CARSON CITY — The Senate Public Safety and Security Committee heard hours of testimony on SB6, the Windsor (Winslow) Park Environmental Justice Act, as residents described living in sinking homes and lawmakers debated technical fixes to earlier legislation intended to rehouse families and preserve a memorial park.

Sen. Dina Neal, the bill sponsor, opened the hearing by saying SB6 is intended to correct “language in black and white” left unclear after prior legislation (including SB450 enacted July 1, 2023) and to provide remedies for roughly 93 Windsor Park families affected by subsidence. “We had hope that we would move forward with the $37,000,000 that we had for these families,” Neal said, and the current bill attempts to close gaps that prevented full implementation.

Why it matters: Residents of Windsor Park — a historically Black neighborhood in North Las Vegas built in the 1960s that later suffered geological subsidence — have waited decades for relocation or meaningful remediation. Neal and supportive witnesses said SB6 would complete the state’s prior commitments: transfer appropriate funding, enable voluntary home exchanges, preserve tax treatment for relocated households and create a memorial park on parcels acquired by the state or its designee.

What the bill would change: Neal and housing officials described a package of technical revisions and policy clarifications. The measure would broaden acceptable proof of ownership or inheritance to capture households without recorded title (drawing on “close‑heir” concepts used after disasters), retain a housing‑division reporting requirement, clarify which streets and vacant lots are included, and specify that certain liens placed on exchanged homes would be forgivable for five years to deter investor flipping. Neal also proposed language to freeze property tax treatment for transferred households for 30 years so existing tax rates transfer to the new homes.

Funding and timing: Neal said SB450 previously allocated $37 million (a $12 million general‑fund component and $25 million from ARPA). Housing Division witnesses said the original appropriation and contract will build 59 homes; additional funding (the bill requests up to $25 million more in the current package) is intended to reach up to 93 homes in total. Steve Acroft, administrator of the Nevada Housing Division, told the committee that approximately $2.4 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds are being targeted for demolition of old homes — an eligible use after environmental review — but that relocation and construction would rely on other appropriations.

Residents’ testimony: More than a dozen Windsor Park homeowners described cracked walls and sidewalks, plumbing failures, unusable bathrooms, rising electricity costs from heat loss and the emotional toll of decades of deferred maintenance. “We paid our taxes, and we deserve to be treated better,” one resident said. Several new buyers testified they purchased homes after earlier municipal action and only later discovered severe subsidence.

Support from groups and developer comments: Local advocacy organizations — including the NAACP Las Vegas, Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition, Sierra Club and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada — urged the committee to pass SB6 as environmental and housing justice. The project developer phoned in to express commitment to finishing the 93‑home development and to meet a December 2026 construction timeline if funding is secured.

Neutral concerns and next steps: The Division of State Lands testified in a neutral position that proposed language about state custody and subsequent transfer of park parcels is vague and could impose substantial workload and real‑property consolidation duties on that agency. Charlie Donohue, the State Lands administrator, asked the sponsor and drafters to identify the exact executing entity and to tighten statutory language; he said the division had not been involved in late edits and warned it might need a fiscal note if dragged into unexpected responsibilities. Neal acknowledged the concerns, pledged to work with legal counsel and stakeholders on an amendment and told the committee she would not be “cornered” from finishing the project.

Outcome and procedural note: The committee closed the SB6 hearing after sponsor remarks and recessed; no committee vote occurred during the session covered by this hearing. Neal said she would continue drafting clarifying amendments addressing State Lands’ questions and other technical fixes.

What remains unclear: The final ownership model for the memorial park (temporary state custody then transfer to the City of North Las Vegas was one option discussed), the exact additional appropriation amount lawmakers will approve, and the legal mechanics for ensuring the five‑year lien and 30‑year tax freeze function as intended. Committee staff and sponsors said they will return with clarified language.

The committee record includes extensive first‑person testimony from Windsor Park residents describing health, safety and infrastructure problems tied to long‑running subsidence; the bill sponsor and state housing officials said SB6 seeks to convert that record and prior commitments into executable law and to finish the relocation, construction and park memorialization work started in prior sessions.