North Las Vegas, Nevada – The City of North Las Vegas is pleased to announce four new programs aimed at providing relief for City residents and businesses experiencing hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The City hopes to expand these efforts with CARES Act funding and continues to work with the Governor's Office and State and Federal elected officials to secure North Las Vegas' fair share of funding.
For residents, the City is teaming up with local non-profits to provide the following programs:
- Temporary Rental and Utility Assistance
- Emergency Food Assistance
- Social Seniors Meals 2 You Program
For Temporary Rental and Utility Assistance, the following eligibility requirements apply:
- Must have a gross annual household income that is at or below the maximum income limits. For short-term assistance, the Area Median Income (AMI) limit is 80%; for long-term assistance, the AMI limit is 50% (chart).
- Must be a city of North Las Vegas resident and reside in a property located within the city limits of North Las Vegas.
- Must have a delinquency notice from landlord or mortgage company and documentation of financial hardship due to COVID-19 (i.e., loss of income, reduced hours, layoffs, etc.).
- Must show a lack of assets or savings to pay rent/mortgage.
- Anyone currently receiving a subsidy from another rental assistance program or living in public housing is ineligible.
To qualify for the Emergency Food Assistance and Social Seniors Meals 2 You programs, you must be a North Las Vegas resident and have a gross annual income that is at or below the 80% Area Median Income for your household size.
Additionally, the City of North Las Vegas has created a Small Business Stabilization Forgivable Loan Program. North Las Vegas-based businesses with 20 or fewer employees may qualify for forgivable loans of up to $25,000 at zero interest in an effort to mitigate losses experienced by our small business community. Full eligibility requirements and information is available here.
The City is able to provide all four programs using Community Development Block Grant and Emergency Services Grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). For more information about the programs, please click here.
"These programs are a great start and will be very beneficial to the residents of our City," Mayor Pro Tem Isaac Barron said. "However, there is a much greater need for financial relief for the residents of Ward 1 and North Las Vegas -- Nevada's largest minority-majority city and one of the municipalities hardest hit by COVID-19 -- which is why equitable funding for our community is so critical."
North Las Vegas was one of only four cities left out of the state's plan to distribute Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) dollars it received from the U.S. Treasury to Nevada's cities and counties with populations under 500,000.
"Being left out of the distribution has created an even greater and more glaring disparity for our communities of color, which have already been subjected to systemic inequality for far too long," said Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown, who represents Ward 2. "That includes under-funding programs and a lack of equal access to economic opportunities. Our residents deserve and demand more."
The coronavirus has had a disproportionate affect on communities of color. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans are five times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19, and Latinos are four times more likely. Additionally, at the onset of the pandemic, two-thirds of the people who died from complications related to COVID-19 in North Las Vegas were African American.
Nationwide, a Brookings Institute analysis shows that African Americans are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as Caucasians, and when adjusted for age, those rates soar even higher for both African Americans and Latinos.
Additional resident and business relief programs are crucial during and after this pandemic so that we may provide ongoing critical support services to help residents and business owners with rent, child care, utilities, payroll, PPE and other essential needs.