Derrick Pillors, Smiling Through Increasingly Uncertain Times

Hoping to Renew His Social Security, Waiting for the Overflow

Like many on the streets, for Derrick Pillors, who used to work steady jobs before his life got derailed, preoccupations are both macro — how will I get income again? — and micro — where will I sleep tonight?

Pillors says he also recently stopped getting his Social Security check. He says a stop payment was put on his check recently because government agencies didn’t have an address for him anymore. Now, he’s in a waiting period trying to get those payments back.

“Right now my goal is just to get my check and my other goal right now is to wait until 9:00 p.m. for the overflow [shelter to open] and get a good night’s sleep.” 

When we met him, Pillors had just recently started staying at a shelter again, something he’s been reluctant to do after his past experiences there. 

“I have gotten bronchitis twice and pneumonia once [there],” Pillors said. “So that’s why I’m a little bit weary of the shelter. I almost died when I went in there with all those germs man, it’s crazy.”

Pillors says he’s still trying to find work where he can. In the past, he says he’s worked for Street Vibrations and he remembers they had paid him pretty well. This past summer, he says he was looking for the same former employer and finally found him during Reno’s Garlic Festival.

“I walked from tent to tent [every day] and I didn’t see him until the last night when they were cleaning up,” Pillors said, shaking his head. “He was nice enough to help me out with ten bucks or something, you know, but that could have easily been a $200 plus week for me.” 

For those who say the homeless should just get a job, Pillors says it’s not always that easy, even if unemployment is low right now.

“It’s hard to work and not have a place to stay,” he said. “It’s tough. But maybe I can try and kick it in gear and work out a little schedule as work coincides with me [staying] at the overflow.”

Pillors says he believes hotels and casinos in Reno could do a little more to give back to the homeless population, given their role in the community.

Ideas for Reno, Including a Big Building and Regular Barbecue

In the meantime, Pillors says he would like to see projects big and small put in place for the homeless population in Reno. One project he affectionately refers to as his “Club Men’s Shelter.” This new shelter would be fully furnished with a gymnasium, swimming pool, and weights.

“I don’t understand why [the city] don’t just make a really big building with enough room for everybody to come in off the street,” Pillors said. “I would make the shelter livable, but at the same time people would realize they’re not here to live. They’re passing through to get their situation better and move on to make room for the next guy coming by.”

“I’d also like to see a big barbecue for the homeless people [considering] all the money and revenue that is lost in gambling,” Pillors said of something casinos and downtown hotels could do to give back. “I know these hotels, instead of just once at Christmas and Thanksgiving, maybe every two months or something just have a big barbecue for the little guys that made your establishment what they are today.”
Pillors says he doesn’t blame others for his plight, and that he turns to religion to keep his confidence.

“It’s tough [being on the street] man, it’s a tough grind,” Pillors said. “But I respect law enforcement and I respect the law. I respect Reno, as a city. I think it’s a great city with a lot of opportunity, actually, I just have to take more advantage of things.” 

When asked what his motivation is moving forward through his recent hardships, his answer was quite simple: “Honestly, I have to say my Heavenly Father. That’s my one and only answer to that,” Pillors said. “[With] the opportunity that each day presents, good things can happen in His name everyday.”

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Daniel, Getting His ID Stolen, and Jailed for Sitting, Among Many Tribulations

Burying Important Items

Since Daniel has been living on the streets, he says he’s learned to keep one eye open so that nothing gets stolen. He’s learned to take extra precautions, going as far as even burying important items while he sleeps. But getting his ID back now, he says, is the first step to finding proper housing to live in.

Working in construction for the past 14 years, he’s grateful he still has a job that keeps him somewhat afloat. At times, it allows him to not only look out for himself, but for others living on the streets as well.

“Thank goodness I have a trades skill that I learned and I have some college [experience],” Daniel said. “This past weekend, I had some cash and I’m always thinking, ‘Well what am I going to do? So I bought a couple of guys some clothes, I got another couple of guys a room.’”  

According to Daniel, looking out for other homeless people like that is part of the camaraderie among those on the streets. As a further example, with the help of a friend Daniel was recently able to arrange a hotel room. Around that time, he met a homeless woman who didn’t have any money, food, or a place to stay. Consequently, after sharing a meal she helped him go shopping, something he doesn’t typically like to do, and he bought a few things for her as well. Later on, he let her stay at the hotel so that they could both relax and get proper sleep.

 “As soon as she was comfortable, she just slept,” Daniel said. “And it’s because you know that you're actually safe, with your Gatorade, beer, or whatever your little comfort is and actually let your guard down [that you can sleep]. So I just kind of let her sleep and watched the TV real low.” 

Even though they were complete strangers, it’s the respect that comes with looking out for each other that Daniel appreciates.

“Even though you’re a stranger and I don't even know you, I love you anyways,” Daniel said. “I still have that protective bond. So if I ever see her again, it's going to pick up just like that and she was the same way with me. [There’s] that level of respect because when my eyes were closed, she was up. And that's, that's just kinda how it goes unspoken though, you know?”

Daniel says sometimes the help he provides bites him back, but he says he forgives others who are in need.

Burned by Generosity but Given New Chances Himself

That’s not to say that the people you help won’t take advantage of your generosity, however, he says. As while his guard was down, he says, she took a few things of his.

“You know, the devil brings a bone to your door, the devil brings one away,” Daniel said. “You have to learn how to survive one way or another. I knew she took from me and stuff like that when my guard was down. But I wasn't going to call her out on it because I know you’re just doing it because you don't know that I would've gave it to you anyways.”

Despite the times his generosity is taken advantage of, Daniel still finds room to understand and forgive. 

“If you're gonna use the word love, you got to understand the meaning of it,” Daniel said. “They say when you become precious to God, you become important to the devil. I might not condone what you do, support what you're doing, or encourage you to do some of the things you do, but I'm going to love you regardless of what you do.”

For Daniel, spreading generosity is just one way he can pay forward what he’s received from his boss at his construction job.

“He was just like you're a good worker and I believe in second chances,” Daniel said. “So I just show up on time and do my job.”

Daniel’s second chance comes after spending five months in jail for trespassing on casino property. He had been walking all day and just needed a place to sit.

“I’m 34 years old and have never been in trouble, but I got put in jail for sitting in a dirt parking lot,” Daniel said. “It wasn't even the casinos, it was their overflow lot and there weren’t any signs or nothing.”

When he refused to move from the dirt lot, he was put in jail. Before he could post bond, however, his attorney had him undergo a competency hearing. But during the hearing, he says he got in an argument over an improper schizophrenia diagnosis, which landed him in a maximum security mental ward for the next five weeks.

“They look at me [when I got there], and they're like, ‘Oh, you're not going to be here a long time,’” Daniel said. “It felt so good to hear that because it's about as bad as you can imagine it [inside]. Thank goodness I wasn't on pills or nothing like that.”

Learning from the Mental Ward and Previous Homelessness

During his brief stint at the mental ward, Daniel was able to track down a doctor who recognized he didn’t belong there. Yet, the process for him to get out still took five weeks.  

“[Five weeks] may not seem like a long time, but it is in a maximum security mental ward for the criminally insane,” Daniel said, referencing an inmate he met that was in for a double murder. “I mean, I'm not saying everybody in there is bad, but I’m just saying that there's two different kinds of crazy. I just have a mouth on me.”

Now that Daniel is back on his feet with his job, he hopes to find some housing in Reno. It’s not the first time he’s been homeless, however, having learned from a brief homeless stint in LA. At the time he was a part-time student while also working in construction part-time. 

“I got denied housing, food stamps, and all that because I was a part time student,” Daniel said. “But if I kept my job and dropped the student, then I would get food stamps.” 

So Daniel dropped out of his studies, which was the reason he went down to LA to begin with. It’s through experiences like this that he learned it’s the people that understand the loopholes of the system that benefit the most. Oftentimes, it even comes down to certain strategies on how one fills out certain application forms, he says, something Daniel doesn’t have time to do while he’s working construction. 

“We're up at six o'clock and work until two or three on the days we get picked,” Daniel said. “I need the help a lot more than some, but I don't always know what they want [on the forms]. I have never taken the time to be like, ‘So what am I supposed to say to these ones?’”

Meanwhile, it’s the people he works with as well as those in the city of Reno that keeps him going everyday.

“That's one thing about Reno, too,” Daniel said. “I always say it's just a bunch of small town people in a city and [my] company is definitely like it. It takes a village to raise a kid and they're always eager to show you something if you want to learn and they're just great like that.”

Daniel likens the city of Reno to a black hole, for despite however established you might be elsewhere, there’s something about Reno that seems to draw you back in, he said. There’s a sense of joy that comes from the little victories he sees in people each day, too. 

“That's why I don't mind buying clothes for [other homeless], even though I probably could have got a room for a couple more nights,” Daniel said. “It's the right thing to do anyways. And there's nothing like fresh socks, you know what I mean? So we get some socks and underwear, a shirt that fits and it may only cost $28, but that's a big deal.”

To Daniel, it’s bringing joy to himself and to others that is ultimately what will matter at the end of it all.

“The Egyptians, right?” Daniel said. “In order to get into their heaven, you only had to answer truthfully to two questions: One was did you find joy in your life? The second one, was how did your life bring joy to others? Consider that in your day to day life. Would you be able to answer those two honestly?”

Daniel’s answer to that question was quite simple: “Absolutely, yeah.”

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Rudy Leon, the Renter's Candidate Pushing for "Attainable Housing" and Compassion

Rudy Leon, a scholarly book editor, two time burner and Midtown resident, who currently lives on about $30,000 per year, recently launched her campaign website RudyForReno. She says she is the one candidate who understands what it’s like to have most of her income go to her housing. She first moved to Reno in 2012, and moved back after taking a job elsewhere, and realizing the Biggest Little City was home. Leon will greet potential voters following the Women’s March Saturday, January 18th, at the downtown Events Center. In February she will be going to a smart growth conference in Arizona, to get new ideas for her campaign. She sat down this week with Our Town Reno for a one on one interview as she prepares to officially register in March and compete in the June primary, with victory as her objective in November. Note: Part of the interview was trimmed for conciseness and clarity.

Q: What would you like to see Reno’s city council pushing for in terms of making housing more accessible to our city’s residents?

There are two things that come to the top of my mind immediately. The first is … having some tenant protections. I have lived in a number of places and I've never lived someplace that had as few. I'm not sure we have any tenant protections…. So that's one thing they can do is start working on instituting some tenant protections and rent protective issues. The other thing is prioritizing the building of attainable housing. Most people think of it as affordable housing, but in government speak affordable housing is government funded, income capped housing like Section 8… We, the city can help facilitate the supply and demand imbalance so that housing can kind of normalize at the attainable level. 

The city also has a lot of vacant land that they own that has nothing built on it.  Something that I would like to see happen is a listing of what the city owns and what it intends for it and therefore what land it owns that it has no intention for and how that land can be used. Can those be safe parking places? Can those be places where we can put up tiny homes?

Q: Are there any particularities to Ward 3? Here in your neighborhood, we’ve seen gentrification affecting the Latino community. Any ideas of who your opponents will be and if they include the incumbent Oscar Delgado?

I mean, generally I feel like the housing crisis hits Ward 3 harder than anywhere else. It is the most diverse ward in the city and it is the least affluent ward in the city. If you can't afford to rent or buy in Ward 3, it's very challenging to rent or buy in, let's say Ward 5.

As far as I know, nobody has officially entered. The incumbent has not had an official launch party or an announcement about his running. There has been a lot of gossip back and forth, but I figure I'll find out on March 13th with everybody else, if council member Delgado is in the race or not. 

