Lombardo’s vetoes once again thwart tenant-friendly housing reforms

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo this year once again vetoed several bills backed by housing advocacy and legal aid groups who said the proposals were needed to reform the eviction process, bolster tenant protections, and prevent people from being pushed into homelessness.

And to the surprise of some advocates, Lombardo also signed two tenant bills organizers pushed, including legislation that brings modest transparency to rental applications. 

“I would say 2025 was another brutal session for basic tenant rights,” said Jonathan Norman, the statewide advocacy, outreach and policy director for the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers.  

From reforming Nevada’s quick eviction process to holding landlords accountable for facility maintenance to reforming tenant-hostile eviction record laws, “I think the governor chose landlords,” Norman said. 

Nevada, like most of the country, lacks enough affordable housing. Compared to many other states, it also lacks tenant protections, a statutory condition that exacerbates  eviction rates and homelessness. 

An estimated 10,100 Nevadans experienced homelessness in 2024, a 17% annual increase, according to data released in December by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  

Lawmakers this session passed several policies to aid the development and construction of more housing.

Lombardo, who before the session named housing as one of his top priorities, pushed legislation to allocate $133 million into housing development for “attainable housing,” which legislators approved. 

But housing advocates and legal aid groups have long asked lawmakers to not just focus on development and redirect attention to policies that needlessly burdens tenants in housing Nevada already has.

“I don’t think we are going to solve our housing issue if we only say this is just about building, building, building,” Norman said.

Nevada’s Legislature is one of four that meets only every other year, meaning organizers will have to wait another two years before they can again advocate for change.

“The biennial nature of our state’s legislature makes the stakes feel exponentially higher than they already are,” said Ben Iness, the coalition manager with the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance. “It’s a long time to hold your breath and wait. It’s even longer for impacted communities and folks living in unstable housing and on the brink of becoming unsheltered or living in inhabitable conditions to continue to ride it out.”

“The veto messages don’t acknowledge that.”

‘The conversation shifted’

Democratic lawmakers sought to revive proposals that Lombardo vetoed in the 2023 session, arguing that just because their bills died didn’t mean the problems did.

One of those bills crossed the finish line this time. Democratic Assemblymember Venicia Considine’s Assembly Bill 121 re-upped 2023 proposals that required landlords to more thoroughly detail  actual costs to rental applicants, and a way to pay rent online without paying extra fees.

The legislation also prohibits collecting application fees to obtain a credit report or run a background check for a minor who resides in the house. 

Lombardo signed AB 121 last week. 

The difference this year, Norman said, was that since 2023  lawsuits against landlords and the Federal Trade Commission actions have highlighted the practice of property management companies, including some operating in Nevada, of charging junk fees.

“The conversation shifted,” he said. “People started recognizing that basic honesty is something we should force landlords to abide by. The fact we have to force them to is disheartening.”

Other measures that returned weren’t as lucky. 

Assembly Bill 280, which would have limited landlords from raising rents more than 5% on tenants 62 years or older, and Assembly Bill 283, which flipped Nevada’s summary eviction process to align with the rest of the country by requiring landlords be the first to file with courts first, were among those brought back.

AB 280 also required landlords to refund application fees if they don’t screen a tenant who applied for the unit.

“The rent control provisions in AB 280, though well-intentioned, are likely to undermine housing affordability over time,” Lombardo wrote in a June 2 veto message. “Although AB 280 targets a specific population group, its implementation could trigger ripple effects that disrupt the rental market as a whole.”

In his veto message for AB 283, Lombardo called the attempt to reform the eviction process lopsided and argued it would place a heavy strain on the courts.  

“By shifting procedural burdens onto property owners, it risks punishing those owners and may inadvertently encourage tenants to be less accountable to the terms of their lease agreements,” Lombardo wrote.

Reacting to the reasoning in Lombardo’s statement, Norman reiterated what eviction process reform advocates in Nevada have noted for decades: the burden to file an eviction case rests with landlords, not tenants,  in every state except Nevada.  

