North Las Vegas officials reject privately funded housing for homeless veterans
A nonprofit organization wanted to privately fund a facility that would house over 100 veterans struggling with housing. North Las Vegas officials said the lot — which has sat empty for years — needed to be reserved for commercial space.
Tunnels to Towers, a nonprofit that began in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and has since offered a wide range of support to veterans, bought around 5 acres of land at 3470 E. Centennial Parkway, which sits just across from the VA Medical Center.
In addition to offering 112 units to house veterans at reduced costs, the project would have offered on-site services, including job training, assistance with accessing benefits, and mental and physical health services. Veterans pay whichever is less: 30 percent of their income or the affordable housing cost equivalent in the area.
“I will advocate for this program until the day I die,” John Crankshaw, a resident at Tunnel to Towers’ Houston Veteran Village, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in September.
After success in several other cities, the foundation saw Southern Nevada, which it said ranks second in the nation in homeless veterans, with more than 2,400 veterans experiencing homelessness, as the logical next step. The land in North Las Vegas, right across from the VA hospital, seemed like the perfect spot.
“We are coming to this area to address a specific problem, and we will prioritize North Las Vegas and Las Vegas residents first,” Tunnel to Towers Vice President Gavin Naples told commissioners during an Oct. 9 Planning Commission meeting.
The organization was seeking no money from the city and planned to fully fund the $20 million project.
‘Just need to find a better location’
But after what had seemed to Naples to be positive communication with the city in months prior, the commission voted to recommend the city reject the proposal in that October meeting.
Commissioners cited the city’s master plan, which had designated the land Tunnel to Towers had purchased as commercial, and declined to amend it.
“I love the idea, but we just need to find a better location,” Commissioner Esmeralda Villeda said in the meeting.
Several commissioners echoed this sentiment.
Stephanie Allen, the land use and zoning attorney who represented the foundation, told the commissioners that although the land is technically designated as commercial, there had been a “notable lack” of commercial interest. She also added that 14 amendments had been added to North Las Vegas’ master plan, including recent changes from commercial to residential lots.
“It’s a $20 million investment in this corridor that is not there right now, and is not coming tomorrow. The reality is, nothing has presented itself in the 22 years it’s been zoned commercial,” Allen said at the meeting.
Allen also argued that to have people to support the commercial space that North Las Vegas desired, people would also need housing to live in.
‘Zoning issue not a lack of support’
“It doesn’t work as a commercial spot. No one in the commercial space wanted to buy it,” Naples told the Review-Journal.
North Las Vegas spokesman Greg Bortolin told the Review-Journal that master-planned communities “don’t just happen by accident” and take time to develop. Changing the land from commercial to residential, he said, could create food deserts.
“It’s a zoning issue, not a lack of support,” Bortolin said.
Tunnel to Towers maintained the strong level of support from the community — the Oct. 9 meeting drew 17 speakers in support of the project, and the foundation said that in its community meetings, it had received no opposition.
“I think they were just trying to grasp at straws,” Naples said of the commissioners.
He said he thought it may have something to do with the project’s proximity to the 135 acres that North Las Vegas repurchased in March. The land had been planned for a major medical campus. The North Las Vegas City Council repurchased the land for $52.95 million.
Holding out hope for future project
The city and the foundation maintain that there is a future for Tunnel to Towers’ project.
“We are going to build a veterans’ project somewhere in the area. It’s just a matter of where,” Naples said.
Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.