Clark County Council hears options to expand affordable housing; staff to pursue 0.1% sales-tax authority

Jordan, a Clark County staff housing presenter, told the County Council that the purpose of the work session was to assemble in one place the array of tools the council could use to address affordable housing and to seek direction on next steps. "The hope for today is to present this to council, get your feedback, and then, get a sense from council if you do have some direction on what are some of the activities you'd like to move forward on," Jordan said.

Jordan summarized four high-level categories of housing: naturally occurring affordable housing and privately financed deed-restricted housing on the unsubsidized side, and inclusionary and government-subsidized housing on the subsidized side. He described current financing headwinds — a decline in the market value of low-income housing tax credits (from about $0.90–$0.95 on the dollar to about $0.80–$0.85) and higher interest rates and construction costs — and said those pressures increase the need for local subsidy and policy intervention.

Councilors discussed the scale of demand. A council member said the county comprehensive plan calls…