Shondra Sommers-Armstrong and Camerson C.H. Miller
Two Democratic state lawmakers will face off against each other for the nonpartisan City of Las Vegas Ward 5 council seat.
Assemblywoman Shondra Summers-Armstrong currently represents Assembly District 6 while Cameron C.H. Miller previously served in Assembly District 7 but resigned in October 2023 after his family moved from the district.
The council seat opened after Las Vegas Councilman Cedric Crear, who has represented the ward since 2018, sought an unsuccessful bid for mayor rather than seek re-election.
Summers-Armstrong and Miller were the top two in the June primary election among eight candidates but neither acquired 50% of the vote to win the seat outright.
Of the 7,760 who cast ballots in the primary election, Summers-Armstrong received 2,484 votes, about 32%, while Miller garnered 1,472 votes, about 19%.
Summers-Armstrong previously ran for Ward 5 in 2018 during the off-year March election but came in third against Crear.
Both she and Miller were elected to the state Legislature in 2020 and won re-election in 2022.
Summers-Armstrong is endorsed by the Culinary Union and SEIU Local 1107. Both Miller and Summers-Armstrong are jointly endorsed by the AFL-CIO.
Miller has raised $119,000 while Summer-Armstrong has raised about $84,000 according to the most recent campaign filing reports.
Ward 5 has a predominately Black and Hispanic population and is home to the Historic Westside, which became the core of the Black community as a result of racial segregation and red-lining practices.
Ward 5 is also where the Corridor of Hope, an era near Downtown Las Vegas where the majority of Southern Nevada’s homeless services and emergency shelters, is located.
Miller and Summers-Armstrong said homeless services and shelter options need to be scattered throughout Southern Nevada rather than relegated to one area of the city.
“Ward 5 is not the only place homeless people reside but one of the few places where services are provided,” Summers-Armstrong said. “That is a heavy burden for one geographic location to have to carry by itself.”
She said homelessness isn’t just a City of Las Vegas issue and plans to advocate for more regional collaboration on solutions throughout the valley.
Miller agreed that services can’t continue to be concentrated in one area of town.
“Folks become unhoused in different parts of our valley and essentially we are shipping them to one destination to receive the services and support they need,” he said.
During the 2023 session both Miller and Summers-Armstrong voted in favor of Assembly Bill 528, a resort industry-backed bill that established a $100 million matching fund to build a centralized campus. Some Clark County commissioners have been pushing to invest funds in converting older motels into non-congregate shelters.
Miller said both options are needed to address “different levels of need” among those experiencing homelessness.
He said if elected he would be open to various ideas including looking at designated land to build tiny homes, which are small shelter units that cities across the country have erected as a stopgap solution to rising numbers of unhoused.
Whatever solutions the city discusses, the council needs “to get bullheaded and intentional about making sure our seniors are not out there on the street,” he said.
The housing crisis has been exacerbated by the pandemic and contributed to a rise in homelessness.
Summers-Armstrong and Miller said addressing the housing crisis and rising number of unhoused are among their top priorities if elected to the race.
“A lot of our unhoused population is a direct result of the high cost of housing in our community and the lack of units that are available to the general public, let alone those who are lower income status,” Miller said. “We need to get more housing units into our communities so prices come down and stabilize and we can see more stability in that regard.”
Summers-Armstrong said people “often focus on what we see in the street because it’s right in our face.” The issue is more complicated, she said.
“We are seeing more families experiencing homelessness because they can’t afford housing,” she said. “I’m concerned we will have young people aging out of foster care” who will “start getting caught up (in homelessness) if there is no place to go.”
She added there needs to be more done to address the root causes including a shortage of affordable housing units, the lack of mental health services and the need for job training and placement programs.
“What happens to people when they come into this community seeking help and if they can get into one of those 2,000 shelter beds,” she asked. “What happens the next morning when they have to leave the facility? Where is the connection for them to go from shelter to assistance and then shelter again until they can get permanent housing?”
She said there needs to be more funding to develop more affordable housing and expand services.
“My goal, my hope will be to make sure to make sure we have funding and find the ways to fund the work that needs to be done in the city,” she said.
The City of Las Vegas was criticized in 2019 when it enacted an ordinance to restrict sleeping and camping in public rights away.
Designed to target the growing number of homelessness, those unhoused could receive fines and jail time if shelter beds, including space at the open air Courtyard Homeless Resource Center, were available.
More cities across Nevada, as well as the country, have passed ordinances to criminalize camping and sleeping.
Miller said approaching any sort of future attempt to restrict where people sleep should be “done with compassion” adding that “at the end of the day, we wouldn’t have an issue if we had places for folks to go.”
“Sure we don’t want people sleeping on the street,” Summers-Armstrong said. “If we don’t want them on the street and we don’t have a regional plan to help homelessness, then where do they go?”