The Washoe County Board of Commissioners took the first steps toward creating a new way to help the affordable housing crisis. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund would use public money to provide incentives to private investors to build more affordable units.

“With more of our multi-family projects coming online, those price points are rising, so it’s difficult for even families to find a place to stay as they move in from the area,” Kate Thomas, Assistant County Manager said.

J.D. Klippenstein is the Executive Director of ACTIONN, a group working to find solutions to the housing crisis. He says the Truckee Meadows is already about 11,000 affordable units behind where it should be, and that Reno’s rents increased at one of the highest rates in the country, last year.