Shelley Berkley, a former representative for Nevada’s 1st U.S. House District, has become the first candidate to formally announce a 2024 mayoral campaign in Las Vegas, and she recently indicated that homelessness is the top issue for the biggest gaming market in the country.
On January 18, Berkeley appeared on local television show Nevada Newsmakers, where she told host Sam Shad that the city’s homeless problem is “heartbreaking to see.”
According to a November 2022 study from Psy D Programs, Las Vegas ranks 14th in terms of overall homeless population in large U.S. cities. A separate study from City Mayors Society, which was published in 2020, said that Las Vegas ranked seventh in the U.S. as far as homelessness per 100,000 residents—Reno, the largest city in northern Nevada, ranked 11th.
According to figures published by the Nevada Current, nearly 1,000 additional people were expected to experience homelessness in 2022 as compared to 2021, which was the largest year-over-year increase since 2019.
Over the course of the show, Berkley pointed out that the issue affects all aspects of the city, from business to tourism and everything in between.
“For the business people, it is a serious issue because it is impeding their businesses,” Berkley told Shad. “Nobody wants to walk past people who are homeless and living on the sidewalks in order to transact business in any store.”
“But it’s also a very serious human issue for those people that are living on the streets,” she added. “And it is not only single men or single women. You are seeing families living on the street and they cannot afford appropriate housing.”
The former House rep, who served from 1999 to 2013, said that in terms of a solution, it would be best to study other jurisdictions to see which tactics have worked best.
“There are other cities around the county that are working on this issue,” she said. “We should be fully engaged with them and take the best solutions they have come up with, come up with some of our own and figure out what we are going to do.”
Berkeley was a staunch supporter of veterans’ initiatives during her time in Congress, and the preponderance of veteran homelessness, both in Las Vegas and elsewhere, is especially saddening to her.
“A good many of our homeless have served this nation with distinction and they come home, and they’re living on the streets,” Berkley said. “This country should not accept that as just fact. We need to do something about it.”
An estimated 10 percent of southern Nevada’s homeless population is believed to have served in the military in some capacity, per a report from local outlet KLAS-8.
In addition to homelessness, the prospective mayor is also extremely concerned about the ongoing legal nightmare between the city and the developer of the defunct Badlands Golf Course, in which state courts have ruled against the city multiple times, increasing its liability to over $85 million.
Essentially, developer Yohan Lowie owns a 250-acre property that he has been unable to redevelop from a golf course to housing, which ultimately led him to file four lawsuits against the city related to illegal seizure of land.
Courts have ruled in Lowie’s favor three times now; one case has still yet to be heard, another is on appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court and the other is pending an assessment of damages.
Over the summer, a $64 million settlement was negotiated, but was shockingly stricken from the city council’s agenda on August 2, just a day before it was supposed to be considered.
Councilwoman Victoria Seaman, whose ward encompasses the Badlands site, said in a statement at the time that “negotiations between both sides’ attorneys have reached an impasse.”
Berkley is hopeful that a desirable conclusion can be reached before she would take office, if victorious.
“So it would be my hope that in the next two years, and hopefully much sooner than that, that the city and the developer can sit down and figure out what we are going to do that is good for the city and good for the developer,” she said.
“And with every passing lawsuit and decision, it puts the city of Las Vegas in a bad light and could be very devastating economically for us who live in Las Vegas and the taxpayers here.”
Berkley has approximately six months remaining on her current contract with Touro University before she can fully commit to the upcoming campaign, she said.
