Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) applauding the Biden Administration’s plan to sell 20 acres of public land near Las Vegas for new affordable housing in the valley. This sale will be the first under the updated Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA) guidelines that Cortez Masto pushed for last year to make it easier to build new housing for working families on federal land. In the letter, Cortez Masto calls on the BLM to quickly finalize this sale and to provide updates on how the new guidance is being used to promote additional affordable housing opportunities.
“In order to make sure SNPLMA’s affordable housing authority can be more optimally utilized, I previously urged BLM and the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD) to revise the existing guidance,” Cortez Masto wrote. “While I am pleased that [they] affirmatively responded to my request and [are] processing the aforementioned Cactus Trails project, I remain concerned about the speed and efficiency in how the new guidance can be deployed as Nevada’s affordable housing crisis continues to grow.”
Cortez Masto’s letter calls on the BLM to submit detailed information about how the new SNPLMA guidance is being implemented and the status of all pending applications for land sales to develop affordable housing.
“I appreciate that [BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning] joined me for an April 2023 event at a senior-living affordable housing project made possible through SNPLMA where we discussed the urgent need for more affordable housing units with HUD and Clark County…As such, I urge BLM to prioritize all tools available to help meet our affordable housing needs,” she concluded.
You can read the full letter text HERE.
Senator Cortez Masto has been a leader working to lower costs and build more housing supply. Last August, she announced that the BLM and HUD had updated the SNPLMA Affordable Housing Guidance to make it easier to build affordable housing on federally-owned land. Cortez Masto worked with local stakeholders in Las Vegas to repeatedly push for this streamlined and improved guidance. Her Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act would provide additional land to help Clark County construct affordable housing units, and she’s introduced bicameral legislation to make it easier for local governments to complete land transfers vital to achieving Nevada’s housing goals. Just this year, Cortez Masto secured $9.4 million from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco to support nine affordable housing developments across Nevada, including for Tribes, and she’s leading legislation to significantly increase the amount of federal funds for the HOME Investment Partnership Program to build affordable housing across the country.
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