Lawmakers asked to scrap plan for autistic girls facility in favor of gaming-backed homeless campus

State lawmakers on Thursday denied a request from the governor’s office to cancel plans to renovate a state-owned building to create a residential facility for girls with autism, expressing skepticism about the change of heart on a project approved six months ago, as well as concerns about new intentions to use the state-owned property for a homeless campus instead.

The Interim Finance Committee in June approved $3.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to renovate a state-owned building in Las Vegas to create a 12-bed facility serving girls with autism or severe disabilities who come into state care through the child welfare or the juvenile justice system and cannot be placed in foster care or served by existing facilities like Child Haven. The State of Nevada has been chastised by the federal government for not having enough local services and sending children out of state for mental health services.

But on Thursday, state administrators returned to IFC to ask lawmakers to revert most of the approved $3.8 million — $83,600 has already been spent as part of the “planning phase.”

Jack Robb, the chief innovation officer within the governor’s office, said their new plan is to find another place for the autistic girls and allow the aging property — located off West Charleston and Jones boulevards, near the College of Southern Nevada — to be demolished to make way for Campus for Hope, a proposed 20-acre regional homeless complex backed by the gaming industry and funded through a private-public partnership.

“This is an item we wanted to go forward with,” Robb said of the approved renovation project, “but when reviewing Campus (for) Hope and (the) best location in town for that and how to make that campus come together we found it prudent to not go forward with the project and find other ways to meet the need.”

Along with the demolition of the building that was to hold the residential beds for girls with autism, several adjacent state buildings would be demolished or repurposed for the Campus for Hope. More than 200 state employees would be relocated to different offices.

Robb said the June renovation proposal was “the option that was available at that point” but that the buildings in question have “long since passed their useful life.”

“Those buildings were good enough for young girls in the summer of 2024,” said Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas). “They’re not good enough now?”

She continued: “We were going to renovate a building for (these girls) so they had a suitable place to get services, and now we’re just displacing them, and we don’t know where we’re putting them.”

The committee, after a long recess to discuss the matter behind closed doors, denied the request to de-obligate the $3.8 million in ARPA funds. Lawmakers directed Robb to return to the drawing board, saying if the renovation project is truly unfeasible then its replacement project should meet the same intent of helping girls with autism.

Three Republicans — Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus, state Sen. Lisa Krasner and Assemblyman P.K. O’Neill — voted against denial.

The state is now under a tight deadline to pivot to a new plan because ARPA dollars must be allocated to projects by Dec. 31. The dollars must be spent by 2027.

Robb emphasized he is committed to finding a solution.

Details on homeless campus emerge

State and local lawmakers for years have floated the idea of addressing homelessness through a regional campus setting, often pointing to an existing campus called Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas.

Last year, on the third-to-last day of the 2023 Legislative Session, Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) introduced an emergency bill, Assembly Bill 528, that established a framework for the development and construction of a “transformational campus” in Nevada. AB 528, which passed with broad bipartisan support, established a $100 million state matching fund, which a nonprofit could access through the Governor’s Office for Economic Development (GOED).

Prior to the bill’s introduction, resort industry officials had indicated the proposal was driven by a desire to relocate homeless people away from the tourists on the Las Vegas Strip.

During Thursday’s meeting, Robb told the Interim Finance Committee members he did not realize how little they knew about where the homeless campus project currently stands.

GOED next week will accept bid solicitations for qualified projects, though there is not expected to be numerous bids to consider. Jan. 10 is listed as the “anticipated selection date.”

AB 528 and the homeless campus project is backed by the gaming industry, via a newly established nonprofit. Campus for Hope Foundation lists three gaming executives as principals on a disclosure form provided to Clark County: Craig Billings, CEO of Wynn Resorts; Katie Carano Miller, a senior vice president at Caesars Entertainment; and Jyoti Chopra, a senior vice president at MGM Resorts.

Robb told lawmakers the property is ideal for the campus because its address — 6161 West Charleston Boulevard — is already known on the streets by homeless people as the place to go when they are in crisis because its primary building currently houses a drop-in mental health center.

But state Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop (D-Las Vegas) expressed concern about the proposed campus being located in an area with a high concentration of schools, including CSN, Bonanza High School and several public and private elementary schools.

“There are multitudes of schools and children and disabled people who are on that corner,” she said. Opportunity Village, the nonprofit serving people with disabilities, also has a campus nearby.

Dondero Loop also took issue with the lack of public discussion and input. The border of her district is less than 2 miles from the proposed homeless campus.

“I just find it overwhelming that we are doing this without some discussion,” she said. “I don’t know when the discussions have been because I can tell you I have not had anybody reach out to me.”

She added that the location also seems inconvenient for the populations most likely to need the services provided. The Courtyard, an open-air homeless space operated by the City of Las Vegas, is about 12 miles away, closer to downtown.

Lawmakers pointed to two much closer publicly owned properties as potential better options: the state-owned Grant Sawyer Building and the City of Las Vegas-owned Cashman Field. Both are located on Washington Avenue near Las Vegas Boulevard, roughly a mile away from the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center, and are currently up for sale but have not attracted bidders.

Campus for Hope was not on the IFC agenda and no representatives appeared to be present at the meeting. It is unclear how much input state lawmakers will have as the proposal goes through GOED.

Municipalities getting involved

On Nov. 5, Clark Country quietly became the first local government entity to sign a shared services agreement with the Campus for Hope Foundation. County commissioners unanimously approved the agreement, which is ultimately expected to be between the Campus for Hope, Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas.

According to the shared services agreement, once the campus is built, the municipalities will contribute a combined $15 million annually for operational costs, split proportionally based on population, and the state would match the $15 million amount. The municipalities would also operate “navigation centers” that intake and screen people for referral to Campus for Hope.

Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas city councils do not appear to have approved the shared services agreement yet.

State Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, during Thursday’s IFC meeting suggested there is ongoing tension about the project. She recalled being in a recent meeting where “the cities” said they would not be contributing their expected shares of the $15 million annually, despite having gleefully testified in support of AB 528 during the legislative session.

Those behind-the-scenes tensions were evident during the Clark County Commission meeting in early November. Several commissioners emphasized a need for the cities to sign onto the project.

“Other local jurisdictions have to come to the table,” said Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick before quipping that the cities have a habit of not taking action and then going to the Legislature to complain and blame the county for not doing enough.

Commission Chair Tick Segerblom likened Clark County as “the big dog” who has to take the first step, but said they should make sure the little dogs do their part.

Commissioner Jim Gibson said that there were still “questions that need to be answered,” as well as possible negotiation or “refinement” of the shared services agreement.

“(The campus) is an asset that will become especially important to us over the course of time,” he added. “I’m really happy with the private sector who stepped up. The governor has placed the state in a position to step up. Of course, all of us will need to do our part.”