Colleen Alexandra Wilson-Pappa was the former director of government relations for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association and the former assistant planning manager for Clark County Comprehensive Planning.
While we are seeing exponential growth throughout all of Las Vegas, I believe some of the biggest challenges facing Las Vegas are water, education and medicine.
No doubt coming from the hospitality industry and now working in hospitality technology, human resources are our biggest challenge — finding qualified people to fill open positions. COVID has been the catalyst for hospitality companies to really rethink their technology stacks and layer in solutions that will grow with them. At UrVenue, we are busier than ever and continue to look for promising candidates to fill our open positions.
There are many challenges facing Southern Nevada, especially in light of COVID. However, one of the bigger challenges is the shortage of health care professionals compared to the population, especially in the field of nursing.
My outlook on Southern Nevada’s biggest challenges includes housing costs and the recovery of our local job market. The lack of housing inventory and making sure our local housing supply keeps up with what the city needs to meet the demand from thousands of new and existing residents is a big challenge. The housing shortage creates a barrier for prospective homeowners, including many first-time buyers. Job recovery relies on consumer spending, but that improvement depends on the path of the coronavirus and how it affects the leisure and hospitality industry.
It goes without saying that we have a water shortage in Lake Mead, and if that cannot be solved soon that will be our valley’s biggest issue. Future development and the valley’s expansion are dependent on our elected officials finding a way to get our share of the water coming out of the Colorado River.
You don’t get economic diversity simply by recruiting businesses here. Most businesses need talent, and that talent comes from an educated workforce. That’s why I would offer that higher education should be an essential component of this region’s economic diversification strategy.
The water shortage that is affecting the Colorado River and Lake Mead is definitely something to keep an eye on. As our city continues to grow very rapidly, both in number of residents and with all the new businesses transplanting here, the topic of water sustainability will become an even bigger part of living in Southern Nevada. Businesses, big and small, will have to be flexible and adjust.
I believe that the need for employees throughout the valley will be a huge challenge very soon. I know there is a current struggle with staffing businesses and with all the new projects coming to town it will only increase the amount of jobs that are available.