In the Culinary Academy’s dining room, Horsford chatted with Ameeluz Cauton, who works at the Bellagio hotel, about the strain of finding stable housing. Caulton, 35, has worked at hotels and casinos for more than 15 years and at one point owned a home with a boyfriend. They broke up, and she struggled to find a roommate. Then the house next door became occupied with “sketchy people,” she said. For a while, she felt “trapped,” because selling the home wouldn’t give her enough to rent or buy something new, since prices had jumped so significantly.
Eventually, she resolved to just sell and move in with her sister, a temporary solution that’s working fine, she said. Her union, the politically powerful and Democratic-aligned UNITE HERE Culinary Workers Union Local 226, has a down-payment assistance program for first-time home buyers or those who haven’t owned in three years.
Many of her colleagues have felt a similar crunch, and it will certainly be on their mind this election season, Cauton said.
“They’re gonna vote for whoever is going to help them keep their jobs stable,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going to stick with a specific party. It’s just whoever is in line of what we need and what’s going to help us for our future. They could interpret both parties in a different way. But it’s whoever is for the workers.”