State senator lambastes North Las Vegas over sinking homes, personal attacks

Developer Frank Hawkins and state Sen. Dina Neal. (Photo: Dana Gentry/Nevada Current)

Bad blood between Windsor Park residents, whose homes have been sinking for 35 years, and North Las Vegas, the city that residents say has turned a blind eye to their plight, surfaced Wednesday as the City Council approved a zoning change that will allow the neighborhood to relocate to homes built on solid ground.

State Sen. Dina Neal, the driving force behind the effort to relocate some 93 families from Windsor Park, called out the North Las Vegas City Council for its inaction on behalf of their constituents and for its alleged attempts to discredit her.

“I want to thank you for every low down action you took, because I found deeper courage to stand up for what I believe in and continue to fight for these families,” Neal said during public comment. “I want to thank the city for fighting with me because you enlarged my capacity. I want to thank you for lying on me because you increased my faith. I want to thank you for using your city emails last year to talk about how you were going to conspire, collude and plan against me during my campaign. I thank you because it made me believe deeper in my purpose.”

History seeped in neglect

Windsor Park, built during the segregation era of the 1960s as a premier neighborhood primarily for Black residents, is today a patchwork of vacant lots and dilapidated structures. Its residents pay taxes, but don’t enjoy the benefits afforded others in North Las Vegas. Street lights are in disrepair. Stop signs are faded. Weeds grow through the cracked sidewalks.

More than half of the homes in the neighborhood, which was built on a depleting aquifer, have been demolished in the decades since the earth beneath them began to crumble. 

In 1994, North Las Vegas received $14.5 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to relocate homeowners. About half, including some who spent decades paying off mortgages, took the city up on the relocation offer, and got $50,000 for their trouble.     

But in recent years, the city has used federal money to attract new buyers, who were unaware they were purchasing worthless properties.  

Laquanna Sonnier, a single mother of three, obtained down payment assistance from the city to purchase her Windsor Park home in 2021 for $230,000. She didn’t know the home, which she thought was merely a fixer upper, was sinking until she was contacted by the Nevada Current in 2023.

Sonnier was shocked to learn the city, since 1991, has prohibited Windsor Park homeowners from remodeling or adding on to their properties, yet took no action to notify potential buyers or lenders of the subsidence. 

“I felt like my world was falling apart, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to even fix things around my house that needed to be fixed, especially with young children,” Sonnier, accompanied by her children, told the council.

“Explain to me how I was able to buy this home that’s sinking in 2019, when it’s been going on for how long?” homeowner Eli Valdez asked the council. 

“I can’t explain, nor will I try to explain why you all had to live in houses like that, whether it be in North Las Vegas or anywhere else. I think it’s abominable,” Councilman Richard Cherchio said, adding “nothing compares to what you had to endure all of these years. I could say for myself, I apologize for that as a council member now.”

Councilman Isaac Barron attempted to minimize the city’s role in Windsor Park’s tortured history, casting the city as a bit player.

“The state has taken the project out of the hands of the City of North Las Vegas. Is that not correct?” he asked city management, referring to state legislation sponsored by Neal in 2023 to relocate the residents en masse to a new neighborhood. The effort relies on $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act money, and a $12 million contribution from the state.

Shaky ground

Had North Las Vegas forced residents from their homes it would have been on the hook for eminent domain awards, likely resulting in residents receiving higher than market value for their properties. Instead, homeowners allege, the city has engaged in a sort of reverse condemnation, by neglecting the neighborhood.

In 2019, Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown, then a councilwoman representing the ward that includes Windsor Park, claimed ignorance during a council meeting when asked by a resident why the city has failed to maintain the neighborhood for decades. 

“That’s a good question,” Goynes-Brown said at the time. “The last thing I want to do is not take care of Windsor Park. That is a priority. It also takes a partnership.” 

Without the ability to make improvements, residents say they’ve done the best they could.    

Windsor Park resident Pamela Neal (no relation to the state senator) said during public comment Wednesday that Goynes-Brown “knows the story as well as anyone” but failed to assist her constituents.

“Ms. Goynes, thank you. Finally,” Pamela Neal said after the first of two votes Wednesday to amend zoning to make way for a new Windsor Park to be constructed at Carey and West streets.

“It’s Ms. Goynes-Brown,” the mayor retorted.

Goynes-Brown, who once championed building warehouses that would have blocked the neighborhood’s one redeeming characteristic – its view of the Las Vegas valley — has frustrated residents and state Sen. Neal. 

“Senator Neal brought us hope,” Sonnier told the council.  

In 2023, Neal fought to pass state legislation to bail out the forgotten homeowners. When Gov. Joe Lombardo intended to veto the bill, Neal resurrected it.

The state’s selection of Frank Hawkins, a former Oakland Raider and former Las Vegas City Councilman, as the project’s developer, prompted allegations of cronyism directed at Neal. 

Hawkins told the council he didn’t want to “belabor the point,” but noted the Nevada Housing Division issued a request for proposal for the project.

“We responded, and we were successful in winning,” he said. “I’m a proud product of North Las Vegas, and I was raised in Windsor Park, so I have a commitment to do all I can to help make that project successful.” 

Leslie Vega of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada told the council their vote “is a chance to shift the moral compass of North Las Vegas and show that North Las Vegas is ready to correct a historical wrong.” 

Barbara Carter, who has lived in Windsor Park since 1965, hopes she and her neighbors “can see the homes starting to be built before we die and leave this world, because this is a long time, and it should not have taken these many years…”

Sonnier says the likelihood of moving her children into a new, safe home is sinking in, though she has at times feared the effort would fall apart. 

“I knew it was important for my children to be here today to see this because they play in these streets that are cracked and damaged, sidewalks that are torn apart, and for them to know that they’re going to be in a safer environment,” Sonnier told the council. 

State Sen. Neal says the vote brings the residents closer to the end of the long and winding road they’ve been on for more than 30 years, adding its especially meaningful coming on the eve of the nation’s birthday. 

“This action will help them create generational wealth for their children and their grandchildren,” she said. “Why was America even created in the first place? It was to give opportunity. It was supposed to be a place where people could build their dreams.”