Nevada has the fourth most expensive housing market in the country, according to a study done by Wallethub. We also had the fastest rising rent in the country for a 5 year period, leveling out in the last 12 months at a cost over 30% higher than pre-pandemic.

Affordable housing is scarce, with an increasing deficit of over 80,000 affordable housing units. This year, that number got even higher as a number of affordable housing units were taken off the market.

I believe we must work to lower the cost of housing. To do this, we can follow models that have worked successfully in the past. We will cap rent prices so they cannot be raised by more than 3% each year.

We will build housing for people who already live here, not suburban tract housing in the furthest reaches of the suburbs.

But it’s not just about affordability - it’s also about habitability. I believe you deserve to live in a safe home free of pests and mold and will work to hold landlords accountable for fixing these problems.

Another recent study claimed that Nevada is among the states with the slowest wage growth in the country. Numerous reports have shown that the cost of living has far exceeded the growth of wages, making it hard for regular people to keep up. Meanwhile, corporate profits are at all time high, and CEOs increasingly use more and more of these profits to pay themselves giant salaries.

It’s clear that we must raise wages through the legislature, to a living wage of $20 an hour, and we must index it to inflation so that it never falls behind again.

Many things have contributed to the cost of living crisis. One of the largest, proven through numerous breaking news stories, was corporate greed. Companies intentionally raised their prices far beyond the actual rate of inflation, capitalizing on the COVID-19 crisis by making already vulnerable families pay even more in prices. We must ban this kind of deceptive price gouging at all levels.

NV energy is raising rates for one important reason - to pay for upgrades that would allow companies like Google to build massive resource hogging data centers in our backyards. I believe that NV energy should be a public utility, not a for profit corporation. And that Google can pay for their own damn energy.

Nevada has the most expensive childcare in the country. 4 out of 5 preschool aged kids are not currently enrolled in preschool due to the cost. This pushes kids even further behind on their education while making it harder for parents to afford to go to work. We must make childcare free for all and expand it to include every family.