth of July and to avoid other activities that could start a blaze.

Humans start the most wildfires on July Fourth

For decades, one of the most striking and predictable patterns of human behavior in the western U.S. has been people accidentally starting fires on the Fourth of July. From 1992 to 2015, more than 7,000 wildfires started in the U.S. on July 4 – the most wildfires ignited on any day during the year. And most of these are near homes.

With this year’s tinder-dry grasslands and parched forests, sparks from anything – a cigarette, a campfire, a power line, even a mower blade hitting a rock – could ignite a wildfire, with deadly consequences.

Year-round, humans extend the fire season by igniting fires when and where lightning is rare. And it is these very fires that pose the greatest threat to lives and homes: Over 95% of the wildfires that threatened homes in recent decades were started by people. Farther from human development – beyond the “wildland-urban interface” – the majority of area burned by wildfires in the West is still due to lightning.

Whether ignited by people or lightning, human-caused climate change is making fires easier to start and grow larger due to increasingly warm, dry conditions. The western U.S. saw these consequences during 2020’s record fire season – and the 2021 fire season has the ingredients to be just as devastating.

Here’s how to stay safe

We’ve spent years studying the causes and impacts of wildfires across North America and around the globe, and working with managers and citizens to envision how best to adapt to our increasingly flammable world. We’ve outlined strategies to manage flammable landscapes and thought carefully about how communities can become more resilient to wildfires.

When asked “What can we do?” many of our suggestions require long-term investments and political will. But there are things you can do right now to make a difference and potentially save lives.

Around your home, move flammable materials like dried leaves and needles, gas and propane containers and firewood away from all structures. Clean out your gutters. If you tow a trailer, make sure the chains don’t hang so low that they could hit the pavement and cause a spark. If you have to mow a lawn, do it in the cooler, wetter morning hours to prevent accidental sparks from igniting fires in dry grass. Don’t drop cigarette butts on the ground.

This Fourth of July, skip the fireworks and campfires – instead, catch a laser light show, make s’mores in the microwave and celebrate by keeping summer skies smoke-free for as long as possible.

Many communities are banning personal and public fireworks and voluntarily canceling fireworks displays because of wildfire concerns.

Adapting to increasingly uncharted territory

The fingerprints of human-caused climate change are all over the current drought, the recent heat waves, and what could become another record-setting fire season. Research highlights how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and magnitude of extreme events, including drought, wildfire activity and even individual extreme fire seasons.

Adapting to longer, more intense fire seasons will require reconsidering some traditions and activities. As you celebrate this Fourth of July, stay safe and help out the firefighters, your neighbors and yourself by preventing accidental wildfires.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Over 100 fire scientists urge the West: Skip the fireworks this record-dry 4th of July appeared first on Nevada Current.

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Mortgage assistance may be coming soon for Nevada homeowners who have been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic.

Nevada is set to receive $121 million in Homeowner Assistance Funds, approved as part of the American Rescue Plan.

On Tuesday, the state Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee accepted the first 10% of those funds. Lawmakers welcomed the additional assistance for struggling homeowners but raised concerns about the percentage of federal funds being used for administrative costs.

According to Nevada Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation CEO Verise Campbell, 15% of the $121 million total will be spent on administrative costs. An additional 3% will be spent on partnering agencies that help promote the homeowner assistance programs and assist people in signing up.

The remaining 82% will directly benefit homeowners across the state. NAHAC estimates approximately 6,800 households will be assisted.

After doing some quick back-of-the-napkin math, Assemblyman Glen Leavitt (R-Boulder City) noted this works out to roughly $2,600 per household in administrative costs and $14,500 per household in assistance.

“This seems a little inefficient,” he said.

Campbell in response emphasized “arduous” guidelines set at the federal level regarding allowable administrative expenses. The U.S. Treasury allows up to 15% of the total amount awarded to a state to be used on administrative costs.

“The Treasury is extremely strict about that,” she said.

Campbell also defended the administrative costs, saying NAHAC needs to set up the technological infrastructure and staff appropriately.

“In order to ramp up, you have to have a system that can handle it,” she added.

Campbell told lawmakers the organization plans to move “very aggressively” with the implementation of additional assistance for homeowners, but she also noted that the system updates would need to be contracted out through a request-for-proposal process that could take up to 90 days.

NAHAC is not currently accepting applications for assistance, according to its website.

In the meantime, homeowners may be finding financial relief from mortgage forbearance, which was included as part of last year’s CARES Act and is available for federally backed loans. According to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, a June 30 deadline for initially applying for forbearance applies to some federally backed loans. Forbearance puts a loan on temporary pause during a time of hardship, but it does not cover any costs the way the NAHAC-administered programs do.

NAHAC says the amount of assistance awarded to households will vary widely depending on need. Some homeowners went through last year’s pandemic programs multiple times, according to Campbell.

Campbell added that NAHAC is planning on instituting a $100,000 lifetime cap on the total assistance a household can receive. Individual programs will also have maximum award caps.

According to Campbell, approximately 8,000 households have already received assistance during the pandemic through NAHAC’s Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program, which pays current or past-due mortgages for people currently experiencing unemployment, and Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance Program, which helps homeowners who experienced pandemic hardship catch back up.

An estimated 5.93% of homes in the Las Vegas area were at least 90 days past due in January, reported the Review-Journal in April. In August 2020, an estimated 6.58% were.

While NAHAC is currently focused on its Unemployment Mortgage Assistance and Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance programs, Campbell noted that the needs may change as the state’s recovery evolves.

“We may have to come back and change to a principal reduction program,” she said, “or if things are really great and we don’t have as many people out of work, in three years we might want to do a downpayment assistance program.”

Campbell noted that more specific details on the implementation of the housing assistance funds would be available once the draft budget for the entire $121 million was completed.

Per federal guidelines, Tuesday’s meeting only moved the first 10% of that amount. The additional 90% will be released after Nevada submits its program and budget plans to the U.S. Treasury for approval. The official deadline for those plans is June 30, but Nevada Housing Division administrator Steve Aichroth told lawmakers the federal department is expected to extend that deadline because it doesn’t yet have the submission process figured out on its end.

Unlike emergency rental assistance, which was divided between municipalities and states, the homeowner assistance funds are only being distributed to states.

The assistance is being funnelled through the U.S. Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund, which was created during the Obama era as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for the states with high foreclosure rates during the Great Recession. NAHAC was the administrator for the state at that time too.

In 2016, TARP identified “waste and abuse” during an audit of Nevada’s Hardest Hit Fund. A subsequent report in 2018 found NAHAC had only assisted a little over half of the number of households it was supposed to.

The post More mortgage assistance on the way — eventually appeared first on Nevada Current.