Q: How do you see Council member Delgado’s record generally with what you call attainable housing?

Well, he has a long history. I mean that's part of it and I think it actually makes me a little nervous. He came in very much to the left of where he is now. And I hope that I don't end up moving right. Lately in the three or four years that I've been paying close attention to the council, I have not been excited by the decisions that council member Delgado has made…

Ultimately though, the reason that I'm running isn't specifically because of any votes that any particular council member has made. I am not seeing the kinds of approaches to the problems that we need to take to solve them. We, everyone in Nevada, has a limited amount of money. We can't raise taxes. We can't do anything to increase what we have. So we have to come up with very innovative solutions that are fiscally responsible. And I am not seeing people approaching questions with that kind of creative thinking.

“The city can't spend our way to a solution,” Leon said of the overall homelessness and housing affordability crisis our community faces. “We simply cannot. We need to come up with policy solutions that prevent homelessness, that intervene before people lose their housing, on drug addiction, on mental health, on better jobs. I mean we need to start bringing in more jobs, better jobs. And I want to, I intend to work on that as part of what I will do.” She said recent and ongoing initiatives such as the 1,000 homes in 120 days, the Village on Sage Street or tiny homes projects are good initiatives, but that they should be made to move faster, for more people and at more price ranges.

Q: In terms of residents without any stable shelter, some activists are pushing for safe parking areas and safe campgrounds. What is your view on those possibilities?

The only problem I see with that is that our police force is the same size as it was in 2008 after the crash. So if we are really going to say that we're building safe spaces or that we're designating safe spaces, we have to commit to that safety and that means additional police presence. And I don't know, I just simply don't know if we have the presence to make that happen. Again, the money problem is a big problem.

But I was just reading an article where some neighbors in Oakland actually invited women to bring in their tents and build sort of a permanent tent community in the vacant lot around them and they're able to grow their own food and the neighbors take care of trash. They share their trash bins with the folks who are living in the tents and share some electricity and have bought solar lights and have done things that allow that community to be safe and also acknowledged...

I mean people have dignity and we have to respect that dignity and every solution we go for has got to come from the heart. I feel like we often lack compassion, that that is not our first priority, that we need to treat people that way in actuality, not just intention, like they matter. 

Q: There is also a big plan to move women and children away from the main downtown shelter to the Galletti Way area in Sparks. Meanwhile, we are seeing tent encampments forcibly removed from the river and parks. Is all this movement a good idea?

It's on my list of things I have to look into. But folks live where they live for reasons that they choose. Whether those are tents or shelters. And when you start sending women to Sparks and families to Sparks, how are they getting there? How are they getting back to their partners who are in the men's shelter? How are they negotiating that spatial differential? That just seems to be a problem that we don't look at.

Folks choose to camp where they are for reasons. And if we want to, if we as a city want to exert control over where those places are, we have to identify why people are choosing to camp where they camp and make sure that those services are available where we think is more appropriate for people to be. Because if we don't do that, there's no way, I mean not even seeing how the rightness or wrongness of relocating people, but if we want to affect anything, any control over that, we have to know what is leading people to sleep where they sleep.

And the new Sparks shelter, it's a worry to me that that may not succeed because of not being aware of those reasons. And we need that to succeed. We're putting a lot of resources into it. 

Leon has adorned her rental with political signs on many windows. She says she was spurred to get into politics herself after the last big election cycle of 2016. “I tend to be a fixer, not in the Paul Manafort sense, but in the sense of I want to fix things. I can't give up on something until I've tried to fix it. And I was very upset about the election, so I got involved with the Democratic Party to try and fix it. And so it was directly because of the political environment changing that I started watching what was happening with city council and I've lobbied the legislature and this is a town where you can make a difference, where anybody can make a difference. And that empowered me to think that, you know, I have a lot of things to offer. I've managed massive budgets, I've managed people, I've managed new programs and services as a career, as a librarian. I meet with a group of people, figure out what their needs are and then with the limited resources we have available, try and meet them. That's kind of how I see city council.”

Q: You are also a burner, having gone twice. Are you a tapping into Burning Man ideas or the local Burning Man community as part of this campaign? 

I don’t how you can run in Reno and not tap into the Burning Man community. I think that so much of Reno, especially when you're talking about creative approaches, so much of that is the Burning Man community.

I have plenty of friends who go to Burning Man… You know, whether or not they choose to support me is entirely up to them as is anybody else's decision to support me or not.

The things that draw me to Burning Man are a lot of the same things that draw me to Reno and trying to fix things. The principles of Burning Man … how do you bring that home, how do you bring that week home?  I'm not good with the heat, so I really prefer the bring it home part. The party in the desert is fine, but I can't really take it for long. So that creativity, that energy, those approaches to solving things, together, I think a lot of that just informs who I am and how I approach things.

Q: Are there other big issues dear to your heart and important to address as you prepare to go in full campaign mode?

I mean, a big part of why I'm running are all of the issues around housing and homelessness.

But I have over the past year become gravely concerned about law enforcement’s understanding of sexual violence. We need to work to make sure that training is done. We need to figure out why so few rape cases, rape reports, make it to court and where the roadblocks are along the way and get those out of the way.

The other piece that is really important to me is that we need to bring in more jobs and better jobs. I mean, the legislature has worked for several years to bring in really fantastic $15 an hour jobs, which now we're saying that $15 an hour should be the minimum wage. So we need to now be working on that next stage.

How do we bring in a more professional jobs when folks bring in their warehousing and logistics and data center jobs? They're keeping their management elsewhere and we need to work to make sure that we are bringing those jobs here as well.

The Our Town Reno Interview with Rudy Leon was conducted on January 13, 2020. A podcast version of this interview will soon be available on the Biggest Little Streets podcast.

Michelle, An Opportunity to "Exhale" at the Village on Sage Street

Facing a Job Loss, Medical Problems and Racist Reno Landlords

Michelle, a 60-year-old from Las Vegas, came into hard times in 2007, having been diagnosed with a previously undetected neurological birth defect, after having worked as a family law paralegal for four decades.

It also coincided with her arrival in Reno, where her daughter was settling down. “My daughter came here to go to college. The market economy died. I was on the verge of losing my house. I had lost my job. I was experiencing medical issues, and my daughter said ‘why don’t you come here?’”

Michelle had brain surgery, but was no longer able to work and instead started to receive disability payments. But with rising rents, that money, about $1,200 a month, started to stretch thinner.

“My daughter has been in the same place for 11 years and I’ve been in five different places. I also ran into a very racist land management company who took over the apartment that I was living in… They refused to renew my lease even though there was no reason. This is a thing in Nevada … no cause eviction. It’s so unfair. I bounced around a bit more and my daughter finally said, ‘you can’t sleep on my couch anymore’, and she’s 35, she has a life. I got to the point where I was frantic, like on the verge of suicide for having nowhere to live and heard about this place and thought, this is doable.”

Michelle says she was one of the first to move in in August. She says there are problems, such as the not so safe neighborhood, a train that continuously goes by her window and messes up her TV reception, tiny showers, doors from which you can only exit but not enter, a lack of healthy food access and available cooking options, sometimes difficult communications with on site management, high surveillance and frequent police visits, but that overall she is satisfied with her decision to come live here.

Barely Making the Requirement

The Village on Sage Street uses structures typically used by FEMA, mining and construction projects, which in this case were transported from a work camp in Wyoming, according to the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada, the non-profit coordinating the initiative.

At its inception, people had to earn a gross monthly income between $1,320 and $2,735 to qualify to live at the Village.  Michelle barely made the minimum requirement, as she gets child support in arrears, in addition to her disability check.

It took a while, she says, to get adjusted to living so close to other people, in such a small room, which she describes as barely bigger than a “jail cell.”  

“My first month here, I was crazy,” she remembers. “I felt like a fish out of water, you know, having lived in a $250,000 condo and living in really nice apartments and things like that. I was really depressed, you know, withdrawn. But the people here, all of us are sort of in the same boat, so we kind of pulled one another through those first couple of months. I made it my point to meet everyone to say, ‘welcome here.’”

Michelle has had to come up with new life hacks, such as preparing her toiletry bag with all necessities before going to shared restrooms. Sometimes, she says, items which are supposed to be there aren’t, and she has had discussions with Volunteers of America staff who are the managers here. “There's so many of us, that they can't know in advance how much soap, how much hand towels, how much toilet paper, are needed …. these kinds of things. I think that the feedback that we give them on that is so important because it's not a complaint, it's an observation. We're telling you what we need and what we think would make living here better.”

Seeking Improvements

Since everyone has to pass a background check before being allowed to live here, Michelle says she doesn’t understand why there are so many surveillance cameras and police visits.

“There are cameras everywhere .… Everywhere. So there's a sense of you know, the lack of privacy and I understand that it's a safety issue, I assume. I'm guessing. But we all have our own locks on our doors. We all have our own individual keys. I don't really understand the need for such high surveillance. I don't call it monitoring. It's surveillance. The other thing is that the police are here a lot. Having the police here so much, it’s unsettling. I appreciate when they come through, say hi, you know, we get to know who they are. But … I can't find the need to have so much security. You know, management, they sit at their desk, they have monitors, they sit at their desk and watch us all day. That's all unnerving to a certain degree.”

She says she understands people are doing their job, but she says they shouldn’t forget this is her home. “We need to have that ability to communicate to a degree that we're being heard. And if there's a reason, then you can say, ‘Hey, you know what, this is a safety issue.’ Tell us, give us a reason. We're all adults here. Let us understand that.”

Michelle says sometimes management doesn’t take hygiene issues seriously enough, such as one time when she says another resident dirtied the hallway, and it wasn’t cleaned up for over 24 hours. We couldn’t independently verify this incident, but she showed us pictures of the dirty hallway. She likes the art on the way to her own private room, though, saying that’s a nice, colorful touch.

Welcoming Seniors

Michelle greeted with approval a recent loosening of the requirements to accept more seniors on fixed income. In an email sent out on January 8th, Nick Tscheekar wrote: “The Community Foundation and Volunteers of America have created an income waiver to help seniors who are struggling to find affordable housing. Now, seniors (age 50 or older) who earn at least $771 gross monthly income and can verify that they are on a waitlist for income-restricted housing will qualify to live at the Village.”

In a follow up email, Tscheekar, a Community Engagement Officer at the Foundation, said that as of January 7, there were 128 people living at the Village. “We would consider the Village to be “full” when we reach 90% occupancy, which would be 195 lodgers,” he wrote. “At 90%, lodgers’ rents will cover the operational costs and we would likely need a waitlist at that point for pending move-ins and departures. I predict the senior income waiver will lead to a substantial occupancy increase.”

Some activists have complained that due to stringent requirements, the much touted Village isn’t as filled up as it could be, given the needs of the community. Michelle says it’s “phenomenal” they are opening up this opportunity to older residents. She says she has gone from suicidal to now being “able to exhale,” and that more seniors will be able to benefit from the Village.

Michelle doesn’t have room for many decorations, but she does have a beautiful photo of her mother, who was from Detroit, and who passed away when she was 16. She is very close to her own daughter, whom she shares a car with as well as a “grandkitten.”

A New Lifeline for a new Community

Having a $400 rent has given Michelle an ability to take care of herself more than before.  

“I get to see a doctor more often. I need dental work. I have hearing aids that don't work. So these are things that I'm building toward. If I was paying 900, $1,000 a month rent, or like the last place I lived in $1450 a month, I was losing every dime I had plus some to housing. You know, if you have past bills that you're trying to clean up so you can get a clean credit rating to move into a better place or a nicer place or what have you… this will give you that opportunity if you're frugal. I have a storage unit at $200 a month. I have my cell phone, I try to help my daughter out a little here and there. So there's no fun money as we call it.”

