Housing

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. – The Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless invites the South Shore community to attend their second annual Warm Room Open House on Wednesday, February 22 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at 2179 Lake Tahoe Boulevard, South Lake Tahoe. The Warm Room provides overnight refuge from the elements in a safe and warm environment for adult men and women who are experiencing homelessness.

The Open House offers visitors a chance to tour the 2016-2017 space of operation, to meet volunteers and Board members, and to ask questions about the program and homelessness in our community.

The City of South Lake Tahoe's second workshop on vacation home rentals (VHRs) drew about 45 people in person Wednesday, while several others participated from home via the internet. As is every discussion about VHRs in the community, passions ran high and differences were apparent.

Valhalla Tahoe is looking for three artists to participate in this summer's Artists-in-Residence program in South Lake Tahoe in July and August.

As part of the Valhalla Art, Music & Theatre Festival, an annual summer arts festival at the historic Heller (Valhalla) Estate, the artists are highlighted in the Viking Gallery.

Valhalla Tahoe invites artists to submit a proposal for consideration for the 2017 season.

During their meeting Tuesday, the Douglas County School District Board of Trustees turned down a request by the buyer of Kingsbury Middle School (KMS) for almost $100,000 to be spent on a environmental impact study of the planned development of the South Shore property.

Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless (TCH) would like to thank Alpine Carpet One for their support. In December, TCH opened the South Lake Tahoe Warm Room for the winter 2016-17 season. Alpine Carpet One was a generous supporter not only of our fall fundraiser but by donating carpet for our space. This donation helps keep our guests experiencing homelessness more comfortable in the Warm Room. The Warm Room plans to remain open through early April.

Our community needs the temporary shelter that the Warm Room provides – not just for those homeless guests who use it, but for everybody else, too. Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge could tell you why.

A full agenda awaits the new City Council as soon as the two new members are sworn in on Tuesday, December 13.

The 9:00 a.m. meeting in the council chambers at the Lake Tahoe Airport starts with the Administeration of Oath to Brooke Laine and Jason Collin and will be followed by a presentation by South Lake Tahoe Police Chief Brian Uhler on what the passage of Proposition 64 means for the city. He will be joined by others from Barton and the Drug Free Coalition who will discuss the implications on the community with increased access to marijuana.

Summit County is currently in the review process for a 28-acre workforce housing site in Keystone from a development partner of Vail Resorts.

With the dormitories at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) currently at 121 percent of capacity, new housing projects are being built to accommodate the growing campus population.

One company that is helping create new housing opportunities in Reno is Pink Hill Properties, a company that has ties to South Lake Tahoe.

Pink Hill's co-CEOs Kevinn Pinkney and Garry Hill-Thomas both played basketball for the UNR Wolf Pack and later played professionally. Hill-Thomas is currently an assistant coach with the Reno Bighorns.

By now, most people have heard: Federal courts upheld the 2012 Regional Plan for Lake Tahoe, affirming the blueprint that maintains development caps and strengthens environmental protections while encouraging community revitalization, redevelopment, and updated infrastructure.

Capturing the most attention these days is the traffic in our small communities from millions of people who drive up to enjoy our lake. And the transportation system is where TRPA is giving more focused attention to benefit Tahoe’s environment, economy, and quality of life.

St. Joseph Community Land Trust wishes to thank the Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe for its recent donation to our 'Motel to Housing Program.' This program is designed to assist low-income working families who are living in substandard housing such as motels. Short-term loans are made to qualified households to help pay with upfront moving costs such as cleaning or security deposits and first and last month's rent. St. Joseph Community Land Trust wishes to express its sincere gratitude and thankfulness for your generous donation.

- Cathy Kope, Interim Exutive Director, St. Joseph CLT

6:00 a.m. 11/9 Update: It took awhile for ballots to be counted, but 100 percent of the precincts have now been counted for El Dorado County and South Lake Tahoe. The results are unofficial as some mail-in ballots will still be tallied.

Former councilwoman Brooke Laine and hospital executive Jason Collin will be headed to the South Lake Tahoe City Council in what turned out to be a close race with local politics newcomer, Tamara Wallace. Current Councilwoman JoAnn Conner will not be returning for a second term.

SLT City Council results, the top two vote-getters win:

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Trey Riddle, 38 years old, Bartender, 3 years in South Lake Tahoe

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Dan McLaughlin, 66, Sales Manager for Lake Tahoe Television, has lived in Lake Tahoe for 43 years.

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Jason Collin, 43, Administrative Director of Post-Acute Services & Owner/Race Director for Epic Tahoe Adventures, 8 years living in Tahoe.

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Brooke Laine, 52, Branch Manager, US Bank, Born and raised in SLT

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

In an effort to clear up misinformation about the proposed US50 Community
Revitalization/Loop Road Project, the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce (TahoeChamber) hosted a public meeting Thursday evening at the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel. With the amount of negative public comments and voiced skepticism during past meetings, Measure T, and in social media, a larger group was expected than the 35 people who attended (and many of those were Tahoe Transportation and Tahoe Chamber staff).

It is an exciting time to live on the South Shore – during a critical point in our region’s evolution and potential. It is time to set our course: moving away from bickering and blaming, exclusionary special interests and single-industry dominance to consensus-building and proactively choosing progress. Whether we live in Nevada or California, everyone benefits from uniting towards a sustainable vision for the South Shore.

In order to be a successful community on the South Shore, the state line needs to become a blur and both sides need to work together. There should be no "us" and "them" but a collective "we."

When travelers come to Lake Tahoe they don't see a state line, or a direction on the compass, they see a beautiful recreational paradise that just a few people are able to call home, but millions can call a vacation destination.

A prime piece of real estate in Tahoe City that was originally built in 1957 for housing during the 1960 Olympics has never lived up to its potential, and is now proposed for destruction to make way for a 118-room hotel.

Sold at the end of 2013, the property known as the Hendrickson Building located at the west end of Tahoe City at 255 North Lake Blvd. is being transformed into the Tahoe City Lodge.

A new project is being planned for the Town of Truckee that will include a 127 room hotel and five three-story apartment buildings with 138 rental units.

The hotel portion will be named Marriott SpringHill Suites and the apartments, Coburn Crossing.

The Triumph Development Hotel and Residential Project, will be laid out on over 11 acres adjacent to the Truckee Cemetery and Highway 80 on East Jiboom Street.

Like many communities that are highly-desirable places to vacation and live, Lake Tahoe has affordable housing problems. Two recent studies commissioned by the Tahoe Prosperity Center and Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation clearly illustrate the housing challenges our region faces.

Median home prices of more than $500,000 on the North Shore and nearly $400,000 on the South Shore are simply too high for our region’s low wages, putting the cost of home ownership and even rent out of reach for many working people.

The South Lake Tahoe chapter of the Citizen's Climate Lobby recently asked all ten of the candidates their views on climate change, green buildings and our carbon footprint and how they can make a change if elected.

The Citizen's Climate Lobby is an organization focused on national policies to address climate change, and the South Lake Tahoe chapter is one of 354 in the United States and abroad.

Patricia Sussman of the local chapter said just five of the candidates responded to their questions.

You hear of the "great recession" causing issues in many areas from jobs and income to housing, but another victim is quality child care in South Lake Tahoe.

Prior to 2009 there were over 45 licensed day care providers on the South Shore, a majority of them licensed for 12 children and open evenings and weekends. Now, there are just 20, 12 of which are licensed for 12, the other eight are small licenses, for six children or less.