COMMENTARY: The roadmap for easing Clark County’s housing crunch

There’s a shortage of affordable housing in this country, and we certainly feel that in Nevada. As our state continues to grow — Southern Nevada is anticipating an increase in population of 820,000 people by 2060. We need to build hundreds of thousands of new homes Nevadans can afford as quickly and responsibly as we can.

Expanding affordable housing in Nevada is my priority in the Senate, and I’m working on solutions that would not only make more public land available to build homes, but also guarantee that Nevadans benefit from the process.

Here’s how it works.

The federal government owns 88 percent of the land in Clark County. We have a framework in place for the federal government to sell public land within a specific boundary around Las Vegas, which is called the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. This law makes sure the federal government is working with Clark County to determine when and where any development will take place, and it ensures all the revenue from the land sales comes back to Nevada.

Under the act, 5 percent of the revenue goes toward our state education fund, 10 percent goes toward our water infrastructure and the other 85 percent is for conservation projects such as wildfire prevention, outdoor recreation and infrastructure needs at the Spring Mountains and Lake Mead, neighborhood parks and trails and Lake Tahoe restoration. Land-sale revenues under the law have brought nearly $4 billion back to Nevada. There’s no other system like it in the country!

The act has guided land sales in Southern Nevada since 1998, and now it’s time to increase the amount of land eligible for sale so we can build more homes Nevadans can afford, ensure the land sales work in Nevadans’ favor and put the money from those sales back into the community.

That’s what my legislation does. The Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act — the “Clark County Lands Bill” — expands the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act’s land disposal boundary so more land can be sold. It will ensure some parcels of public land sold go to tribes in Clark County, to local communities for other municipal and economic development needs and to the Metropolitan Police Department for training areas. It protects a historic amount of land for conservation and outdoor recreation, such as expanding Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, all while bringing money back to Southern Nevada. And it ensures public land is available to build more affordable housing. This is a targeted approach to Clark County lands that balances the need for affordable housing and economic development with vital conservation efforts.

Some believe that demanding the release of more land from the federal government is the sole answer to our housing needs. If only it were that easy. To expand housing supply, you have to have a balance of water management, conservation, national security, tribal interests and development. You also need financing, which is often complex, and you need streamlined approvals from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Bureau of Land Management. My bill takes all of this into consideration.

I worked with Clark County to make sure this bill includes as many stakeholders as possible. It has bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate, and it’s backed by various groups in Southern Nevada, including the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Southern Nevada Water Authority, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Metro, Nevada Wildlife Federation, Nevada Conservation League, Nevada Housing Coalition, Nevada State AFL-CIO, and the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association. This is smart legislation that will put Nevadans first.

The Clark County lands bill is just a piece of the work I’ve been doing to make sure Nevadans can access affordable housing. Just before Christmas last year, working with Rep. Susie Lee, I passed a bill to speed up the federal government’s process for approving sales of our public lands. I also successfully pushed for the BLM and HUD to update their guidelines and streamline the inefficient process that had been preventing developers from constructing new affordable homes on public land.

Based on my conversations with housing advocates, developers and the county, I also know that utilizing public lands to expand affordable housing is only one piece of this puzzle. That’s why I’m working in the Senate to modernize the largest federal affordable housing block grant and fund infrastructure improvements in manufactured home communities. And, I’m pushing Congress to give homebuilders and Nevada families the financial support they need to build and buy homes. If we want to most effectively tackle our housing shortage, we need to explore as many avenues as possible.

I know there’s still a lot of work ahead to expand homeownership in Nevada, especially as our population continues to grow. We need to be smart in our planning and listen to the needs of the community. I’m going to keep working to pass my Clark County Lands Bill so we can build more homes Nevadans can afford, grow responsibly, and protect our public lands.

Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, represents Nevada in the U.S. Senate.