Need for eviction assistance ‘is only going to get greater,' state lawmaker warns

Yahoo

08-04-2025

(Photo: Ronda Churchill/Nevada Current)
Anticipating growing economic hardship, state lawmakers are considering appropriating an additional $25 million in eviction diversion funds to prevent tenants who fall behind on rent from being locked out of their homes.
Assembly Bill 475, heard Friday in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, would appropriate $18 million to Clark County and $7 million to Reno to continue their ongoing eviction diversion programs. Tenants who qualify for the program are able to get outstanding rents paid and avoid an eviction.
Democratic Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno, the bill's sponsor, anticipated more people could be at risk of financial insecurity and eviction since 'the times we are living in are going to get more interesting.'
'There is a need for eviction support in our state, and I believe it's only going to get greater,' Monroe-Moreno said.
Monroe-Moreno's concerns are shared throughout the nation and the world, as the trade war started by Donald Trump last week has led to historic nosedives in markets and increasing fears of a recession.
Both Clark and Washoe counties have benefited from rental assistance dollars to divert people from evictions, said Jonathan Norman, statewide advocacy, outreach and policy director for Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers.
Since pandemic-era rental assistance has scaled back, eviction diversion has been exclusive to people living with disabilities or who are elderly with fixed incomes.
The $25 million request is higher than $18 million approved in 2023.
'The reason the ask is higher is because we want to expand beyond seniors and adults with disabilities to families with young kids,' Norman said. 'In Clark County, they identified about 1,600 families with a child under the age of one at risk for eviction. This would allow us to route those cases to eviction diversion as well.'
Reno Judge Kendra Bertschy told lawmakers the proposed financial allocation is a 'crucial investment in community stability, public safety and responsible governance.'
'The need for legislative support for rental assistance remains urgent,' she said. 'Economic challenges, medical emergencies, and other unforeseen events continue to put renters at risk of eviction. Without continued funding, many will face housing insecurity, increasing the burden on emergency services, shelters and the judicial system ultimately costing taxpayers more.'
Prior to the pandemic, the Las Vegas Justice Court averaged about 33,000 eviction cases filed each year, said Las Vegas Judge Jessica Goodey.
There have been 'record high filings' and Las Vegas Justice Court had '43,030 evictions filed' in 2024,' she said. She didn't note how many evictions were granted in 2024.
'To date in 2025, we have had 9,985 evictions and we are anticipating that number to continue to increase with the current state of affairs,' Goodey said.
From the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, state and local governments have used federal relief dollars to help people at risk of eviction.
Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed a bill in 2023 that would extend a modified version of an eviction protection passed by state lawmakers in 2021 that temporarily paused an eviction while rental assistance applications were pending.
However, Lombardo approved Assembly Bill 396 in 2023 that allocated $18 million in rental assistance dollars.
State lawmakers originally sought to approve $44 million for rental assistance in Clark and Washoe county with AB 396 in 2023. The amount was reduced to $12 million for Clark County and $3 million each for Reno and Sparks and Reno.
The Las Vegas Justice Court used the funds to expand its existing eviction diversion program while Reno stood up a new eviction diversion program, Norman said.
Of the cases going through the Vegas court, '1,375 diverted cases in 2024 were households with an adult with a disability and 575 were seniors,' he said.
While he said Reno has offered rental assistance since the pandemic, it only recently started a housing justice court that offers an eviction diversion program.
Since Reno's eviction diversion court started in August, '94 households went through the eviction diversion program with 80% of them remained housed,' Norman said.
Without additional funds provided by the state, the program most likely won't be able to continue, Bertschy said.
Republican Assemblymember P.K. O'Neill questioned if lawmakers were forgetting to allocate rental assistance support for rurals.
When lawmakers were debating the 2023 allocations, rurals indicated they were still using ARPA dollars for rental support, Norman said. He said they indicated they wouldn't need additional funds through the legislature.
Monroe-Moreno said she is looking into an amendment to include funding for rural areas.
The committee took no action on the bill.