The Reno City Council has approved the first reading of a new ordinance to make enforcement of trespassing near railroad tracks easier, removing a requirement for “No Trespassing” signs or fencing along the tracks.
“Let’s keep in mind that people are sleeping with their heads right next to railroad tracks,” police chief Kathryn Nance told the city’s council on Wednesday. “People are going to get hurt if we are not proactively stopping this.”
It’s not known how often this has happened locally, even though many unhoused do congregate by railroad tracks, seeking shade or being left alone, when they aren’t forced to leave from those areas.
Many in favor of this new ordinance have called it “a new tool in the toolbox,” which led to dismay from an advocate for the unhoused Ilya Arbatman, who said during public comment he associates tools with building homes. Arbatman has called this new ordinance unnecessary, seeing it as one more tool to possibly criminalize the unhoused, and making it harder for them to get out of difficult situations, rather than helping them.
Councilwoman Jenny Brekhus was a lone no vote saying helping the unhoused is a “real complex problem,” with more focus needed on subsidized housing.