Douglas County forming housing task force

An Affordable Housing Task Force has been formed to assist Douglas County in its efforts to develop quality affordable housing opportunities. This has been in the works since July when they entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nevada Rural Housing Authority “For Creating a Viable Path to Achieving Affordable Housing for Douglas County, Nevada.”

Part of the Board of County Commissioners Strategic Plan includes evaluating the potential of offering affordable housing development incentives through the update of the Housing Element of the Master Plan.

The initial goal of this Task Force will be to realistically establish the following:

A. Current pricing for affordable housing in the area or areas where it will have been determined that any affordable housing to-be-developed or supported in connection with the Initiative would be best situated, and should be provided.
B. Establish a process by which NRHA can and will assist Douglas County in its on-going efforts to transition qualified real estate owned assets into viable and reliable affordable housing initiatives.
C. Identify the availability and viability of specific undeveloped land sites, and/or existing improved property required to initially support Douglas County’s affordable housing initiative in those defined areas.
D. Establish an “initial & preliminary” working list of “realistically proposed housing development initiatives”.

This list of potential affordable housing projects will be created utilizing specific guidelines that will need to be established. Those guidelines would include, but will not necessarily be limited to, an in-depth discussion and follow-up analysis of the following:
1. The availability and application of lower-cost project financing resources
2. The creation and potential infusion of affordable rental/leasing.

Members selected for the task force:
• Douglas County Community Development – Heather Ferris
• Douglas County Community Services- Karen Beckerbauer
• Community Leader Representing Housing- Rex Massey
• Community Leaders representing the real estate industry from both the Valley and Lake Tahoe (one from each area) – Dennis McDuffee (Valley) & Torry Johnson (Lake)
• WAVE- Carl Schnock
• Douglas County Business Council- Brandy Thomson
• Douglas County District Attorney’s Office- Mary Anne Martin

It’s estimated that during the initial stages, the task force may need to meet every 2 weeks and the first meeting is scheduled for November 6, 2017 at 3:00 p.m..