Eighth Street Park has become a familiar gathering place for many people living without stable housing as there’s shade, nice grass and a community food pantry nearby. Some come after losing jobs. Others face family conflict or personal struggles. Some have been unhoused, rehoused, and unhoused again. Some have lived in motels or tried the shelter, but now live in tents.
Their paths vary, but they share one thing in common: trying to get by with what they have.
On a recent day, a group of people living on the streets gathered with their bags and belongings as park rangers had just asked them to move away.
Among them was Steve, who asked to only go by his first name. He pushed a cart filled with his possessions, looking for a new spot to temporarily call home.
Steve says he once worked as a manager at the Topaz Lodge in Gardnerville. But while living afterward in Mountain View, California, he says, after losing most of his belongings in a fire, his life began to unravel.
“Nine years ago now, I moved out to Idaho with my sister, where I found some of my family living,” said Steve. “My wife ended up leaving, brought the kids back here, so naturally I followed to be closer to my kids and lived at Lake Mill until they shut down. I had a normal life once. Now it's all moving and trying to keep things together.”
For years, he’s been moving from place to place, searching for a sense of stability that’s hard to find.
A few blocks away on Virginia Street, outside a Walgreens, 50-year-old Victor Brooks sits against a wall, working on a sudoku puzzle. He says he moved to Reno from Massachusetts in 2023 for a job, but after a series of bad choices and time in jail, he feels like he’s starting over again.
“You know what I mean, the best intentions, but until it comes down to it, that’s all they are, is just intentions,” said Brooks. “But me, being out here, I learned that I’m an adapter. I adapt to whatever situation I’m in and I learn how to deal with it.”
Wendy Wiglesworth, who has a long history of helping others, both as an outreach director for RISE and as an overnight volunteer, is back to living on the streets after spending years in a motel. She stands with a backpack slung over her shoulder, filled with essentials. She’s faced years of personal struggles, from domestic violence to drug use to losing friends who were her neighbors along the Truckee River.
She says her faith and the support of others on the street have kept her going. But recent park clearings by city rangers have made it difficult to stay in one place.
“It’s a park. I’m allowed to be in a park. The city’s failed. It broke me, the city broke me, this place failed,” Wiglesworth said. “If there was a place to go or a place to keep your stuff without being punished for what you’ve got, or what time you need to see it... whatever.”
The constant moving, she says, makes it nearly impossible to keep what little she has left safe.
Steve, Victor, and Wendy each have their own story, but their experiences reveal how quickly a stable life can be lost and how hard it can be to rebuild without steady housing.