A $50 million grant will help replace public housing units with a blend of subsidized and market-rate homes, tripling capacity on the Historic Westside.
More than 50 units were demolished at the Marble Manor public housing project last fall as part of the first phase of its revitalization. At a recent groundbreaking ceremony, leaders celebrated this as a step toward a rebuild, marking the start of construction on 138 units that will cover most of the newly-cleared land.
Backed by a $53 million Choice Neighborhood Implementation (CNI) grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the rebuild will combine public housing with affordable units supported by low-income tax credits and market-rate homes.
According to Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority Executive Director Lewis Jordan, the federal grant was “seed money” that attracted nearly $400 million in private investment, resulting in the development of a master-planned community with 625 units, up from 235.
“It was a competitive process,” he said about obtaining the federal grant. “[The CNI grant] will leverage what will ultimately be somewhere around $375 to $400 million … So, we’re fundraising.”
Las Vegas City Councilwoman Sondra Summers Armstrong, whose district the development is in, called the redevelopment a “promise to the community.”
“When we broke ground on the West Side Education and Training Center, I said that was the engagement ring,” she said. “And today we have the wedding band.”
Developers, members of the US Congress, housing officials, city leaders, and residents gathered by the plot of land, acknowledging the site as an effort to address the region’s longstanding disinvestment and history of redlining.
“This community has stood here for more than 70 years,” Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nevada) said, whose district includes the development. “Families have battled through disinvestment, through a housing crisis that has been decades in the making, and today we break ground on a new beginning.”
The reconstruction also reflects a broader shift toward mixed-income housing models, rather than solely traditional public housing.
“We’re not just what you call packing poverty,” Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy said, whose district encompasses the region. “We have residents who are going to be at 30% to 50% AMI, 80% AMI, and also who are voucher holders, and also who are in public housing.”
McCurdy noted that the Clark County Commission contributed $10 million to the first phase.
In the process, housing officials relocated several dozen tenants from the 56 demolished units—using housing voucher transfers and Section 8 assistance—and have promised a right to return for those who qualify.
Former Marble Manor resident Rick Kinsey obtained Section 8 through the first phase of the relocation program about a year ago and moved to an eastside apartment before his home was flattened. He was raised in Marble Manor, inheriting his mother’s housing voucher as a teenager when she passed away.
In an interview with The Nevadan-El Nevadense, he said the demolition of his home not only sparks a new beginning for the community but also for him personally.
“I love it,” he said about his new community. “It’s not people hanging out all the time. You can get a piece of fresh air.”