She says some of her neighbors became homeless after their rent doubled overnight. Others are making $9 or $10 an hour and can’t afford anything else.

“We have people who are security guards, people who work in the retail industry. We have people who work in hospitality. One of the guys here just got a job with Catholic Services. We have a few people who work at Walmart. Nobody here is a brain surgeon, but for those who can work, we're all actively seeking employment or actively working at the jobs that we are able to do,” she said.

Michelle tries to keep fresh food in her room, but is somewhat frustrated by the lack of options and how difficult it is to eat healthy while living at the Village. Microwaves aren’t allowed in the rooms, while there is no gas or oven cooking on the premises for residents. Healthy supermarkets and restaurants are few and far in between in the Sage street area.

Food Issues

Michelle says she needs hot food to stay healthy and so she spends more than she would like in going to restaurants, since it’s not possible to do anything besides microwaving at the Village. “I just told my daughter recently I need to eat out a little more because I need a hot meal periodically,” she said.

She says visits by volunteer groups would be more than welcome. “A hot meal can change your life … a hot meal can make you warm all over,” she said. “We would appreciate that so much, especially close to the end of the month when you know, your funds are starting to get a little thin.”

She has helped herself. “Not that long ago I went to my daughter’s place and I made a huge pot of chicken noodle soup and a huge pot of red beans and rice. And I just shared it with all my neighbors, because we haven't had hot home cooked food in so long. I had a line at my door and it was, you know, it was really special because it was cold, it was wet and this was a hot meal that someone cooked and it was great.”

Many of the residents have bikes, while others rely on nearby bus stops to go shopping and get to work. A few have cars. Michelle says the car gate works, as it’s supposed to, and stays locked when it’s dark, but she’s not too sure about the walk-in gate, which she thought was supposed to be locked at all times.

A Day in Michelle’s Life at the Village

Now that she is housed, and not constantly worrying about her every day finances, Michelle has settled into a routine. She’s an early bird, who tries to eat a healthy breakfast. She keeps tabs on local news and friends with her phone. She helps her daughter by taking care of her cat. She takes walks, watches television, reads and naps. She goes outside to smoke and talk to her neighbors.

“It's a communal experience, when you have all these people that you've been around for so long, you know their kids now, you know what they do for a living. You know what they don't like to eat, that kind of thing. So you get to know your neighbors. Evening time, I isolate, I come in my room, I have a cup of tea, I relax. My hearing impairment kind of helps me because I don't hear a lot of the extemporaneous noise. You know, there's a lot of the floors that are rather hollow here, so you hear the stomping, that kind of thing. But these are all things that you can live with…”

Her daughter calls and she needs their shared car, so she’s on her way out, but before that, she greets a neighbor who is out for a cigarette. By the looks of it, they both seem on a better, safer “boat” than they used to be on, or at least the waters are calmer now. The horizon they see seems a bit brighter as well, even as a light snow descends around them in the Sierras.

Reporting by Our Town Reno in January 2020

Miles Vinson, Displaced by Fire and the Affordable Housing Crisis

Part of California Transplants

Vinson recognizes that he’s a part of a pattern of people moving from the expensive cost of living in California to its neighboring states.

“It was just getting so expensive to live there that [after the fires] so many people couldn't afford just to get another apartment in California,” Vinson said. “So they started spreading out into Oregon and here in Nevada. That housing crisis has started to spill over here in Reno, too.”

Vinson says he hasn’t been in touch with many people from his community in Santa Rosa since the 2018 fires. He admits he was lucky that he had time to gather his essentials and evacuate, but understands that there were many in his community that didn’t have that chance. So the memory of witnessing what those people went through because of the fire has remained with him.

“I remember a lot of people had to leave immediately because they could literally see the winds carrying that fire to their houses and livelihoods so quickly,” Vinson said. “I saw so many good people displaced [because of the fire]. It was definitely very tragic because I saw a lot of kids, that had to leave their homes, their schools and the rest of their families because they just couldn't afford to live there anymore.” 

Santa Rosa has been repeatedly ravaged by fires in recent years.

Climate Catastrophes?

It wasn’t just the cost of living, however, that lead Vinson to seek a living elsewhere. According to Vinson, Mother Nature just seems to have it out for the state of California, citing all the devastating natural elements his hometown experienced in the past year. 

“California, and especially my hometown, has been hit with all four elements of nature,” Vinson said. “They were hit by drought, fires, flooding, and then fires again.”

Despite the frequent battles with Mother Nature, Vinson sees a resiliency in the community that rebuilds itself every time a disaster like last year’s fires occurs, particularly as they prepare for more fires the following year.

“[The community] is growing some new legs now that it's starting to rebuild,” Vinson said.

Vinson acknowledges that a disparity exists between his previous home in California and his current apartment in Reno. “[Reno’s] treated me very well,” Vinson said. “I've had a lot more opportunity here than I ever did in California. It's funny because the place I have now for $750 a month would easily go for over $1000 in my hometown. It's crazy.”

Looking to Become an Entrepreneur

In just the past year Vinson has been living in Reno, he’s witnessed himself the influx of businesses coming into the area. As each new business comes in, Vinson sees an opportunity to not only grow his personal career, but develop and reach new personal goals as well.

“I want to become financially independent and own my own business here in Reno,” Vinson said. “There is a lot of opportunity here in Reno and I'm so glad that, and it’s that funny I'm even saying this, but I'm so glad my house burned down so I would be more or less forced to come here.”

Right now, Vinson is doing a lot of reading to expand his own portfolio and help him pursue his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. He says he is well on his way, too, after partnering with a local company about four months ago. 

The objectives of this partnership are focused on leadership, entrepreneurship, and teaching people how to be self-sufficient in managing and growing their business. Personally for Vinson, the specific objectives of his future business doesn’t matter as long as he gets his time back. 

“My main goal is just to just get out of the workforce,” Vinson said. “[Get to the point] so I don't have to work a nine to five job for the rest of my life. But as for the business model, I don't really care as long as it gives me back my time because that's the most important commodity that we as human beings have. It's the one thing we can't get back.”

In order to get to that point, Vinson is spending much of his time reading and learning from other entrepreneurs. 

“I'm trying to get around more [entrepreneurs] who are succeeding in life and putting myself out there a little bit more because I'm definitely a more withdrawn personality,” Vinson said. “So just getting out there and conquering your fears, that's how the ball gets rolling. It’s definitely been quite a journey [so far].”

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno during Share Your Story at the Downtown Library

Dave, Relocated to Reno with Eight Dollars

Getting to a Steady Paycheck, Sleeping at the Overflow

Dave says he now works for the commercial real estate company Newmark, out of Stead. Now that he has a steady job, he says his goals are to keep it and find a place to live. Once he finds that place, he says he intends on regularly paying his rent in advance to stay off the street.   

In the meantime, he’s been staying at the men’s overflow shelter to make sure he gets enough rest each night. 

“At nighttime, when they have the overflow you gotta make sure you get seven, eight hours of rest because that’s important,” Dave said. “I’m in the overflow at the men’s shelter now, where they have beds. It isn’t bad, because at least I get off the streets at night and get some rest.” 

Getting enough rest and working regularly is all part of the fresh start Dave is creating for himself here in Reno. 

Dave has been living in Nevada for over thirty years, and already in his brief time in Reno he says he believes it to be better than Las Vegas for a number of reasons. “Reno is better because the morals and the people are better,” Dave said. “There’s more jobs here than in Las Vegas and the wages are better, too.”

Preferring Reno Over Vegas, But Not Liking High Rents

“A lot of my [homeless] experience was my fault,” Dave said. “I had a gambling problem and I overcame it. The old days of Vegas are gone, so that’s another reason I re-located [to Reno].” 

The only problem he’s had with Reno so far, is rent being too high.

Consequently, the thing Dave would particularly like the city of Reno to do, is better support the homeless that are trying to better themselves and their situation, much like himself. 

“For the [homeless] trying to better themselves, [Reno should] set-up facilities where they can get more rest, assistance, and affordable housing,” Dave said. “There’s a lot of guys out here that are really trying to get themselves together.” 

Dave knows that each homeless person’s situation is different, but that for him his move to Reno has been positive so far.

“I just had a purpose when I came here and I’m just trying to fulfill it the best way I know how,” he said. 

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

The Gateway District, What's Being Built, What's Disappearing

Bibo Coffee Co. on Record Street, a homey hangout for students, faculty and local artists, as well as the COED Lodge and Sundance motels have already closed. Students are now saying goodbye to other places between UNR and Interstate 80 such as Jimmy John’s, the Union bar, Textbook Brokers and old Reno houses on Center and Lake Street.

The southern part of the University of Nevada, Reno campus just past Manzanita Lake is getting a makeover, but with new advancements come the loss of the businesses and buildings with distinct character and history.

The eye-catching bright orange Sundance Motel is already permanently closed, with vacant and “No Trespassing” signs on every door inside. (Artwork: Jillian Briare)

The whole area is being replaced as part of UNR’s Gateway Precinct, which according the university’s website language “will be a vibrant retail- and academic-oriented neighborhood center developed primarily by the University. It will extend campus life south of the current campus, in the area between Ninth Street and I-80.”

The school and Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) plan to build a new bus station, parking garage, as well as business school and life sciences building in the blocks between Eighth Street, Ninth Street, Lake Street and Virginia.

The parking garage is the first structure to be constructed starting in early 2021, and will cost an estimated $29.5 million, according to current plans. UNR officials have said that as Reno expands north, the university is expanding south to meet in the middle, creating structures and vendors that benefit the student population and the city as a whole.

A house previously on the corner of Center Street was recently set on planks to be relocated. It is one of a dozen houses built in the area between the 1890s and 1970s. (Artwork: Jillian Briare)

The Jimmy John’s at 58 E Ninth St is scheduled to move across the freeway to a location on 7th Street, near the current Walgreens.

Other construction projects have affected other businesses as well. Bibo Coffee Co.’s Record Street location closed in October to make way for a new student living complex as a part of a project run by the Capstone Development company.

Above a video by another student reporter Robert Quaintance on the bar know as the U closing down.

Reporting and Illustrations by Jillian Briare shared with Our Town Reno

A Grieving Reno Resident Sleeps in His 2001 Honda Accord and Helps Others

Staying Warm and Missing a Lost Love

When Our Town Reno met the man in photo above, he was acting as a watchdog for his houseless friends at Barbara Bennett Park. He’s been traveling for most of his life and says he moved about four months ago to Reno, where he’s lived before, from California. He’s currently sleeping in his car, a 2001 Honda Accord.

“I'm able to get people out of the cold,” he said in regards to how helpful having a car can be while living on the streets, “I brought some women that were on the river, they were alone, they were afraid because people were looking at them and watching them all night when they're sleeping and I brought them in my car and they slept in my passenger seat.” 

The man said all he wants is for people to feel safe with him.

“I had a woman that I loved and she died on me, some throat cancer,” he told us. “It took a big chunk from me, you know? She was the one that I wanted to be with for the rest of my life, but it's like all these women around here, they think I'm trying to go after them, I just want to take care of people. If you need the help, I'm here. Need a place to stay warm? My car is there. I'm not going to touch you. I'm not that way.” 

The man is concerned about his car though, which has become his moving shelter. When Our Town Reno interviewed him he was out of gas and said that his transmission was faltering.

“Stop looking down at people,” he wanted to tell others in Reno. “If you feel that we're doing something wrong, why don't you live in our shoes and see what we have to do to survive? Maybe you'll understand what's going on.”

