Dear Editor,
There is more we should know and understand about just who and what the Nevada Rural Housing is, and how they operate. Because it was a public entity starting in 1972 only to become private in 1995, in other words they are now a private company, they started building and developing their business model in the 1990’s to become what they are today.
A private company is in business for one reason and that’s to make money. Even though they do provide employment for some people, the profits go to “the company”. Looking into the annual budget of NRH we can see that about half of it goes to “administration” which I take to mean is that the executives pay themselves well. They also seem to have some more subtle ways to extract money for themselves. Now that they have admitted the whole complex will go section eight, more problems come into play. Originally section eight had the right ideas at heart, but was poorly written and over regulated, thus denying affordable housing to many who really need it, along with the tendency to attract residents of “questionable” behaviors.
That 14 million being spent in Pioche which divided by 32, the number of apartments proposed, comes out to costing 437,500 dollars to build each 700 square foot apartment. They stated that they would have to spend 10 million on the construction, which makes each apartment costing 312,500 dollars. Would it really cost that much to build 32 little 700 sq. ft. houses on free land here in Pioche? So, I wonder where the remaining $4,000,000 is going. I think I know.
Why the NRH who was given, paid nothing for, a large piece of land where the current Pioche Housing is, and has decided to tear down all existing buildings to build new ones is still a mystery. Because the current structures have been well maintained and renovated over time, they still have value and can be used for quite a while. Contrary to one commissioners statement that they don’t have a million dollars to do an asbestos abatement in the burned building, and another commissioners statement that the buildings have lead pipes, none of this is true. More in this adventure will be coming.
Leslie Derkovitz
Pioche
Thank You Les!!!