FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
STATEMENT by Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge regarding Neighborhood Stability and failure of the North Las Vegas City Council to protect residents:
Today’s decision by the North Las Vegas City Council to deem the Neighborhood Stability petition insufficient is disappointing and wrong, but their decision is not final. The Culinary Union is committed to ensuring residents in North Las Vegas are heard and protected, even if the North Las Vegas City Council continues to go against working families in support of Wall Street landlords.
Shortly, the Culinary Union will be filing a lawsuit in State District Court against The City of North Las Vegas to challenge the City Council’s final determination on the certificate of insufficiency of the Neighborhood Stability petition. Nevadans for Neighborhood Stability submitted more than 7 times the required number of signatures required to get the measure the ballot in November. The Culinary Union will undertake every legal avenue to ensure that North Las Vegas residents have the right to vote - including going all the way to the Nevada Supreme Court if necessary. The Culinary Union will enforce our constitutional rights and keep fighting to ensure that the people of North Las Vegas’ votes and voices are heard.
The actions of the North Las Vegas City Council today is a clear example of how the current leadership has failed to respond to the urgent crisis North Las Vegas residents are facing everyday as they are being evicted and priced out of their homes and neighborhoods. The actions by the North Las Vegas City Council who sided with Wall Street over working families is shameful and goes against the will of the people who deserve Neighborhood Stability.
Voters, not politicians, should decide on Neighborhood Stability and the only way that can happen is if the measure is on the ballot on November 8, 2022. The Culinary Union thanks North Las Vegas Council Member Richard Cherchio who was the sole representative who stood with his constituents in support of Neighborhood Stability and continues to call on The City of North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee and Council Members Pamela Goynes-Brown, Isaac Barron, and Scott Black to do the right thing and protect working families who they have the duty to serve.
The Neighborhood Stability ballot measure is essential in North Las Vegas because:
*Long-time residents and senior citizens are being pushed out of their homes in North Las Vegas following an average of 28.5% rent increase since 2019 in Clark County.
*Senior citizens (whose rent increases exceed monthly Social Security payments) are forced to rely on taxpayer-funded assistance or are evicted.
*Saving up for a down-payment can be an impossible hurdle for first-time homebuyers when their rents go up faster than the cost of living.
*The loss of stable families in a community results in student turnover in our public schools (which creates more challenges for teachers).
*Local North Las Vegas neighborhood businesses suffer when customers need to move or cut back spending when rents go up faster than the cost of living.
The Culinary Union launched a campaign on May 18, 2022 to win Neighborhood Stability in North Las Vegas by working with North Las Vegas residents and community allies to advance a ballot initiative that would prevent rent increases in North Las Vegas from exceeding the cost of living. On June 30, 2022, the Culinary Union gathered (in 30 days while running the largest political effort in Nevada during the 2022 Midterms) and submitted 3,396 signatures (more than 7x times what is required) in North Las Vegas to put a Neighborhood Stability initiative on the ballot for voters in North Las Vegas to vote on this November to enact.
On July 19, 2022, The City of North Las Vegas Clerk deemed the Neighborhood Stability petition insufficient and the Culinary Union responded that The City of North Las Vegas is misreading the law as to how many signatures are required. The Culinary Union stands with North Las Vegas residents who have requested an immediate review of the finding of insufficiency and we are confident that justice will prevail. The Culinary Union is confident that the Neighborhood Stability ballot measure, which would limit rent increases to at most 5% a year and tie rent increases to inflation, will be on the ballot in North Las Vegas this November. Residents of North Las Vegas who comprise the Petitioners' Committee on behalf of Nevadans for Neighborhood Stability appealed to the North Las Vegas City Council in accordance to the law.
Supporters can go to www.NeighborhoodStability.org to learn more about the campaign, read stories of North Las Vegas homeowners and renters who support the campaign, read the proposed ordinance, and sign up to receive regular text/email updates.
FACTS: From the end of 2019 through March, 2022, rent prices have skyrocketed in North Las Vegas: 47% for one-bedroom apartments in North Las Vegas (Zumper); average 25% rent increases in 2021 in North Las Vegas (Zumper); 38% for all apartments in North Las Vegas (Yardi Matrix); and 38% in North Las Vegas’s most populous ZIP code of 89031.
Nationwide, the burden of rising rents falls heaviest on Black and Latinx renters: A majority of Black (57%) and Latinx (52%) families rent their homes (Washington Post, April 2022). The Culinary Union represents over 7,300 members who live in North Las Vegas. 63% are Latinx and 18% are Black. In a 2022 survey of Culinary Union members, 21% of respondents said that their rent had gone up $500.
In Southern Nevada, median hourly wages rose only 5% from 2019 to 2021 according to the BLS. Low-wage workers are also disproportionately impacted. There is not a single state, metro area or county in the United States where a typical minimum-wage worker can afford a two-bedroom rental, according to a recent study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Home prices are up 23% in the Las Vegas Valley year-over-year.Especially given 8.5% inflation (March 2021-March 2022), that makes buying a home is extraordinarily difficult for working families. Since 2020, the average monthly asking rent for apartments in the Las Vegas area has risen 30% (Nevada Independent, February 2022). Rent has gone up 3 times faster than inflation and local rent hikes have far outpaced cost-of-living increases. Social Security’s cost-of-living increase was only 5.9% for 2021. The CPI-U consumer price index rose 7% in 2021. According to the Washington Post, the average rent in Clark County is $1,376, which is up an average of 28.5% since 2019.
Along with rent increases, the community has also seen home prices escalate. In North Las Vegas, median home price rose 43% from February 2020 - February 2021. Buying a home extraordinarily difficult for working families. In North Las Vegas as elsewhere in the country, huge out-of-town corporations have started building “single-family rentals” targeted at families who “typically do not have enough savings for a down payment on a home” (Entrata). The top 10 apartment owners in Nevada own 26.4% of total available units, the largest owner in state is the Westland Real Estate Group which is based in Long Beach, California. In March 2022, 39% of Nevadans had difficulty paying for housing-related expenses according to the federal government’s survey data.
Top 10 apartment owners in Nevada and their headquarters: Westland Real Estate Group (Long Beach, CA), LivCor (Chicago, IL), Ovation Development (Las Vegas, NV), Olen Properties (Newport Beach, CA), Bridge Investment Group (Salt Lake City, UT), Cicerone Real Estate Group (Altamonte Springs, FL), Ties Equities (Los Angeles, CA), TruAmerica Multifamily (Los Angeles, CA), (Nevada H.A.N.D. (Las Vegas, Nevada), and The Calida Group (Las Vegas, Nevada).
Top 10 apartment management companies in Nevada and their headquarters: Cushman & Wakfefield (Frisco, TX), FPI Management (Folsom, CA), Greystar Management (Phoenix, AZ), Westland Real Estate Group (Long Beach, CA), Stout Management (Las Vegas, NV), ConAm Management (San Diego, CA), Ovation Property Management (Las Vegas, NV), WestCorp Management Group (Las Vegas, NV), Picerne Real Estate Group (Altamonte Springs, FL), and AMC (Salt Lake City, UT).
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ABOUT CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 145,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 45% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples.
Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting and winning for working families in Nevada for 87 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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