Wants to See Churches Doing More and Safe Park Options

The man said he has been homeless for around nine years. He was homeless previously in California. 

"Out in California, they're a little bit more lenient. The people out there are willing to give a helping hand if somebody's hungry, they'll feed them. There's a lot more churches out there that deal with the homeless," he said.

The man said he was involved in a homeless ministry back in California and would like to see more similar initiatives in Reno. A homeless ministry is a faith-based organization that provides help to those in need, such as the existing Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission.

"People need unity,” he said. “People need to be able to know they're still loved and cared for, not just shoved underneath the carpet or thrown somewhere. The cops come out here and they harass us, 'Oh, you can't stay here,' Well, where the heck are we supposed to stay? We need something.”

The man pointed to LA’s Green Streets initiative, which provides safe parking options for people to sleep in their cars at night. The ordinance maps streets where individuals who live in their vehicles can park from 9PM to 6 AM, a program not available in Reno.

Reporting and Photos by Lucia Starbuck for Our Town Reno

Reno Clashes Over Helping the Unsheltered

As winter becomes fierce in northern Nevada, and amid an affordable housing crisis, the local population without shelter is growing and struggling.  Several groups are trying to help these people in different ways, some of them causing controversy, and others receiving criticism they are perpetuating the problem.  Michelle Baker reports in the audio report above. 

It’s grey and cold as hundreds of people line up for a recent holiday meal inside tents across from the downtown Reno baseball park. The ROW, which combines several downtown casinos, offered hundreds of plates piled with food.

Casinos Help during the Holidays

“Look at the food! You have a seven course salad … Let alone the entrees. And you’ve got everything you can dream of to drink! Coffee, tea..  ”  Bill Fisher, who says he used to be a drug addict,  is the main organizer of the casino-organized holiday meal.

“They can take as much time as they want, and when they leave here, they can go get food, but they get the food after they leave here because  it would be too crowded with piles of food everywhere,” Fisher said.

 The two day event also offered flu shots and food to take home.

Most people in Reno appreciate this kind of help, even if they would like to see it done differently and more consistently. Other groups, however, have created more controversy in their own initiatives to help those in need.

“The chief of police and the mayor and City Council have been very stubborn and very reluctant to try anything that works, beyond acting like the only thing keeping the guys on the street is the lack of affordable housing or something,” Paul White told Our Town Reno earlier this year. White heads a group called Quality of Life Reno, which has organized provocative events to highlight the persistent presence of those without shelter in parks and along the river.

A New Controversial Presence in Reno Weighs In

White became active locally with media and events during the 2018 Reno elections and is now very present once again in the community and on social media.  He also is behind the Reno-based Stronghold Institute non-profit, which has as its tag line “Bible-Based Learning and Healing”.

“When you think of the homeless, think of what you hear, ’ I’m hungry’ – no, not with 25 food pantries, you’re not - any one of which gives you more than you can eat. ‘[I’m]looking for work’ no, not with 20 employment agencies,” White said.

White says that due to the abundance of resources and access to these resources the city of Reno offers, the idea of homelessness is, according to him, a  “misdiagnosis” and is worsening due to government’s lack of forceful action. “The city’s approach is one that’s being tried everywhere in the United States and is failing everywhere in the United States,” he said.  

“We realize that the biggest problem is trying to get them to accept services, or want them,” White said of people chronically on the streets or living along the Truckee River.

Criminalizing as a Way Forward?

White told Our Town Reno he believes that by removing people from public places and putting them through the judicial system, they will eventually, even if reluctantly, seek outside help.

He spoke to us in the days leading up to his planned October citizen’s arrest action at Pickett Park, where local police moved in before the vigilante threat, and forced out those who had been living there.

As a result of the park clean up, some people who were staying at Pickett Park said they lost most of their possessions, which according to police, were taken mostly to the downtown shelter.

“A lot of people, when the cops came and threw their stuff away, they lost all the things they had,” a couple told us. “I had a friend, who lost all the things his father gave him. How do you replace that? We’re humans like everyone else, a lot of people dislike us I guess, but we’re not bad people, we have hearts just like everybody else.”

A counter protest to show support for those without shelter took place at the park several days later, but by then, those previously camping there had scrambled elsewhere and were desperately trying to get their possessions back.

What Happens when you Lose Your Possessions?

In years past, disputes regarding the seizure of property has brought on legal action. Terri Keyser-Cooper, a lawyer advocating for homeless rights, once won a case that set precedent in Washoe County. County officials must now post a notice giving ample time of their intentions when they are cleaning up parks or other property. 

“I think a lot of us take advantage of having a place to go … a lot of our friends out there don’t have those luxuries, losing your backpack with your social security card.. all your stuff.. it sets people back,” said Ben Castro, from the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality. The group he heads has lately been trying to counter the effect White has been having, in addition to advocating for a safe campground infrastructure. “I don’t think the community understands or can even comprehend what it’s like to live … without infrastructure.”

RISE is a non-profit which has as its own tag line a goal of providing equal access to shelter, knowledge, and opportunity in Reno. When he was interviewed, Castro was helping organize a regular Saturday night potluck and donation drive.

“Yeah, so what we are doing right now is sorting out donations to hand out , we’ve been doing this for eight years, it started in my apartment and now we operate out of my home, through the years we’ve picked up warriors [along] the way,” he said of the many volunteers who also help out. 

Back at the casino organized holiday meal tent, Fisher, who goes by Brother Bill, sees an old friend and gives a wide smile. 

“I’ve known these people for 20 years, 30,000 people have been to these events,” he said, which we couldn’t independently confirm.  

Whatever the current numbers, on the streets without shelter, along the Truckee River and in parks inside tents, and whatever reasons for our neighbors currently living in precarious conditions, diverging groups agree their numbers are growing, as inequalities in our communities continue to sharpen.

Reporting by Michelle Baker shared with Our Town Reno

Melissa and Michael, Finding Strength in Family Despite Sleeping in Separate Shelters

Homeless While a Mother

"I became homeless and I couldn't work anymore because it was the summertime," Melissa said during a recent Share Your Story Our Town Reno event at the downtown Reno library. "The kids were out of school and I didn't have anyone to watch them and I just want to put my story out there, just because I'm homeless doesn't mean I'm any different from anybody else."

The biggest challenge for Melissa in finding a new job, she told us, is finding one that has working hours that will cater to her family needs. A mother of four, Melissa and her kids have been staying at a local homeless shelter for the past month. Every morning, Melissa has to get her children on the school bus and to pick them up in the afternoons because they can't go into the shelter by themselves. 

"It's hard finding a job here in Reno that meets the demands I need to take care of my children," Melissa said. "So it's hard meeting those demands and every job that I apply for always wants nights. [I understand] you always start at the bottom of the totem pole but I just can't do that."

Separated at the Shelter

Melissa says she is desperately seeking new housing for her family, but is stressed by the lack of availability of affordable housing in Reno. She says she just doesn't want her children to have to grow up in the homeless-shelter environment. 

"I'm by myself with my kids inside the shelter," Melissa said.  "There's a lot of people, there's a lot of fighting, swearing, and other stuff going on around the shelter I would really rather my kids not be around."

Consequently, Melissa does everything she can to keep her family together through this difficult time. However, it's been difficult due to her husband Michael not being allowed in the same shelter as her and their children. Currently, he's been staying at an overflow shelter, but early on they didn't know where he was staying and it caused them to worry for his safety. 

"At first, we didn't [know where he was staying] because he was sleeping on the streets," Melissa said. "My three girls are 'Daddy's girls,' and so not having him around they worry about where he's at and if he's okay. I think we all worry about him until we see him the next day and know he's okay."

Melissa has her children see their dad every chance they get, even if it means taking them to his shelter to simply say 'Good night.' She says people have harassed her for bringing her children around the shelter to see him, but she just wants her family to be together.

"I just don't want anyone trying to force us to be apart from each other," Melissa said. "It hurts him more than anything when somebody confronts us and tells us we can't have the kids over here. [But the children] just want to see their dad. We'd all rather live on the streets in the gutter, together, then separated."

Feeling Judged

Melissa finds strength in keeping her family together, but sometimes she says she feels that people judge her for having her children with her on the street and in the shelter.

"I think people look at us and say 'How can these people be homeless with these kids and put these kids through the mud.' But it's not like that at all, no one knows that the situation was out of our control. It's just unfortunate," she said.

In the meantime, Melissa says she would like to see more resources available to the homeless population in Reno. Particularly, she said she'd like to see the soup kitchen open more often and to feed dinner, even on Sundays.

"I have food stamps but I have a microwave to cook with," Melissa said. "We're not getting enough protein that we should be getting. Protein puts a lot of strength in us and we don't get a lot of that because of what I can and cannot cook. So I think they should open the soup kitchen every day. There's a lot of hungry people out there."

Wanting More and Better Services

Melissa doesn't believe the city council or other government officials are doing enough to address homelessness. She acknowledges that building new bridges, making wider roads, and expanding the bus system is good for the city, but she believes it comes at the expense of the people truly suffering.

"They can put that money [for bridges and roads] towards a big shelter for people so they don't have to be out in the cold. The weather is about to change and start snowing and all these people have nowhere to go out in the snow."

Melissa doesn't believe programs like the Downtown Reno Ambassadors are helping much. She says she’s been told by Ambassadors that she can't even lay down when she takes her kids to a park. She isn't trying to sleep, she says, she just wants to relieve her back from sitting up and standing all day. Melissa thinks that if government officials really cared and wanted to help, they should come out and experience homelessness for themselves.

"I don't think anyone would really understand unless they came down and experienced themselves. If they just come down and talk to people and other people who are experiencing it worse than I am, or even those who don't have families or lost their families and are by themselves. I can't speak for other people but I think that if people knew what was going on they would help a lot more."

Wanting to Give Back

If she is able to find a home and get back on her feet, Melissa says she intends to give back to the community.

“We've even told ourselves that when we get our own place and back on our feet we're going to come back and help the homeless," she saud said. "[Whether that's by] making sandwiches or serving dinner because so many people have put their hearts out there serving dinner for us.”

Although she regrets her children having to go through this homeless experience, Melissa believes her children have learned a lot during this time. 

"They want to help [give back] because they see the people that have helped us," Melissa said. "So I just try to keep their spirits up. I hate myself for doing this to them but I know they love me, they love their dad, and we all love each other and that's what makes us go on every day and keep doing what we're doing. All we ever want is to be together."

New Hope for a ReStart

Recently, Melissa says she was selected as a candidate for a ReStart Reno housing program. Meanwhile, she and Michael are continuing their search for jobs, saying they are willing to work two or three jobs just to make things work for their family and put a roof over their heads. 

"My kids are my motivation always and after what we've gone through, they know that Mom and Dad will always make it right," Melissa said. "It might take a little longer, but we're always going to do everything we can."

Reporting and Photography by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Gordon Gossage, Trying to Uplift and Regenerate Reno

From Start Ups in Boston to Wanting to Establish Co-Housing in Reno

Gordon Gossage says he was once in the start up realm which made him three million dollars, but that he has left that life to help people. His LinkedIn lists recent work experiences in Boston with companies such as Siren Solutions and Willibehappy.

“[I] discovered that there was more to life than money and came back and then wanted to combine my business skills with my spiritual pursuits,” he said.

Now based in Reno, he wants to help create conditions for better housing, art and places for people to uplift each other. He founded Regenesis Reno earlier this year as part of that mission.

One of the projects he is working on is with The Generator to turn land under the Wells Avenue bridge into a sculpture park, along with 200 units of housing, to be jointly called Regenesis Commons. The area is currently used as a sleeping place by dozens of people without shelter as it’s mostly hidden from public view. There are occasional police sweeps, but usually people come back to the area with their tents.

