‘Too messy. Too ugly’: Building sale collapses, Lutheran Social Services files for bankruptcy

Lutheran Social Services of Nevada filed for bankruptcy late Friday after a prospective buyer for the nonprofit’s building on Boulder Highway walked away from the deal, the organization’s board stated.

The troubled nonprofit has received millions of dollars in government funding over the past decade.

“Filing for bankruptcy was considered a critical last resort after exhausting all other reasonable efforts following the mismanagement and subsequent termination for cause of the former CEO,” according to the board’s news release.

The release said the board — Henderson City Councilwoman Carrie Cox, attorney Jason Stoffel and home inspector Shawn Davis — would provide no further comment.

Former CEO Tim Bedwell did not respond to a request for comment. Bedwell’s LinkedIn page indicated he left his position in June, as previously reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Lutheran Social Services — only loosely affiliated with the Lutheran Church, which has largely cut ties — has struggled financially in recent years and seen its reputation marred by controversy, including claims of mismanagement that came to light after it suspended operations in October.

The organization had been offering hot meals for seniors, a food pantry where clients regularly could get groceries, and other services such as housing assistance.

More recently, it sporadically has passed out food and clothing to clients.

Several board members and key employees quit in September 2024 after learning, they said, of monthly $8,500 payments apiece to the wife of then-CEO Tim Bedwell, Michele, and to her business partner Adam Kent, even as the nonprofit struggled to make payroll and pay vendors. In an interview last year, Tim Bedwell said the payments were above-board and for fundraising and other services.

In December 2025, the two Lutheran pastors on the board resigned when, they said, Tim Bedwell, Kent and Cox refused to resign themselves.

‘More debt. More liens’

Hope Christian Health Center was in escrow on the purchase of the building for its appraised value of $1.47 million, said its CEO, Steve Flores. The North Las Vegas-based center describes itself as a “non-profit, faith-based family medicine center.”

Because government funding was used to construct the building, there are restrictions on how the building can be used after its sale, which lowered the appraised value, Flores said.

The nonprofit health center was planning to provide medical services as well as operate a food pantry in the building, which is part of a campus that includes a Boys & Girls Club, a charter school and low-income housing.

“Though we want to go into that community, there are too many things tangled up in that purchase,” Flores said in a Friday interview. “More debt. More liens. Not being able to verify and validate all those things. … Too messy. Too ugly.”

The bankruptcy filing lists multiple creditors, including banks, vendors and even Tim and Michele Bedwell. In March, Tim Bedwell filed for divorce.

In 2024, the nonprofit used the building as collateral to take out a $750,000 line of credit from MidFirst Bank, documents show. Jon Paul, the nonprofit’s part-time chief financial officer for most of 2025, said the line of credit was tapped out before he joined the organization. It was not paid back, he said.

In December 2016, Clark County approved $5.8 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds for what was described as the Boulder Highway Collaborative Campus. About half of the funding was to build the Lutheran Social Services building and the other half a Boys & Girls Club, a county spokesperson said.

In 2023, the county awarded $1.8 million in federal grant dollars for Lutheran Social Services to build an addition that included an expanded kitchen.

A June demand letter from the district attorney’s office to the nonprofit states that it serves as final notice for repayment of $39,375 in advanced payment for services not provided and for documentation of the nonprofit’s requests for reimbursement.

Next steps

County spokesperson Jennifer Cooper said in a text message Friday, “The county at this time is working to determine next steps.”

In its news release, the board said a third-party Chapter 7 trustee, Troy Fox, would “assume full control of the organization, administer the remaining assets, and address the claims of the organization in a court-supervised process.”

“The Board deeply regrets the current suspension of services and recognizes the hardship this creates for community members in need,” the release states. “The remaining directors acted in good faith and exhausted every option under challenging circumstances to give LSSN the best chance of survival.”

Flores said his organization still wants to work in the neighborhood, even if it means for the time being parking a mobile unit in the building’s parking lot.

“Once again, it’s the community that is losing out,” he said about the failure to close escrow on the building. “It was community money — the community — that paid for it in the beginning.”