NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Newly signed legislation aims to take care of unfinished business concerning Windsor Park, an old North Las Vegas neighborhood that's been sinking and deteriorating for decades due to geological shifts and underground water removal.
I'm digging into the new law and how officials say it will address the old Windsor Park, what will be the new Windsor Park, and what's become known as "Baby Windsor Park."
Unfinished Business
State Sen. Dina Neal, a Democrat representing Clark County District 4, championed Senate Bill 6, a bill passed in the recent special legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo. The bill finishes what SB393 set out to accomplish, before it fell short of final approval in the 2025 regular legislative session, and builds off of the progress SB450 made in the 2023 session.
Sen. Neal said SB6 ensures the remainder of the funding needed to build all 93 new homes for the residents of Windsor Park, who are still living in the sinking neighborhood and waiting for the relief they've long been promised.
Crews broke ground on what will be the new Windsor Park at N. MLK Blvd. and W. Cartier Ave. earlier this year, but Neal said they only had enough money allocated to build 59 of the homes.
SB6 allocates an additional $25 million for the remainder of the homes, which will be built in phases. SB6 also helps fund relocation assistance and takes care of other details of the project, like eligibility criteria.
Nasir Abed, a Windsor Park resident, said he's already selected the floor plan for his new home, and his family cannot wait for the day they move in. He said the home they're living in now is crumbling before their own eyes.
"Ceilings are cracking, the roof is messed up. We have leaks in the ceiling, we have leaks in the bathroom, everything's tilted, foundation's cracking, patio's cracking... it's really, really bad," Abed said.
He said he drives by the plot of land where the new Windsor Park will be built daily, dreaming of the new, safer life his family has been hoping for.
"My son has a skin condition," Abed said. "He used to pray that he gets better. Now he just prays that hopefully he doesn't die with the walls falling on him, house falling."
'Baby Windsor': Rectifying the Resolution
Sen. Neal said her legislation also takes care of another part of this story that's often overlooked — "Baby Windsor."
"Baby Windsor" is a nickname that's been given to a neighborhood just across the street from where the new Windsor Park is being built. Neal said in the mid-90s, the City of North Las Vegas offered relocation assistance to Windsor Park residents using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money. Forty-five homes were built, relocating some of the Windsor Park residents from their sinking and shifting homes.
Shedrack Ficklin, Sr. once lived in the original Windsor Park, and when he noticed his home starting to move due to the geological shifts, he took the city up on its offer in the '90s and moved into a new home.
"Super, it was beautiful — starting out," Ficklin said.
He said not long after moving into their new homes, he and some of his neighbors started noticing some issues. He showed me the sprawling cracks on his driveway.
"A lot of the folks had trouble with their driveways, and a little bit of this and a little bit of that," he said.
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Some of those complaints are detailed in old North Las Vegas City Council meeting minutes from the '90s that Sen. Neal shared with me.
"The paint was peeling, tub paint was peeling, and that their houses were positioned in the wrong way..." Sen. Neal said, explaining what she found in those old council minutes, indicating that even those new homes at the time seemed to be substandard.
Essentially, even the remedy needed repairs.
"I couldn't find anything in the city council minutes where it had actually been repaired or fixed," Neal said.
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She said the residents who were relocated to those 45 homes in the '90s, a community that became known as "Baby Windsor Park," were victims of housing injustice, too, though their story is often overlooked.
"They're original Windsor Park residents, so they're in the same tree. I think people missed that," Neal said.
That's why in her legislation, she also included a provision that allocates up to $10,000 per single-family residence for repairs at "Baby Windsor," to rectify what was supposed to be their resolution.
"I needed to include them because they were original families as well, and if they had to take on their own repairs after the government said, 'I will fix this,' why not include them in the remedy?" Neal said.
Ficklin is still hesitant about it all, though.
"As long as it's been, and there has been a promise for this deadline, promise for that deadline, and moved in in '94, and we're still pushing and shoving and arguing with folks about doing the right thing, that's how we feel," Ficklin said.
"So is it kind of a 'I'll believe it when I see it' sort of thing?" I asked Ficklin.
"Yeah, in plain language, it's your turn," Ficklin replied.
"Step up to the plate and do the right thing," he went on to say.
Ficklin said above all, though, he's most concerned for the folks still living in the original Windsor Park, in unimaginable conditions.
"I'm just so glad they finally are going to see some light at the end of the tunnel here," Ficklin said.
WATCH | After years of delays, Windsor Park families see construction begin on long-awaited neighborhood rebuild
Even though the remedy he once got has its problems, he feels blessed to have made it out of Windsor Park and onto more stable ground.
"I know my friends are going to reap the same harvest that I have, and that's a beautiful thing," Ficklin said.
I asked Sen. Neal for a timeline on when "Baby Windsor Park" residents will get that money for repairs.
She said first, they're going to build the new Windsor Park. Of course, that situation is much more urgent. That parcel of land has been cleared and site work is underway. She said it'll likely be closer to February 2026 when we'll start to see the actual homes take shape.
She said it'll likely be around 2027 when they address the rehabilitation at "Baby Windsor."
As for the old Windsor Park, once the last of those residents eventually move out of those crumbling homes and into new houses, Neal said a park is set to be built on that land to memorialize the original residents who died in those homes, waiting for the long-promised help.