While frustrated by Lombardo’s vetoes, organizers and legal groups were relieved he did approve Assembly Bill 475, which allocated additional funding to Clark County, the City of Reno and the Nevada Rural Housing Authority for rental assistance used in eviction diversion programs. 

Counties had warned state lawmakers the allotted funds approved in 2023, along with remaining dollars allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, were running dry. 

Clark County will get $15 million, the city will receive $5.2 million and the Rural Housing Authority will receive $750,000 to provide tenants at risk of eviction assistance with the passage of AB 475. 

Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal also revived 2023 efforts vetoed by Lombardo to rein in corporate landlords restricting corporate investors from purchasing more than 100 units per year.

Lombardo didn’t need to veto that bill. Instead, he killed Senate Bill 391 behind the scenes by asking the Republican caucus to vote against it, according to Republican state Sen. Ira Hansen, who supported the legislation.

“For the first time this session, I have actually been asked by the executive branch to support a caucus ‘no’ position, which I have agreed to do,” Hansen said in a floor speech, adding he was doing so “very reluctantly.”  

Habitability reform, eviction sealing fail

Lawmakers brought forward several bills to address the legal process tenants can take when they are forced to live in substandard conditions. 

Assembly Bill 211, which allows a third party to take over the property until the repairs are made and living conditions improved, was the only piece of legislation Lombardo approved.

Legal groups had recounted stories to state lawmakers this session of clients waiting weeks, if not months, to have life sustaining repairs made, including air conditioning promptly fixed in the dead heat of the Las Vegas Summer.

Iness said the Housing Justice Alliance was working with a couple whose refrigerator broke last year and it wasn’t fixed for five months.

“They would reach out to the property manager who would kick the can down the road,” he said. 

Some tenants withhold rent and then face an eviction. During the court hearing, Norman said people try to bring up habituality issues as a defense but the current legal process doesn’t shield them from an eviction. 

Assembly Bill 223 sought to revise the court process when a tenant has an unresponsive landlord who doesn’t quickly address needed repairs. 

Legislators also approved Assembly Bill 201, that sought to expand automatic sealing of eviction records.  

Lombardo vetoed both bills.

AB 233 “needlessly disrupts a well-established balance in Nevada law which provides adequate tenant protections while also ensuring lessors maintain safe, quality housing,” Lombardo wrote in his June 2 veto message.

None of the provisions of the AB 223 should be considered controversial, Iness said. 

“To veto it or come out in a statement saying you’re opposed says these conditions are fine and this is acceptable,” Iness said. The veto shows people “don’t mind tenants living in squalor with no remedy.”

Lombardo called AB 201 a “ heavy-handed attempt at addressing a delicate issue that erodes judicial discretion related to eviction case file sealing almost entirely.”

‘Narrowly focused’

Lombardo’s housing bill, Assembly Bill 540, establishes a Nevada Attainable Housing Fund and Council and directs $133 million to develop housing.

“I am proud of the meaningful progress we made this session – particularly in the areas of education and housing,” Lombardo said in a statement Friday about the session. “Working together, we’ve taken important steps to expand educational opportunity, begin restoring accountability in our public schools, and make housing more attainable for working families across our state.”

Other bills to enacted in the name of promoting more housing development included:

• Assembly Bill 241, which requires counties to speed up the process to rezone land currently designated commercial use into residential or mixed use. 
• Senate Bill 28, legislation being brought by the City of Las Vegas, creates “tax increment areas” in which a portion of future property tax revenue would be used to pay interest on bonds used to finance  affordable housing development as well as public transit.
• Assembly Bill 366 appropriates $25 million from the state general fund to support housing initiatives throughout the state. The Nevada Housing Division would determine the projects eligible to receive those dollars.  

Housing organizers agreed the state needs to build more affordable housing throughout the state. 

Iness reiterated that only homing in on development is “so narrowly focused,” especially if building new affordable units could take up to a decade.

It was counterproductive for the governor to focus on building more housing, “but then protect no other part of the access to that housing … the corporate cannibalism of our neighborhoods or entire communities, or the power imbalance between tenant and landlords,” Iness said.