U.S. population shift spurs increased cultural awareness from
property managers by Janice Rosenberg
MInorIty report
In 1977 when Barbara Holland, CPM® and
president of H&L Realty and Management Co. in Las
Vegas, began working as a property manager in that
Nevada town, English served her everyday needs. Lately
she often finds herself looking for a translator.
And for good reason. According to the U.S. Census
Bureau’s “2006 American Community Survey Data Profile
Highlights,” Hispanics and Latinos currently make up 30. 6
percent of the Las Vegas population, up from 23. 6 percent
in 2000.
“If I don’t have at least a maintenance technician or
one of the office staff—either on-site or in the corporate
office—who speaks Spanish, I’m in trouble,” Holland said.
Throughout the United States huge demographic
changes have occurred over the past 30 years. According
to a 2008 “Population Brief” published by the Western
Rural Development Center—one of four regional centers
funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture—the population of Nevada was 83.4 percent White in 1980; by 2000
the figure had declined to 67 percent.
