Care provider opens 50-unit supportive housing community
MELBOURNE: A care provider has opened an innovative variation on the supportive housing community concept.
A first-of-its-kind supportive housing development in Las Vegas, SunHaven is a 50-unit community providing permanent supportive housing for extremely low-income residents and people living with serious and persistent mental illness.
With more than 200 people on the waiting list, the need for housing like this is clear.
This year’s Point-in-Time Count found more than 8,800 people experiencing homelessness in Clark County.
That number is up 12 percent since 2024.
More than half of those experiencing homelessness were living outside, in vehicles, or in other places not meant for people to live.
Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto called SunHaven a game changer.
“We have a need for seniors to get housing. We also need working families to get into housing. So, this type of building is happening because we fought to get the financing here.”
Sen. Cortez Masto helped secure funding through the Home Means Nevada program to build SunHaven. She also recently passed the 21st Century Road to Housing Law, which includes grant programs designed to help build more homes.
The project received $16 million in federal funding.
It provides permanent, affordable housing for households earning 30 to 60 percent of the area median income, or less, as well as people living with serious and persistent mental illness.
“This really saves taxpayer dollars here on the front end.”
Brooke Page, managing director for the Western Region with the Corporation for Supportive Housing, told News 3,
– It can cost between $26,000 and $39,000 a year to keep someone housed in Nevada.
– The nationwide average cost to keep someone in jail is $131 a day, or nearly $48,000 a year.
– Supportive housing at SunHaven costs about $71 a day, or just under $26,000 a year.
“Research has shown that when we provide a person with a home and provide them with the wraparound services that they need in order to get access to healthcare, people thrive,” Page said.
SunHaven is fully furnished, providing residents with everything from furniture to plates, silverware, and other household essentials.
But Ovation’s chief operating officer, Jess Molasky, says the wraparound services may be the most important part.
“When people are housed, you don’t have to draw on emergency services. You don’t have to draw on tax resources putting people into jail, so that’s not a solution.”
The goal is to create a safe, stable place that addresses multiple challenges at once, from homelessness and food insecurity to mental health.