City of Las Vegas wants state lawmakers to modify health, housing statutes

Las Vegas City Hall. (Photo by S. Savanapridi/City of Las Vegas)

Las Vegas city officials are hoping state lawmakers create a definition for medical respite care to help pay for health services for the unhoused, and boost incentives to create more affordable housing.

The Las Vegas City Council on Tuesday approved three bill draft requests for the 2025 Legislative Session. Local governments are allotted bill draft requests before each regular session of the legislature. Clark County approved their requests earlier this week.

One proposal from the city is seeking a statutory definition of “medical respite care” that would aid the city in paying for medical services at the Recuperative Care Center within the Corridor of Hope, an area near downtown Las Vegas where homeless services are located.

If unhoused individuals are released from the hospital or need a place to recover while undergoing medical care, “they are often brought to our place by other entities and we offer care there for as long as they need it to help them heal,” said Randy Robinson, the director of government affairs with the city.

“While they are there we try to get them connected to other services that will help them on their path back to self sufficiency,” he said.

Las Vegas City Councilwoman Nancy Brune said the center “is a critical resource but it’s expensive.”

Medical services at the center are paid from from the city’s general fund, Robinson said.

The city reached out to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services on ways to alleviate the costs.

Robinson said the “idea of a Medicaid code for medical respite care for this population” was proposed as a way to “allow for Medicaid reimbursement for medical respite care.”

Another bill draft request the city is seeking would tweak the state’s tax incentive statute in an effort to persuade developers to build more affordable housing.

The city currently can offer developers incentives and offset permit fees if they build affordable housing for households making up to 60% of area median income. The proposal seeks to increase it up to 120% of AMI to target housing for the “missing middle,” Robinson said.

““This is housing generally for folks like teachers, police officers, and health care workers,” he said. “Those who are making a decent wage but unfortunately with all of the different economic factors in play, housing becomes further and further out of their reach.”

The proposal would also “encourage compact, infill multifamily, multiuse kinds of development,” he said.

The third proposal is to clean up an existing statute regulating the local land use planning process.

“There are things in our planning process in state law that aren’t as clear as they could be,”  Robinson said.

City Council Victoria Seaman cast the lone vote against the final proposal saying it could have “unintended consequences that could negatively impact developers and the city.”

“The current process, when done right, has worked exceptionally well and managed development and growth in the city,” she said. “While our master plan is a critical roadmap for the future, it shouldn’t overly restrict city council from evaluating projects individually to determine their availability and appropriateness.”

The other two proposals passed unanimously.