“One of the things that we're looking at is to have what's called a co-housing component,” Gossage said. “We are looking at tiny houses in some cases built from shipping containers. That makes things less expensive. The way co-housing works, it really needs to be distinguished from communal housing. With communal housing, everybody owns everything. With co-housing you own your own unit, with your own kitchen and bath, but then you'll co-own common buildings that can include a big, beautiful, commercial-style kitchen where you can have friends over or eat there together. For the real foodies and chefs, you can cook there. You can co-own workspaces.”

Gossage said that people who formerly lived on the streets, people working in the tech industry and people working minimum wage jobs can co-exist in this space, to assist and support one another.

According to the website, “Regenerative describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials. Regenerative design uses whole systems thinking to create resilient and equitable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature.”

Helping People Stay Off the Streets

Gossage says his background in market research can help make Regenesis Reno successful. His plans are very detailed to help those on the streets who want to get off the streets.

He says he wants to create “permanent support housing,” which includes placing people into transitional homes for four to six months, then getting individuals into a place where they sign a 12-month lease that has a variety of resources on site, including for behavioral health and substance abuse addictions.

His own experience can help, he says.

“I first started doing drugs when I was 15 and I've been clean and sober for 32 years and it's hard to get off it and if you're living on the street, it's even harder,” Gossage said. “So with housing, first what you want to do is take folks who are living under the Wells Avenue bridge or tenting along the river and get them into some kind of housing. In the case of Regenesis Commons, they're going to be working next to people who were never homeless and working at Tesla but they now are in a community where people work and help each other.”

Gossage holds his necklace with the Burning Man camping ground on it, which is what attracted him to nearby Reno in the first place.

Other Projects from YIMBY to Safe Haven to Tree of Life

Regenesis Reno is also involved in Northern Nevada YIMBY movement, Yes In My Backyard, as a counter-protest to NIMBY, Not In My Backyard, which is rooted in opposition to having something that’s considered undesirable in one’s own neighborhood.

Gossage would also like to see more gifting taking place in Reno, which is the act of offering services for free and receiving joy from that, similar to what people do at Burning Man. 

Other tabs on his website point to wanting to duplicate the Safe Haven model in Reno, which is the name of an organization first established in Chicago, to “serve over 5,000 people a year with dozens of related supportive housing and affordable housing facilities located throughout the Chicagoland area and several social enterprises including staffing, catering and landscaping.” The tag line on Chicago’s Safe Haven endeavor is “Aspire. Transform. Sustain.”

His website also says it wants to eventually move a 110-foot tall art piece called Tree of Life to Reno, which is scheduled to be showcased at Burning Man in 2020.

Reporting by Lucia Starbuck for Our Town Reno

What's Up with the Downtown McDonald's and its 30-minute Time Limit?

In Favor or Opposition to the Sign?

Didi Didiser moved to Reno in 2011 from Colorado. She’s drinking a coffee from McDonald’s and supports the sign inside the restaurant.

“I think that's perfect,” she said. “I think that's absolutely fantastic because of the area. In this area, the [Record St.] homeless shelter is approximately two blocks away,” Didiser said, citing concerns of people hanging out inside McDonald’s without buying anything.

Others have expressed concern about the sign, saying it might be discriminatory, but Didiser disagrees.

“The 30-minute stay here is good because you come over, you eat your food, that's literally what it takes: about 30 minutes, 15 minutes you're finished,” she said.

She says she stayed in the downtown shelter herself when she moved to Reno. She’s currently staying with friends and didn’t want a picture of her face taken, saying she is very private.

“I think it's good because the people that actually want to come over and purchase their food, if there's a lot of people sitting inside over here, they can't because there is an occupancy number,” Didiser said of the 30-minute sign. “Like, max capacity is let's say 60 people and 25 of them are just from the homeless shelter buying absolutely nothing, that makes it difficult.”

Bathrooms More Open to Public?

Concerning bathrooms though, Didiser said places like McDonald’s should have more lenient bathroom policies.

“The only thing I do not like for many of these places is the bathroom policies. If a person needs to use the restroom, they should have a policy to where the person can actually go in and use the restroom, you know, because you just don't want people doing their business outside and stinking out the city. I mean I think you get the picture of that,” she said.

Policies vary by establishment, with some places having a strict customer-only bathroom policy. A quick web search did not seem to indicate McDonald’s has a clear bathroom policy.

Reporting and Photos by Lucia Starbuck

Reno Man Fights Addiction, Time, and Waiting Lists to Regain Custody of His Daughter

Under Competing Time Crunches and a Need for Immediate Treatment

“I've got a CPS [Child Protective Services] case open and I'm required to get in a treatment program,” the man said on a recent Monday during the Our Town Reno Share Your Story forum. “But unfortunately in Reno, there's only two inpatient programs that take state Medicaid. So that's really putting a damper on my ability to get treatment right now,” he said.

The long waiting list adds another mental hurdle to the challenges of people seeking treatment for addiction. 

“That's why most of these individuals quit [waiting lists] because those who want to get sober, can't wait,” he said. “They get discouraged and then they go use, because meth really messes with your brain. When your brain tells you it's time to get high, it's time to get high. That's why people who want treatment should be allowed to get it when they need it right away.”

Consequently, he believes that if Reno were to provide more drug treatment programs that accept state Medicaid, waiting lists wouldn’t be so long for those who really want the treatment.

Scfreengrab of a website saying it offers information about treatment centers accepting Medicaid.

Facing Hurdles, But Trying to Stay Sober for his Daughter

Another hurdle he has to overcome, however, he said is the conditions landlords require of their tenants. 

“[Landlords have] all these red tapes in getting affordable housing, they got too many conditions for housing for people who want to do right,” he said. I mean, my last [felony] was probably over 10 years ago and that's stopping me from good housing and getting to a proper place.”

His personal struggle has been with a meth addiction, which he had beaten once already before a recent relapse. 

“Meth [has been] my downfall,” he said. “And meth is a really big issue in this part of the town and Reno should have a lot more programs for that kind of stuff around here,” he said.

His motivation to go clean is the same as it was before: his daughter, now 12. When he first gained custody of her when she was five, he says he was able to go sober for six years.

“I've had meth problems back in the past, but ever since she was in my life and when my custody, I was sober for over six years. So now time's ready enough for me to get my kid back and I got show completion of programs and, or at least enroll in their program. But in this month, so that's, I'm really trying to hit the pavement and try to get something done. So we'll see what happens.

“She's always been my backbone,” he said. “I just thank God that with her presence in my life and having her being there right in front of me, I left [the meth] alone for six years.”

His relapse and subsequent loss of custody stemmed from a recent attempt to help a family member who was also struggling with a meth addiction. 

“Unfortunately, I thought I was strong enough to help another family member out who was in trouble,” he said. “But I wasn't able to because he brought [meth] into the house and I ended up losing [my daughter] and that's how this whole case started.”

Currently, his daughter is staying in a foster home. As long as he is able to stay sober, he can see her twice a week during supervised visits at the family visiting center in Sparks. Additionally, he said, he gets three phone calls during the week. Besides spending time together cooking and talking during those visits, they often discuss their future together. 

“She's worried because time is running out as all these programs are [being] cut and there’s all this red tape in front of us right now,” he said. “So she's frustrated and I'm frustrated too, but we try to hang in there.”

His priorities remain focused on enrolling in a drug treatment program and regaining custody of his daughter, despite recently becoming homeless.  “[I’ve been in Reno] since 2015 and this year is the only time I’ve been homeless,” he said. 

Above is a photo illustration of a photo by Thomas Quine, with Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).

Giving Back for Being Allowed in a Stairwell

The man told us he’s been staying in a stairwell of a local business to keep out of the cold. 

“[The building manager has] been very lenient about me staying there cause I don't bug nobody,” he said. “I just go in there, sleep, and take off in the morning to do what I gotta do.”

He has even taken it upon himself to take out the garbage on all the floors in the building, as a token of gratitude for the building manager’s generosity. He wishes her compassion toward him was more common throughout the city of Reno, as more compassion could open up more opportunities for access to the resources he needs to get back on his feet.

“[I want to see] more compassion for the homeless because some people want to do more; I know I do,” he said. “I know if I had more resources [available to me] I would do it. I would get into [treatment] today if I could.”

So while he continues applying for treatment programs and works his way up the waiting lists, he wanted to take a moment to share a message directly to his daughter.

“Honey, I'm sorry,” he said. “I've got a problem that I'm trying to get fixed. But there isn’t a moment that I don't think about you. I love you and I will be back one day, hopefully soon.”

Reporting and Photo by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Reno's Mayor, Hillary Schieve, On Going after "Bad Actors" and "Effective Help"

Q: What’s behind getting rid of motels across Reno?

Mayor Schieve: Many of the motels weren't built for longterm housing, right. And they really had a shelf life of about 40 to 50 years. So many of them were incredibly dilapidated. We saw a ton of mold, you know, roofs caving in, water not running, many broken pipes. We've found a lot of rooms that had bedding that hadn't been changed in 20 years. You know that really was a huge concern because we started to get a lot of complaints from people that were living in these motels and, you know, saying that, the conditions were really horrendous. So, you know, I went out there with code enforcement and we started to look at them and also noticed a lot of broken windows.

Most of these people didn't even have heat. And then looking into it even further, we found out that many of those rooms were about $300 a week. And if you do the math, that's $1,200 a month for a motel room. And remember, a motel room is not even an apartment. It's one room that's about 200 square feet. And if you do the math on that, the cost is outrageous. That is not affordable housing, that is not adequate housing and no one should be able to or should be subjected to those types of conditions….

One of the things is I just am a strong believer that people should not be subjected to those types of living conditions. And remember in the motel rooms, they don't have kitchenettes. So it's very difficult for people living in them to live healthy, right? Like, think about it. You can cook daily meals and, you know, nutrition and things like that, you know, having to seek outside food services, which can become costly and expensive, or eating fast food, right, which we know isn't always the healthiest.

So, kind of looking at some of those things, motels versus regular housing, right. And just because someone can't afford certain types of housing doesn't mean that they should be subjected to living in deplorable conditions without running water, without heat, without proper bedding, those kinds of things. And that's what was really, really disturbing. Many of those were motels that you couldn't save because they were so dilapidated.

But we found that there was a lot of predatory landlords, what we call them, sort of taking advantage of people that couldn't afford certain living conditions. And that's where I got really strict on saying, ‘Hey, these motels have to come down.’ And also looking at the people that live in them, how do we get them better housing options, working with the Reno Housing Authority and being able to place them, getting them vouchers, things of that nature.

And so we really learned a lot through the process. But you know, I, I'm a big believer that that is not affordable housing whatsoever.

“We also found that many of the people living in them, you know, obviously had certain reasons, like for one, this one woman, her credit wasn't very good,” Mayor Schieve said of people living in motels such as the Sundance. “And so by not having great credit, she couldn't get into an apartment. And we also found that some of the [residents] had prior evictions, which made it incredibly challenging for people to find adequate housing. So really kind of paying attention to why people were going to motels, you know, for what reasons. And how could we help with that.”

Q: So what is the plan to help people being displaced by the torn down motels?

Mayor Schieve: If someone is going to take down a motel, they have to be relocated before we even start demolition. So that's really been a priority for the Council. So when they started to come down, you know, we weren't aware of the drastic conditions. Right. And so then we got extremely active and we're working very closely with the new developers before any of those motels come down. And I think that's what's really key. And it has to be better housing… It needs to be better options…

We were also finding practices like renting rooms for the hour. And that was really unfortunate. Now I'm not saying everyone is a bad actor, so we’ve got to make sure that everyone knows that, right? Not all of the motels are bad and not all of them have conditions to that magnitude, right? There are some really good owners and operators and we really want to commend them, right? But we also looked at our calls for service to some of them that had very high crime rates.

