"The Housing Crisis in Northern Nevada" by Lesley Patterson

December 9, 2019

The Housing Crisis in Northern Nevada

In case you didn’t know, there is a housing crisis happening in Northern Nevada.  Not only are most homes overpriced and unaffordable, but the Rural and Reno Housing Agencies are full up with waiting lists that sprawl long into the 2-year range waiting list time-wise.  If you’ve ever been the unfortunate victim of the Eviction process, you’re likely to be house hunting for a long time before you’ll even find the very few places or properties that will rent to you.  Also, you can expect your original security deposit costs to skyrocket into an unfathomable (and once again, an unaffordable) range.  Add any pets that you or your family has, and you’re likely to be paying an arm and a leg in initial down deposit fees.  There is also a lot of Housing Discrimination occurring astronomically including landlords who refuse anyone who is receiving social security benefits.  (For instance, most landlords will ask if you work and if you answer honestly and attest to the fact that you’re on disability then they no longer want to see you as a prospective tenant. Your most often automatically written off at that point as “un-rentable” at that point.) Speaking of being disabled and house hunting, also landlords will often attempt to charge you extra pet rent (or more often, they’ll require both pet rent and an extra security deposit amount) or additional security deposits for your Service Animals.  Just so we’re clear here, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states that Service Animals are to be accepted like any other medical device would be such as a wheelchair. and your landlord legally may never charge you either pet rent or an additional pet deposit fee for them.  Lastly, if you are Disabled and seeking housing, prepare to be put on many, many waitlists and also know that the current waiting list duration period is about 2-3 years long.  This is how long the waiting lists for affordable or public housing areas of this date in the Northern and Rural Nevada area.  It fills out hearts with sadness that there is so much of a need for anything even convincingly affordable because there are many if the hidden homeless I. our state who need access to safe, affordable, sanitary housing and there is such a lack of that right now that it’s not even funny.  There is also an extreme lack of emergency housing services here in Nevada, where if you need immediate help or shelter, you may be just out of luck.  Rental rates are soaring all over the city of Reno, and in Sparks, and HUD can’t seem to provide enough of it I meet the needs of the population of the current town.  It inundates caseworkers at places like Homeless and Housing Services within Social Services with heavy caseloads with no visible end in sight.  They are so overburdened that they cannot even provide emergency housing at the moment, and with state programs like HUD and the local Housing Authorities, you’re looking at about a 2-year wait period in the least.  It truly seems that the old adage of, “the rich keep getting richer and the poor get poorer” is ever prevalent these days.  I am going to do another Blog Entry all about the current available Housing Services and Emergency Programs as well as Resources for those in need in my next entry, so be sure to stay tuned and keep up the hope that there’s a better tomorrow for all of us in store if we can just preserve through these hard times.  We need to take steps to make our communities better, stronger, and more dependable.  Most importantly, we need to share all of the information and resources that we come across with others because knowledge of them and the research it takes to find them are half of the battle.  Keep fighting the good fight!