Opening for new afforable housing community in Las Vegas honors local civil rights leaders

Taja Reese moved into her new apartment last week after months of homelessness. She had been living out of her car while working as a DoorDash driver when she got into an accident that totalled her car and broke both of her feet.

Her new home — one of 80 units at the new affordable housing community, Beals-Henderson Pointe — meant more to her than a spot to sleep, she said.

“When I opened the door and saw this was all mine, I just cried,” Reese said. “It means that I have a chance to live.”

Reese joined Southern Nevada housing and development leaders at a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for Beals-Henderson Pointe, 5901 Duncan Drive. The apartments are available for households that earn between 30 and 80 percent of the area’s medium income.

“We are all entitled to live in a place that is safe and clean and has amenities so that when children are growing up here, they feel valued,” Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said at the ceremony.

The community is named after Alversa Beals and Essie Henderson, two of the key organizers of the 1971 storming of Caesars Palace, a historic protest that brought welfare and labor reform to Southern Nevada. Members of both the Beals and Henderson family attended the ceremony in honor of their relatives’ legacy.

“It is so important that we acknowledge people that made a difference in this community, but ordinarily would have been unsung heroes,” Berkley said. “But from now on, everyone will know what these remarkable women did.”

Beals-Henderson Pointe also features a clubhouse, playground, basketball court, lounge areas, and barbecue stations. It was developed by The Michaels Organization in partnership with the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, and funded by private equity raised through the sale of federal low-income housing tax credits and American Rescue Plan Act funding.

All 80 apartments have been filled.

Kathy Thomas, chief housing officer for the Housing Authority, said the property’s elevated design and amenities break people’s expectations of what affordable housing developments can be.

“People think affordable housing lowers the value in a community,” Thomas said. “But when you see this and look around, you don’t drive past this and go, ‘Oh, that’s subsidized housing.’ You drive past this development and say, ‘That is beautiful housing. I wonder if they have any vacancies.’”

Contact Kalohe Danbara at kdanbara@reviewjournal.com.