Vote Nevada Supporters,

Here is an update on AB528:

Speaker Steve Yeager presented the bill with Mr. Jeremy Aguero.  The bill is based on San Antonio’s Haven for Hope model of social services: https://www.havenforhope.org/

The project requires the state, counties, municipalities, nonprofits, and the business community to all contribute to the effort.  Private partners will contribute $100,000,000 and the state, counties, and municipalities will split a matching $100,000,000.  No sites to provide services have been selected yet, but the Grant Sawyer property in Las Vegas was mentioned.

Many major gaming companies, such as Caesars, MGM, Boyd, Wynn, and Station Casinos all testified in support and stated their commitment to joining the partnership.  The Resort Authority, Vegas Chamber of Commerce, UNLV, and nonprofits such as NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) also spoke in support.

The legislation also includes opportunities for the public to be involved as the project moves forward.

I spoke in support and mentioned that our neighborhood chat groups discussed ensuring individuals with severe mental illness are taken care of as close to where they are as possible and we discussed using empty commercial properties for that purpose.

I added AB528 to my legislative tracking account to ensure we do not miss the work session and I will send today’s hearing recording as soon as it is posted to the legislative website.

Thank you all very much for your willingness to tackle big issues, it was really great to be able to mention in my public comments that many Nevadans are also actively trying to solve these types of big problems. 

Sondra