A look at affordable housing in Carson City: Is there enough?

Carson City Supervisors recently rejected a recommendation from the city's Growth Management Commission that would have designated a portion of available building permits specifically for affordable housing units.

The proposal would have increased growth allocations by 3 percent, with 2 percent for market-rate housing and 1 percent set aside for affordable housing starts specifically targeting workforce housing.

While Mayor Lori Bagwell cited her denial in language and definition concerns, Supervisor Maurice White stated that Carson City “has enough affordable housing.”

He went on to say the “scheme” for affordable housing permits is illegal since the specific term “affordable housing” is not contained within Carson City Municipal Code Title 18.12 despite it being defined in state law.

White cited a document issued in 2021 on affordable housing from the Nevada Housing Authority, which he said stated there is “sufficient affordable housing in Carson City.”

However, on a review of the document White cited, Carson Now could not draw the same conclusion as White did from the document.

In fact, the document cited numerous reasons there is a lack of affordable housing including a lack of new inventory, keeping individuals in older properties that would be affordable for lower income individuals, extremely low vacancy rates, increasing rents, increasing home prices, and decreasing affordability for homebuyers, among others.

The document also stated that since 2012, Carson City has become less and less affordable to the median income family.

Currently, there is a shortage of roughly 1,000 units of housing affordable to very low income households, and that low income households often have to compete with higher income households for the units that could be considered affordable for their household.

Housing is considered affordable when it consumes no more than 30 percent of a household's income, according to the federal government’s definition.

On average, a Carson City citizen brings home $37,599 per year in earnings, according to census data. That means that an individual should not be spending more than $939 per month on housing to be considered affordable.

A cursory search on rental listings in Carson City determined that there were no studio or 1 bedroom apartments for $939 or less.

The area median income for households in Carson City is $58,305, which would mean that a single household bringing home that amount should not be spending more than $1,457 on housing to be considered affordable. The average household contains 2.4 people.

Of the rental listings reviewed, there were 10 listings of 2 bedroom apartments or houses out of 50 total listings that could be considered affordable for the median Carson City household — indicating only 20 percent of rentals in Carson City could be considered “affordable.”

For many lower income individuals, affordable housing continues to be a struggle. With closures of motels and low-income apartment complexes, many Carson City residents have found themselves with no where to turn.

According to Katie Coleman of the Nevada Rural Housing Authority, there are a number of reasons why affordable housing is limited in many rural communities.

For example, if there is sudden demand, such as a new industry or mine, there is typically insufficient housing to meet the increased demand.

Sometimes, however, there are no sudden changes in demand but instead, low-income residents are simply pushed out of current housing due to increased costs.

“Housing can be its own little ecosystem in a rural area,” Coleman said.

Building costs can also have an effect on stunting housing growth.

“With development costs rising rapidly, it is virtually impossible to develop new units that could be affordable to lower-income households unless there are some kind of subsidies available that help lower the debt — incurred to develop a property — or to lower the cost of operating the property,” Coleman said. “These subsidies are very limited, and thus inadequate to meet demand where and when it occurs.”

In addition, in some communities, there is a resistance to developing affordable housing, and that resistance is often based in stigma and the stereotyping of the types of residents who would live there, Coleman said, based on “unfounded fears” about traffic, crime and other concerns.  
 
A major issue facing low-income individuals is the fact that, not only are Section 8 vouchers limited in and of themselves, but there are less and less landlords accepting Section 8 vouchers based on those same unfounded fears.

“The fact is, more than 2/3 of Nevada Rural Housing’s voucher recipients are elderly or disabled,” Coleman said. “Many are single mothers. Unit wear and tear by tenants who utilize a voucher versus the average non-voucher-holding tenant is no different.”

As a result of this bias, however, for every 100 vouchers issued, only 38 have been able to successfully lease a unit with it.

That means 62 of those 100 voucher recipients have waited months for the opportunity to receive a voucher, only to find they are unable to use it.

According to Coleman, NRH is working on a program to help the voucher to be more enticing to a landlord, with lease-up incentives, a damage repair program, and landlord support and outreach.

However, even with more enticing programming, without affordable housing developments being built, it’s possible that tenants will face the same issues as “luxury” housing continues to be built over affordable housing complexes.

According to Coleman, while there is no “silver bullet” to solve the housing issue, there are a few ways that local communities and governments can support affordable housing.

“Local governments can do a variety of things to help entice housing development, including things like developing ordinances to allow or enhance the development of accessory dwelling units; allowing for increased density which brings down the cost of new development; allowing for density bonuses; bring public land to the table – often local governments have parcels of land that could serve to support the development of new housing; provide support through in-kind assistance with utility extensions and other means; utilize locally available resources such as CDBG funding or redevelopment funds that could help defray the cost of development; be a partner in adaptive re-use of vacant properties such as vacant school buildings or manufacturing facilities that could be re-adapted for housing and bring those properties back onto the tax rolls; and many more.”

Carson City has done a few of these so far, such as the donation of public land for the creation of the affordable housing projects known as Sierra Flats in East Carson City, and has approved low-income senior housing projects throughout the city.

However, some residents looking for additional affordable housing developments may have found themselves disappointed by the supervisors decision to reject the Growth Management Commission’s recommendation.