And we were finding that they were renting rooms by the hour. Right now we don't know exactly what they're doing in those rooms, but I think we can sort of speculate that if you're renting by the hour, that's probably not good. They weren't requiring them to have ID and knowing who you are …

So with Jeff Jacobs (development along 4th street, now called Reno Neon Line) he has saved the (motels) that he could and has renovated them and either put some of those tenants back into the renovated properties or moved them into other properties that were much better. And we had him document all those people to make sure they were accounted for and that they also received money, like, first and last month’s deposit. Many of them, he didn't make pay rent for six months …. (Note: this information could not be independently verified by Our Town Reno). He's really been a true champion of working with the city. And I think that's what makes a huge difference is working with the developers, to make sure that these people have places to go and are treated like human beings.

Some people we’ve interviewed in recent months and who now live on the streets said they became homeless after the motel they were living was demolished amid news expansion.

Q: Do the people displaced from the motels now have enough money to afford places elsewhere in Reno?

Mayor Schieve: Well, a lot of them ended up getting vouchers through the Reno Housing Authority. And what that means is it's basically subsidized right through the government, through HUD programs. And they pay for a big portion of that housing. So a lot of times, you get a voucher for seven, $800 a month. Now you also do have to qualify. There are certain things like, you can't be a sex offender … There's certain things to be able to qualify for that and they also look at your income. That's one of the things, when we talk about subsidies through the government, the government makes it really challenging, that if you make too much money, then you also don't qualify… Let's say you make, $1,200, $1,300 a month, I'm just putting a number out there that's not a lot of money.

And then the government says, ‘Hey, you make too much.’ So there is that, that can be very, very challenging, you know, for people to continue to find housing. But we really work very hard with the developers to make sure that that [new] housing is better housing and we know for a fact that it is what Jeff Jacobs is doing. [Mayor Schieve referred to how as part of the new development Crest Inn was changed to the Renova Flats and suggested we check it out. This story includes our attempts to do so: http://www.ourtownreno.com/our-stories-1/2018/12/14/jacobs-entertainment-and-its-local-globe-of-influence].

You want a developer that comes into your city and is going to put in better conditions than what you already have. And again, that's why it's important to work with developers and say, ‘Hey, these are the things that matter to us. These are the standards that matter to us. These are the conditions that matter to us, right?’ So they understand if they want to build in our city, that that's the things that we're going to expect.

And now again, we can't make them, it's PR, you know, they own this land, right? So they could essentially do whatever they want, but you make it very clear that, if you want to be in Reno and building your business and, you know, building a lifestyle here, it needs to be a much better quality than what they were used to [here.]

This motel is also on the cutting block as UNR and bus services expand in areas between the current university campus and downtown areas. “We're playing on the aspects of the university, which I love, like March to the Arch and things like that and bringing in that vibrant university feel into our downtown. Unfortunately, I think, our past governments have really looked over is how important the university and the [university] energy are and really trying to foster that type of environment for our students. So they want to go to school here and stay here when they're done and sort of avoid the brain drain. And I think that's really key to revitalizing downtown.”

Q: You’ve launched an initiative called Blight Buster but what you consider blight others might consider Reno’s history, including the old motel signs. How do you react to comments like that?

Mayor Schieve: I think there are certain things that are history. So it depends on what you're referring to.
I think that's subjective. It would depend on what property or location or structure you're referring to. In terms of the motel signs, we keep them and we preserve them. There's an artist who I absolutely love and he's amazing and his name is Will Durham and you should check him out. And he buys a lot of those signs, before they're torn down. I love history. I was born and raised in Reno and so I love to preserve, any of the old Reno history that we can. And I love neon, and it's very collectible, so he collects them…

I'm a big believer in, if you can first renovate and preserve, I think that that's really important. But a lot of times what people don't understand is the cost to preserve a lot of that is so much more expensive for the developer. And remember they own that property. They have rights to that property. So you can't make them preserve an existing structure….

You know, that's becoming very popular in cities, is to take these 1960 properties that might not look great now and then sort of restore them kind of back to the original condition, but with a little bit of modern technology, right? I'd love to see more developers really sort of take on, you know, the mentality of preserving our history. But again, sometimes the cost is really challenging and also they own that property.

Of being called a “bulldozer queen” by a political opponent in the last mayoral contest, Mayor Schieve said: “This job certainly comes with a lot of criticisms, a lot. It’s a tough job. It’s not easy, but I was born and raised here. I love this city. And we did definitely bulldoze several motels downtown that were unsafe. Again, like I told you, they were deplorable and I just won't tolerate, landlords being slumlords. And I have to take a hard line approach because I want them to know that those conditions are not okay for people to live in.” Photo above is of the Carriage Inn as it was bulldozed away as part of the Jacobs development project on 4th street.

Q: Do you see any drawbacks to this push toward gentrification we see in Reno?

Mayor Schieve: It’s really challenging because of all this success. I always say because of the success, we absolutely have challenges, right? And a lot of times that happens because of supply and demand, right? Because people, what happens is you see these landlords that say, ‘Hey, you know, I know I can get more for rents.’ So they end up moving people out of these places that have lived there for years.

We certainly worry about our most vulnerable populations. And that is our senior citizens, right? So through the Housing Authority, we just bought some land and built an affordable housing complex for seniors and then we are also looking at very creative ways… So let's say it's a two story building [part of a pilot project she explained is in the works]. The seniors will live on the bottom right, because it doesn't make sense for them to live upstairs because there's stairs, right?

And millennials like students and young people like yourself that can't afford a lot would live on the top. Right. And there's this very symbiotic relationship between seniors and millennials. Like as a millennial, you might be able to help, you know, that senior with maybe getting to appointments, right? And then that senior might be an incredible cook, where you're not. Do you see what I'm saying?

So those are some of kind of the innovative ways we're looking at housing differently, right? And these are two populations that typically wouldn't live together, but actually symbiotically can live extremely well together. Not to mention, think about, sort of the knowledge and experience a senior has. Right? And you, and they become kind of like mentors. So that's one of the projects that we're piloting.

We also have a couple of developers who specialize in affordable housing and really have focused on the senior population. And that's really critical to work with those developers to say, ‘Hey, how can we help you?’ And part of that goes along with private and public partnerships… because the city doesn't have a lot of money. But one thing that we do have is land, right? So what we do is we look at the land that we have, we reach out to those developers and say, ‘Hey, we have this land. Would you like to partner with us and build on that land?’ So now you build this private and public partnership and it really does help the community as a whole. Right?

As we grow … public safety becomes so critical, right? We want to have more police and more fire to keep everyone protected because we all want a great quality of life. But as we grow, our tax base doesn't grow and we are the only state that does that, that we have what they call depreciation. And you definitely should look into it because that's what makes it really challenging to expand on the general fund and services like infrastructure, like public safety, like parks. And it really sort of ties the hands of local governments to expand on those services. So we have to figure out other ways that we can pay, you know, for those, those absolute critical services, right? So you need to look it up.

It's property depreciation and it's a property tax cap at 3%. And also what happens, so let's say, on California Avenue, for a two million dollar home, they end up paying the same property tax of 1950s, which doesn't make any sense, right? And now new construction actually pays a much higher tax. We see young people, they can't afford a one million dollar home on California Avenue. So they look at newer options because they're more affordable, right? Well, they end up paying more property tax than that person that's living in a million dollar mansion. That doesn't make sense. Do you see what I'm saying? So there's all these sort of facets that play into the quality of life and the difficulties of expanding these critical services.

And that trickles down. Remember, all of that has a trickle down effect right down to the motels. See what I'm saying? All of that has an impact on our city. So there's all these different facets of why it is challenging, but that one is one of the biggest. Remember where the only state that does that. And if I were you, I would definitely research more about that. I think especially someone like yourself might not be aware of that. Like a lot of students might not really understand our property tax cap and the structure and it's called depreciation. And that's what doesn't allow us to generate the revenue to keep critical services that we need. Does that make sense?

Mayor Schieve touted the former dilapidated King’s Inn turned into the 3rd Street Flats as one of the major accomplishments she helped make happen as part of being on City Council since 2014.
”It was about 30 years that, that sat there,” she said, very proud of its renovation. “I also committed to cleaning up downtown whenever I ran for office and I want our downtown to be the crown jewel of our city, so that our residents and tourists feel safe to come downtown.” According to Wikipedia, she is eligible to run for re-election in 2022 for a third and final term as Mayor.

Q: Our Town Reno has as one of its tag lines, ‘as Reno rebrands what happens to our most vulnerable?’ What are your thoughts on that?

Mayor Schieve: You have to have compassion with action, right? Because it has to be balanced. I think that has some very valid points and I love that, you know, they really pay attention to our most vulnerable, but if we're going to really help those people, we have got to stop being last in the country on mental health and start funding mental health and start funding addiction.

And that is one of my big initiatives. I just created the mayor's board on mental health and addiction. And you know, I know this from, you know, personal reasons, right? I think that's really where we could use the biggest voices is at the legislature to change the structure of how we fund mental health. And there's different ideas whether it's, you know, marijuana licenses.

Everyone I know either struggles with mental health in some capacity or addiction in some capacity.
And if it's not you, it's a family member. And I don't think, you know, that mental health and addiction does not discriminate, right? Like it can happen to anyone. And I think, we have to talk about it more and we have to, we can't brush it under the rug, but it's gotta be about services.

And the fact that we are dead last in the nation on mental health is so unacceptable. And I think that's what, you know, we really have got to start focusing on. We focused on the revitalization, we focused on bringing in jobs and that's all great. But with more people can also become more challenges. And I see so much of it because of being a mayor on the ground level.

Now this is something every city is dealing with. Don't think that this is just Reno. I worked with a lot of mayors and if you go to other big cities, have you been to any big city lately at all? Like San Francisco. This is all across the nation. We absolutely have an issue. And I work with so many other mayors and there's not a magic wand unfortunately, right when it comes to affordable housing and mental health and addiction and things like that, that can make it really challenging for people that need it the most. But we, I think more than ever, we have to be a state that really changes againthe property tax depreciation to look at ways to fund this.

We have to be very compassionate. And then again, a lot of people, they need stabilization and medication and services. Right. And, so we're working on that. But again, like I said, a lot of those activists that you're coming across, you know, have really big hearts and they have a lot of compassion, right? But let's focus on what's going to help them the most. And that's getting them services, that's changing the tax structure that's being at the legislature and saying, we need to stop being last in the nation. Right?

Interview by Gracie Gordon from the Reynolds School of Journalism shared with Our Town Reno. Some of the questions and answers were trimmed for clarity.

Healing From War With Art, In the Spirit of a Fallen Soldier

Giving Back after Losing Her Son

Art, performances, literature and more---that’s what one foundation brings to veterans in hopes of helping them with their reintegration into the community. The David J. Drakulich Foundation For Freedom of Expression (DJD Foundation) got its nonprofit status in 2011 and has different programs like open art studios, writing workshops, performances, and community discussions for veterans and their families. Tina Drakulich founded the DJD Foundation after losing her son David Drakulich. 

"My husband and I, and my family, my two surviving children had experienced loss from war. My son, their brother, David J. Drakulich, was killed in Afghanistan in 2008 and he had been an artist,” she said.

“He had really believed that the thing that he had to give to his country, was his military service after being attacked on 9-11. After we experienced that loss, my first instinct as a mom is, well, he's not here to build the legacy that I would experience as a mother living with a living son, so, it became my job to do that. That was a removal from my grief so that I could work constructively towards a positive outcome for others," she said.

