When Amber Sorenson lost her job earlier in June, she lost her house soon after.
Then, she lost time with her kids. The mother of three chose to send her youngest son, 22, to Reno, Nevada – a city 442 miles from where she was couch surfing in Las Vegas. Her daughter moved out.
Sorenson, who is 50, was born partially blind. In 2007, she completely lost her sight.
This year, she nearly lost hope.
But last month, Sorenson learned she had been the first resident approved for an apartment at Visions Park, a new affordable housing complex for the blind and visually impaired in Las Vegas.
“I started crying when I got the news. It all fell into place,” she said. “It’s beautiful to be around other visually impaired people. We live the same life but not for the same reasons, we can each be there for each other.”
New housing developments like Visions Park offer low-income members of the blind community more living opportunities, even as advocates debate the best way to expand access.
Sorenson said the apartment’s amenities help make her life easier without sacrificing her independence.
“I still cook. I still wash my clothes. I do everything on my own and always have,” Sorenson told Straight Arrow. “I’m a mother of three, so I had to either push forward or let it stop me.”
Made in collaboration with non-profit blind advocacy group The Blind Center and the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, the $40 million 99-unit affordable housing project is located just north of downtown Las Vegas.
The apartment complex features audio-tactile walkways that inform residents where they are walking to, appliances with tactile cues for hazards, Braille identification for mail and rooms and ADA-accessible bathrooms. Each unit features a couch, desk, television and a queen-size bed.
The Blind Center has been supporting the city’s blind community since 1950, providing food, transportation, counseling and activities such as culinary classes, bowling and yoga. Todd Imholte, the organization’s president and CEO, said the newest initiative helps reach a longtime, lofty goal of building fair, equitable housing for visually impaired residents.
“We wanted to provide safe, affordable housing but also a sense of dignity and independence for the blind community,” he told Straight Arrow. “We wanted to provide a path to greatness for people, not just a place to live.”
Why is accessible housing so urgent for blind Americans?
Visions Park is the first development of its kind in Nevada, and was conceived from the pandemic’s devastating effect on the blind community’s employment. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Nevada was the most economically devastated state in the country during the pandemic, with a 28% unemployment rate during its peak.
A study from the American Foundation for the Blind found that 22% of blind Americans are below the federal poverty rate. That’s twice as high as the rate for Americans without any disability and slightly higher than those with any other disability.
“This is all about giving people an equal opportunity to live. Whatever your unique ability is, I think that model to create a community like this is exciting,” Imholte said. “I have a feeling that other cities around the country will do what we’re doing.”
According to Visions Park’s website, all of the units are restricted to households earning below 40% of the area’s median income (AMI) for Clark County. This can be as low as $22,200 for a household of one or $33,000 for a household of four.
The project is a regional, public-private effort, with funding contributions from the state and local donors, including the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, Clark County, the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas and various private donors.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1 million people in the U.S. are completely blind. Seven million Americans have some form of lesser visual impairment — a number that is expected to double by 2050 due to a rapidly aging population.
The issues deepen for Las Vegas, as WalletHub ranks the city 132nd among 200 U.S. cities for disability support and AARP ranks it 49th for affordability and access.
Frank Stafford, director of modernization and development at the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, was on board with the project from the beginning.
“The mission of the housing authority is to provide safe, affordable and decent housing. People with [disabilities] know it’s difficult to have those things,” he said. “Although it’s too early to say what its impact will be, from what I have seen at the center, the center has been thriving.”
In order to lessen the isolation of the residents and provide jobs, Imholte said Visions Park will host various job training opportunities such as call centers, electronic recycling and technology labs.
How are cities designing apartments for visually impaired residents?
Las Vegas is not alone in creating this much-needed housing. Janet P. Szlyk, president and CEO of The Chicago Lighthouse, said similar issues inspired her organization to build the Foglia Residences, an affordable housing development located in Chicago that opened in October 2024.
The $47 million, 76-unit building was specifically designed for people who are blind, while remaining open to veterans. Hallways feature high-contrast flooring to distinguish spaces for those with some visibility, apartment numbers in Braille and handrails.
Tech integrations featured in each unit include an Amazon Alexa, Amazon smart plugs, Blink doorbells and Echo Show smart displays, as well as bump dots on appliances. There are also trained occupational therapists within the building for the residents.
Szlyk said the idea for the Foglia Residences originated more than a decade ago when Lighthouse board member David Brint, whose son is blind, recognized the need for affordable housing designed for blind people.
As the building quickly reached full occupancy, the success and strong demand for the project has sparked Szlyk’s hopes to create another similar building when more funding becomes available.
“We have had a tremendous response from our community,” she said. “When we first announced the building, we received thousands of inquiries, and had hundreds of people apply. The building reached 100% capacity within five months, and we’re still getting interest.”
Szylk said that the building is completely designed for independent living just like Visions Park.
“Like everyone else, people who are blind or visually impaired want to provide for themselves, live independently and have productive meaningful lives,” Szylk told Straight Arrow.
Do specialized housing projects isolate the blind community?
But not everyone is convinced these developments will solve all the problems they’re setting out to tackle.
“Although these projects are well-intentioned, they can isolate blind people from the rest of their community,” said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation for the Blind. “We generally feel that the solution is to incorporate accessible features into affordable housing units generally, rather than segregating blind people in a separate housing complex.”
Mona Merklein, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Nevada, also has mixed feelings about the project. Merklein, a former special education teacher, said Las Vegas is lacking in so many ways for the disabled community that one housing project simply cannot fix.
While Las Vegas is generally regarded as a highly accessible city for tourists, the city ranks far lower for accessibility support for residents in their daily lives.
Merklein welcomes the addition of job training and prioritizing low-income residents, but she shares Danielsen’s concern about making housing separate from her able-bodied neighbors.
“I’m all for having apartments that are for low-income individuals, because that hopefully can get a lot of people off the streets. But if you’re isolating anyone from their community, then that’s wrong,” she said.
Both Imholte and Szlyk agree with the sentiment that these accessible options should be integrated into new housing projects from the beginning.
But for Sorenson, the impact of her new home cannot be overstated.
“We all live the same life, but not for the same reason,” Sorenson said. “It’s about moving in a new path for a better future. I’m very excited to see who my new neighbors are going to be and for my kids to come visit.”
