6 days ago
At Lombardo's request, Hansen ‘reluctantly' blocks bill to rein in runaway corporate home ownership
Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal listens while her Republican colleague Ira Hansen explains he's reluctantly voting against her bill to limit hedge fund ownership of housing at Gov. Joe Lombardo's request. (Legislative stream screengrab)
Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo asked the Republican legislative caucus to block a bill that attempts to limit cash-rich corporate investors from purchasing large swaths of housing in Nevada, Republican state Sen. Ira Hansen said on Tuesday.
State lawmakers passed several bills on Friday that seek to bolster tenant protections and make changes to the eviction system, many of which were based on similar proposals that were vetoed by Lombardo in 2023.
Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal also revived 2023 efforts vetoed by Lombardo to rein in corporate landlords. Senate Bill 391, which failed to pass Tuesday, proposed restricting corporate investors from purchasing more than 100 units per year.
Unlike the other housing bills that passed this session, SB 391 needed a two-thirds majority to pass since it imposed fees. A yes vote from Hansen, who had supported the bill, would have given the legislation the 14 to 7 vote needed to meet the two-thirds threshold. Instead, the vote was 13 to 8.
'For the first time this session, I have actually been asked by the executive branch to support a caucus 'no' position, which I have agreed to do,' Hansen said in a floor speech Tuesday, adding he was doing so 'very reluctantly.'
In an email to Nevada Current, Lombardo's press secretary Josh Meny said the governor was asked for input on SB 391 and 'voiced technical concerns with the initial draft of the legislation.'
The efforts to block legislation is disappointing, especially since Nevada is in the middle of a housing crisis, Neal said.
'Going into today's vote, this bill had bipartisan support because preventing corporations from robbing Nevadans of the American Dream should be a bipartisan issue,' she said in a statement. 'The only reason it didn't pass is because of Gov. Lombardo's intervention. Senate Democrats will continue to fight to enact this bill and protect Nevadans from predatory out-of-state investors.'
Hansen voted in support of Neal's 2023 bill. On Tuesday, he reaffirmed he still 'supported the concept' of the bill to do more to crack down on out-of-state investors, adding he was 'a little frustrated' that he had to vote against the legislation.
He warned that private investors are buying up the housing in Nevada, adding that 'in Clark County 15% of all the residential housing is owned by hedge funds.'
The estimate comes from Lied Center for Real Estate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas that found investors own roughly 15% of homes in the City of Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Review Journal has reported that corporate investors purchased 264 homes in a single day for $98 million.
Hansen said it creates a system where regular Nevadans are unable to purchase a home when up against out-of-state private equity investors.
'If me or a couple other ordinary people were bidding against Elon Musk, who is going to win that bidding war?' Hansen asked.
Hansen said he hoped that 'some of the better elements' of Neal's bill 'could somehow be incorporated in the last waning days of the session.'
In response to the state's growing housing shortage, Lombardo has brought forward Assembly Bill 540, which unanimously passed out of the Assembly Ways and Means committee Saturday.
AB 540 seeks a $133 million budget request to establish a Nevada Attainable Housing Fund and Council.
The legislation originally sought an allocation of $250 million in funding for housing projects.
Christine Hess, the chief financial officer of the Nevada Housing Division, said during the bill's hearing in April that $50 million of the funds would be directed toward 'loans and will remain assets of the division's trust so that we can continue to issue the hundreds of millions of bonds annually for home ownership and multi-family rental housing.'
The bill also proposed exempting projects from paying prevailing wages to construction workers that state law typically requires of publicly financed projects.
In addition to reducing the dollar amount, the legislation removed language around the prevailing wage.
'Any plans to address our state's housing crisis, including the Governor's own housing bill, mean nothing if there are no guarantees or protections that support access or attainment,' said Ben Iness, coalition manager of the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance. 'Until the state of housing is taken seriously, Nevadans will continue to be squeezed and priced out of homes by large corporate interests.'
That bulk of bills proposed by Democratic lawmakers that sought broader tenant protections and changes to the eviction process passed their final House in party-line votes on Friday.
Those bills are now headed to Lombardo's desk, where similar versions of several of them met their demise two years ago.
Assembly Bill 283, sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Max Carter, once again, seeks to revise the summary eviction process.
Nevada's 'summary' eviction system, which is unique to the state, allows landlords to evict tenants within days unless the tenant files a challenge to the eviction in court. Legal aid and housing groups have warned it has led to lightning quick evictions and worsened the state's housing crisis.
State lawmakers initially introduced efforts to change the system in 2021 when they had a Democratic state government trifecta, but the legislation was converted to a study bill. When a reform bill passed in 2023, Lombardo killed it.
Democratic Assemblymember Erica Roth of Reno also brought forward Assembly Bill 201 to expand efforts to automatically seal eviction records.
Democratic Assemblywoman Venecia Considine also brought back efforts that were killed in 2023 via Assembly Bill 121, which seeks to add transparency to the rental application process.
Considine also carried bills to address the state's habitation laws.
Assembly Bill 211 allows a third party to take over the property until the repairs are made and living conditions improved.
Assembly Bill 223 seeks to remedy the process and give tenants more power to hold landlords accountable for failing to provide livable conditions such as running water, working air conditioning, and a functioning lock on doors and windows.
Legislation seeking to cap rent increases for seniors, which was revived by Democratic Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui, also passed out of its final house.
Assembly Bill 280 would limit landlords from raising rents more than 5% on tenants 62 years or older or relies on Social Security payments through the end of 2026 and requires landlords to refund application fees if they don't screen a tenant who applied for the unit.