Drakulich said processing trauma through art can be healthy for veterans and their families. When Our Town Reno visited the DJD Foundation, Drakulich was partaking in Combat Paper Nevada, a process in which old uniforms are turned into paper, an art form Drakulich said can be therapeutic.

“I just found that although it was a very scary thing to try to do, once I had completed my first set of paper made out of David's uniforms, I really started to feel like it was empowering and healing and I wanted to share that with everyone else,” Drakulich said about her first creation for Combat Paper Nevada.

Folding Papers into Art to Heal

After losing David, Drakulich found herself folding old papers that belonged to him into paper cranes, which she considered to be a part of her healing process. She also said art can help veterans share their own stories and experiences.

"It's helping veterans who are wishing to reintegrate. I know that a lot of our veterans have got disabilities of both mental and physical, and they seem to get the most immediate benefit from all of these activities,” Drakulich said.

She also wants people who aren’t in the military to get a better understanding of veterans’ experiences through a program called Dialogues on the Experience of War, which supports study and discussion on issues raised by war and military service.

“We aim to really bring the civilian community into the conversation because we have learned that, number one, a lot of civilians don't really have any idea as to what it was that these current serving soldiers face,” she said. “We figure that, that's the citizenry that votes and that's the citizenry that's going to be accepting reintegrating soldiers. So, that's the community that needs to be knowledgeable about what is going on in our world today,” she said.

"I believe in the arts. I believe that our community needs the arts. I believe that an artful community is a healthy community. I also believe that a world without art just might not be worth fighting for in the first place," Drakulich said.

Teaching and Doing

Drakulich said that the practice of humanities is often removed from people in order for them to perform their tasks in the military, and that humanities must be returned to them upon coming back.

Gene Hughes served as a missile repairman during the Vietnam era. He’s now the art director for a majority of the programs the DJD Foundation offers. He’s heavily involved in the Veterans Art Project, an open studio. 

"[Art] gives veterans a way to express themselves and to share with the world the things they've learned while becoming a veteran,” Hughes said. “Speaking as a vet, we need to share with our communities and our communities need to share with us. I've always felt that the best liaison between groups is art," he said.

Hughes has a distinct style of teaching. Instead of having the class follow his art style, which is graphite portraiture, he allows people to explore any medium they desire, so they can tell their stories the way they want to. Hughes strongly supports veterans’ freedom of expression.

"It's really important because that's the foundation on which this country was founded, freedom of expression. When I fought for this country, I wanted to come back and be able to express myself freely. I think artists appreciate that right more than just everyday people," Hughes said.

"What I've learned about myself is that I have a lot more to give. I thought that I was through being an artist and I was wrong. Working in this community and extolling the virtues of art, made me realize that I am still an artist and I think I will continue to be an artist," Hughes said.

Reporting by Lucia Starbuck for Our Town Reno

Annette, Holding On to an Ailing Dog and Finding a Supportive Community

Not Giving Up on Her Companion on the Streets

Annette finds company amongst friends, her old dog and her newly found community at Barbara Bennett Park, which she says reminds her of where she came from. Annette moved to Reno in 1988 from Richmond, California, a town of about 100-thousand people in the East Bay area. She’s been houseless on and off for the past three years. 

When Our Town Reno interviewed Annette earlier this year, she was with her boyfriend Doug, who worked at Tesla, but she says she’s no longer with him. She was also celebrating her one year anniversary of being sober, which has continued as she’s 19 months sober now. However, her dog’s health is deteriorating.

“Even though times get rough, don't give up. A lot of people said, ‘She’s just dog.’ No, I could have had a place or job or anything like that. But she's old, she’s got cancer and stuff like that and I'm not going to give up on her.”

“She's very protective over me and I try to be as much protective over her, maybe a little too much,” Annette said of her relationship with her aging dog. “One thing I'm afraid of is; I'm going to lose her.” Annette has had nearly 15-year-old Keika since 2010.

A Supportive Park Community

Annette has been sleeping in a secret spot nearby the downtown courthouse but spends the daytime at Barbara Bennett Park. Annette said community members often hand out food at the park. She said when other people living on the streets gather it makes life less stressful for her.

“Once everybody comes in [to Barbara Bennett Park], we all get in a circle and we all talk and everything. It just feels more comfortable when you're in a group than single,” she said.

Annette also gets food stamps. For Keika, Annette goes to a nearby church that hands out little bags of dog food. Annette mixes sausages in it. Annette also recently got a Coleman propane stove. She takes turns cooking with her friends, but the most important item they prepare, she says, is hot coffee. 

Annette travels by foot and was recently told by police she can’t have a shopping cart to carry her items. She emphasizes the importance of having people she can trust to watch her stuff or Keika if she has to go somewhere.

Annette’s message to the world is: “Pay it forward please. You see somebody out there, even just a sandwich, you know, help them out. If you see somebody who needs a pair of shoes, help, donate.”

Photography and Reporting by Lucia Starbuck for Our Town Reno

Chris Davis, Pursuing Dreams of the Screenwriter's Life

Crafting a Screenplay About Vampires

From singing and acting to screenwriting, Charles Davis currently incorporates his own life experiences while writing a trilogy about vampires. Charles Davis is 35 years old and is from Reno. He’s had a range of different jobs throughout the years including, Walmart, Round Table Pizza, Hollywood Video, Blockbuster Video, Burger King and Goodwill. He used to study singing and acting.

“I used to be in singing for a semester and then I had two throat surgeries and while on voice rest, my grades were declining from an A to a C. I had to do something to bring it up obviously. So I started writing and sure enough, it took up and it went from sentences into a story.

His current trilogy includes a musical called, ‘Drake a Vampire’s Journey.’ Davis doesn’t want to publish his work online due to fears of his ideas being stolen. His favorite movie is, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’ directed by Gore Verbinski in 2003. He enjoys doing voice impressions of characters.

The questionnaire we are passing out at the downtown library as part of Share Your Story Mondays from 10 to noon. If you’d like to share your story, don’t hesitate. You can also bring favorite pictures and mementoes of yourself and Reno.

Surviving Depression and Sexual Assault in Reno

Davis says that he’s a loving and caring person. He enjoys helping people and volunteering. He said that people in Reno can be standoffish and he wishes people made more efforts to get to know each other. Davis says that he puts his life experiences into his writing. He said that he’s lost people in his life due to depression and is also a survivor of sexual assault.

“In 35 years, people just think it's just a normal life, but I've had a lot of past bad experiences with exes, life and family. I was born four months premature,” Davis said. “Biological mom left me, adoptive family wasn't so great. They just wanted me as a paycheck versus the love and family I should've gotten. But you can't always get what you want, so you just gotta roll the dice and go with it.”

Davis said that he enjoys sharing his story with others. His advice to writers is, “Be true yourself and just go with what you know.”

Photography and Reporting for Our Town Reno by Lucia Starbuck

RISE, Reviving the Push for a SafeGround for Neighbors Without Shelter

Countering Vigilante Threats

The Reno Initiative for Equality and Shelter non-profit is currently reviving the push to establish a SafeGround, which by definition is “a legally recognized land area for use by people experiencing homelessness.”

“Essentially instead of continually running down camps, we would provide the needed infrastructure to make them more functional. So, porta-potties, waste management, and then security,” Benjamin Castro from RISE explained to us. Find the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/board-of-county-commissioners-washoe-county-dedicate-land-to-a-safeground-in-washoe-county-07d9c205-d625-4908-923d-3e493de0558c and read a Q and A with Castro below on this and other projects to help those without shelter.

Q: Why the need for a so-called SafeGround and how would it help our neighbors without stable shelter?

A: “Our philosophy is, look, these people are already managing to survive on their own. All they need is just a little bit of support and a little bit of, permission essentially. If there's complaints about waste management, if there's complaints about, you know, no bathrooms, well then let's provide that with minimal infrastructure and let's get them the protection they need from other community members. “

Q: What are the immediate needs now for the homeless population as winter approaches, and what about other much talked about ongoing projects to help with the affordable housing crisis?

A: “We're calling for the overflow tents again. At Sage Street (Village on Sage Street dormitories), we’ve heard dorms are only at 50% occupancy. And I'd say that's probably because of their high qualifiers . The Tiny Homes (HopeSprings Tiny Homes Village) project is still in its fundraising phase, so that hasn't kicked off. And then in response to the recent vigilante actions by QOL, honestly, we think it's time to, to start endorsing some of these camps and make them functional and give them the same protection that every other citizen in this community deserves.”

Castro on the right of the photo hopes the new community volunteer meal location could be combined with the SafeGround, all the while empowering those being helped. “Maybe they can help clean up, maybe they can be the security, so that we don't have to kick them out at 7:00 AM. They can also set the tone for how these dinners are gonna go. If you give them ownership of the project as opposed to just being a recipient, then it'll grow. It'll give them them more incentive to get involved. So we’ve pitched that. The new dinner location should go in tandem with either an overflow tent or some sort of sanctioned camp ground, or the SafeGround we are pushing for.”

Uncertainties over Shelter Location for Women and Children, Community Meals and Overflow Winter Tent

Q: What about the idea for a new, separate campus for women and children in the Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services campus? 

A: “We do have an update that that's not happening this year. So again, another year where things get delayed and I'm not trying to give grief to the organizations that are pushing for those projects. I absolutely understand that delays happen. Money is everybody's problem. But this is our third year now to where we've talked about hosting people at NNAMHS. We've talked about putting people at the Tiny Homes and then none of those have happened yet and it's winter 2019 and we need to start worrying about, besides just the elements, now we have to start worrying about vigilantes who maybe next time they won't make a Facebook event about going around and breaking up camps. Maybe they'll just do it without telling anybody. So that's what we're afraid of. Besides just trying to survive the harsh winters of this area, we're also afraid that people might start being harassed by community members.”

Q: What about the new proposed location for community meals across from Hooten Tire company on 4th street?

A: “I really appreciate the Truckee Meadows Water Authority for offering up that space. My issue with it is that by my understanding it's a very short term lease agreement. It's only two years, and it has to be renewed every year. One of the biggest reasons why we were on board with relocating the dinner services, was that we really enjoyed the idea of having a park or a parcel that was being underutilized. And then once all the meal providers get together and start serving there, start setting a tone that over time it would be a public park where this is where service providers go. So it seemed like a great legacy to leave behind, you know, 20, 30 years from now, after we're all done serving and other people have come in and they started serving again that we have a nice park with nice benches, maybe some fruit trees that was once just a dirt lot. But only having a two year lease on that lot is kind of discouraging because anything we build there is just gonna end up getting wiped away anyways.

I'm hopeful that if we do this right and we get a lot of community engagement and we engage the people that we're serving that yeah, we can beautify that area. We can make it nice. We can make it somewhere where you want to go and you want to reach out and you want to perform outreach, as opposed to we'll just put you over here for now and then hopefully in a couple of years we'll figure something else out.

I'm hearing the move will happen as early as November 1st. I know that other meal providers have some issues with the location as far as transportation. We still haven't seen benches, for people to sit down and enjoy their meal. There needs to be better coordination.”

In October, RISE meals were still taking place Saturday nights on Record street. There are ongoing discussions going on as to where a new overflow shelter tent will also be placed. “It made much more sense for us to have the overflow tent and the dinner site for the dinner services performed at the same site,” Castro said. “If we don't like the new site, and we've told them this before too, at of the first preliminary meetings that if we don't have the infrastructure that we need to be successful, which is again, porta-potties, waste management, parking, lighting, if you make us fight for our own, then we will choose a park of our own accord that's convenient for us, that's convenient for the people we serve. Don't be surprised if a tent city just pops up there. So we either do this together and we do it right. Or we do it on our own because I'm not going to be set up for failure.”

Q: We are seeing a court case from Boise and efforts in Las Vegas to make camping illegal. Is poverty being criminalized?

A: “Absolutely. You know that we do have a lot of friends in the county and there are some friends in the city who genuinely want to help, who are in my opinion, actual problem solvers who are compassionate. And they have the connections to kind of connect all the dots, but it's also an image problem too. I think for the city, I think it's obvious that they don't want to deal with this issue or that they spend a lot of money on the Community Assistance Center on Record street. And they think that that should be enough. It's hard to say, but honestly I would say that, yeah, it definitely feels like there's a lot of community resources out there that we're not taking advantage of as a city, as a community really. And it's making it harder for people to get involved.”

Q: What about the recent #BringSomeLove movement at Pickett Park to counter the vigilante threats?

A: “I definitely see it as a catalyst and that's part of the reason why we've revived this petition. It’s definitely a catalyst for people who didn't know where to start or didn't know how to get involved. And one of the biggest things for our organization is just giving people permission to get involved. And I think that's what a lot of organizations lack. You can join us, you can see what we're doing. But honestly, if you see a problem out there, and nobody's addressing it or nobody's fixing it, then that makes you in charge. You don't need anybody's permission to get involved, to help your neighbor. So hopefully we're trying to garner some of that support. The petition is an easy one. Hey, there are people out here surviving anyways. Instead of spending a bunch of money to stop it or to try to hide it from the public eye, why don't we just endorse it? It would be half the cost to get to get some dumpsters, and some hand washing stations and some port-a-potties. And they would appreciate the support and wouldn't be so resentful and their neighbors, community members wouldn't be so resentful as well if we facilitated their growth as opposed to always trying to stomp it out. I mean, honestly, if we spent half the time actually facilitating this community's growth as opposed to shuffling them out of public eye, then we'd probably be in a lot better spot.”

“We usually set up around 4:15 to start distributing clothing and hygiene products,” Castro said of the Saturday night setup. “Then we'll share a meal and break some bread and share some smiles. I think really the more important thing besides feeding the body is just letting people feel normal for a moment. Actually recognizing them as a person, letting them understand how much pain they're actually in and then just asking them to keep fighting.”

Photography by Scott King and Interview with Our Town Reno in October 2019

Devon Reese, Concerned About QOL, Winter and Delays with New Housing and Shelter Projects

Q: What are some updates on what the city council has in store to address homelessness or the lack of affordable housing in the area?

A: The city council has a number of different things that it's working through, and it's one of three or four different regional governing bodies that has some role to play in housing or homelessness. As a city we're challenged by our finances. Certainly, we are challenged by the fact that as far as the city's powers … we are fairly limited. So we try to find the areas where we can work within the opportunities that we can create here in the city. I think we've done a good job of taking on a project-by-project analysis of the problem. We haven't done a really good job of looking at the entirety of the situation. We have different boards within the city; for example, the CDBG (Community Development Block Grants) board is tasked with looking at the federal resources that come into this community that can be used to help people who are dealing with housing insecurity or homelessness. At the end of the day, I think our city council believes very strongly that people need a roof over their head. Sometimes that's in immediate shelter needs, sometimes it's in temporary housing, and oftentimes it's in long-term goals and transitional programs that can help people get to that goal. So we're doing a lot with very little, but there's obviously more we can do.

Q: Could you elaborate more on the CDBG (Community Development Block Grants) board and what it does?

A: So this is an area where we have a sub-committee of the council as a whole. It meets with local partners that include Washoe County, Sparks, and I believe the health district has a seat on that board as well. It's just a pool of money from which we as a council make choices about how we're going to prioritize how we spend those funds. Some of that has gone into rapid rehousing dollars, some of it has gone into programs to keep people from having to move from their home as they age, and there's a really great program that's part of it that allows people to have their homes renovated and at times retro-fitted in order that they can stay there. I think this is an important project because it means that people stay where they are. They shelter in place, they have a home where they can age gracefully, and yet it allows them not to become a part of either the homeless community or in a different kind of shelter situation. This last time around we provided funds through that entity to cover some of the landlord-tenant rights and seminars that have been offered by the city. Some of the money in that particular fund has gone to … housing like the Willie Wynn housing project (the Willie J. Wynn Apartments now run by the Reno Housing Authority, which broke ground in May, are named after a local preacher and will specifically be for struggling senior citizens), just off Sutro and Wells and money for that project came out of that fund.

Reese’s view on the city and multiple housing projects being worked on, some slower than hoped for.

Q: What are some updates on the HopeSprings tiny homes project?

A: That's a great project. That is really a good example of a public-private partnership because it has drawn interest from governments, Hopes- which is essentially a health resource in our community-, and then it was some land that was owned by the city. It's been a little slower getting out of the dirt than I had hoped, but it's coming on-line. I think you won't see people living there for about another six to nine months is what I understand. But in concept, gosh, it looks amazing. It looks like something that could really benefit our community and I'm hopeful that it might be a model for other kinds of projects of a similar nature. This is a project that I think hits a particular target audience but could be expanded to include lots of sub-communities, like homeless veterans, for example. I think that this project is being replicated successfully in other communities, as well. If you are paying attention to the national landscape, it appears that villages of this type and sort of the smaller housing units which have a cluster around a central meeting place and a place where people may engage with one another seem to be successful in other communities and I believe it will be successful here.

Q: For those that may be on the streets and interested in taking advantage of this opportunity with the project. How do they go about doing that?

A: Well, as I understand it, there is a waiting list for the project but I don't know what the status of it is. Of course, I’m sure that there are resources online. I know that our own Housing Authority and different entities within the city that connect people with services are excited that it would come online because that'll provide the opportunity to really push it out. The other major project that we had here locally was the village on Sage Street. It was another project where it had a very long waiting list, but then when it came time to actually have people housed there, some of those people had moved. Some were very transient in terms of lifestyle, so their phone numbers had changed or they may have had an opportunity to get into other housing arrangements. So these waiting lists are a good starting point because they're an indicator of need, but they don't necessarily tell the entire story about the depth of that need, if that makes sense.

Previously, according to his City of Reno bio, Reese “served as the Vice President and General Counsel for a large, regional builder-developer. He was also the former managing attorney of the Reno law firm, Curiale Dellaverson Hirshfeld & Kraemer, where he focused on products liability, wrongful death, and professional claims defense litigation.”

Q: There is a project in place for a new campus for women and children without shelter. Some community members are feeling that it's coming out a little slow as well. What is your update on that center moving forward?

A: Yeah, so the movement of the women and children over to the Galletti campus (from the Record street downtown shelter) is going to be awesome and hopefully transformational for people's lives. Everything moves slower than anyone would want, and I am concerned that we're going to have winter bearing down upon us. Obviously, it's getting colder and it might not be up and running by the time that people have a need for it, so that's concerning. I will say that the campus is very large and when you look at the overall services and the comprehensive range of things that can occur on that campus, you can't help but be excited about it because in the end it really does focus on a group of people who have a considerable amount of need for services and I think it's going to be a good one once it gets there.

Q: We’ve heard the Sage Street dorm-style living is at about 50% occupancy. What is being done to try and increase the occupancy rate right there? 

A: Well, I have not spoken to the VOA folks who are on site in a couple of months, so I'm not sure if that occupancy number is true today. If it is, that is somewhat discouraging because I do think it is a good opportunity. But it's just a matter of telling people what's available. It's about connecting people with services where they're needed. Ultimately, I think that they have been making some choices about income levels that perhaps are not reflective of the community that is the target need. I know that there's some thoughts about adjusting those downward so that more people can be eligible for housing there. I think too that some people are very interested in living there, but it's difficult at times to put together that first and last month's rent because when people are living paycheck to paycheck or without a paycheck, that can be very difficult. My understanding is that some funds have been made available through our rapid re-housing fund in the city to help people secure down payment assistance. 

When you think about a place like the village on Sage Street, and the need that people have to get in to that type of housing, it can be very difficult if you are facing an emergency situation or if your resources are very limited and you're choosing between food and shelter, or food and medicine and shelter. Those funds that are available through the city as a resource, while they're limited in some ways, at least they exist. Hopefully we share the positive word about those funds and it will help people see that as a viable option. The other thing is, I think fundamentally people just have to get used to the concept of a different type of living arrangement. Most people don't necessarily think of dormitory style living when they think about their ideal circumstances. But once you visit the campus and see what's going on there, I can't help but think that it's very inviting, very warm, and very friendly. There's a community on-site resource that is essentially a store where they can buy grab-and-go foods and there are classes that are available, too. There's laundry facilities, internet cafes, game rooms, and living areas outside of the dorm. They're small, don't get me wrong, but they're safe. For anybody who is looking for a home, I can't help but believe it would be a good opportunity.

Reese says safety issues and thin resources at the downtown shelter are forcing community meals out from there. Volunteers providing the meals are angry a new location might make the help much more difficult to provide.

Q: There are some activists and community members who are disappointed that the community meals are being moved away from the main shelter on Record Street. Why are those meals being moved and what's your reaction to that response? What would you say to them?

A: Well, I guess the first thing is to acknowledge the concern and frustration of those people who are out there doing the good work of feeding people. Undoubtedly people's hearts are in the right place and any time that one human being wants to help feed another human being, we should be finding out ways for that to happen. Of course, there are things that get in the way of that like health rules and concerns about the safety of people who are seeking that food resource. The Record Street campus is just stretched thin in terms of its physical space and also the provision of services there. When you have people lining up several hours before and staying several hours after, it creates lots of opportunities for unsafe conditions. The city has been working very hard and at least one community partner stepped up as a place where those meals could be served. The city attorney's office drafted as I understand, a release of liability and that really wasn't vetted well with the members of the community who were the ones actually doing the work and serving. So I'm not entirely sure if that has been resolved. I think it can be resolved, but I haven't been involved in it intimately. I just know that feeding people should be a priority for all of us and certainly it's a priority for me. I think that whatever the concerns are for folks who are in that community of providing food, we can work through those issues, whatever they are.

Q: Last weekend, the group Quality of Life-Reno made a motion to conduct citizens arrests on homeless staying in Pickett Park. The city police came in and notified the people that were staying there and now they are no longer there. The community responded by having a donation drive at the park. Are you familiar with what happened and what is your reaction to the whole thing?

A: Yeah, I'm broadly familiar with it. I wasn't able to attend the outpouring of love that was shown on Saturday so I don't know what happened on the ground other than what I read on social media. What I saw was a community coming together in love, strength, and support for our most vulnerable people. The group mentioned is one I'm vaguely familiar with, too. I think they're shady operators. They're not good people. I don't think that they have a heart for the citizens of this community. At times these fringe groups create a lot of commotion and a lot of stir, but with very little desire to really help. The response from the city of Reno was somewhat hands-off because it was not in a position to do much either way. I understand a Reno police officer was involved in trying to defuse the situation, but I don't believe he was there on city time. He was there as a concerned citizen and really just wanted to make sure that everyone was safe and that this fake event did not get out of hand. In the end, the Quality of Life folks wanted to take credit for what happened. Of course, no one believes that that was accurate or fair.

“What I can say is this community came together with an outpouring of compassion and love and stood up for what is right, which is viewing other human beings as deserving of grace, dignity, and respect,” Reese said of the #BringSomeLove counter protest. “There's no place in this community for anyone to hate or think less of another human being because of their economic circumstances or their lack of a home. It's heartbreaking. The truth is we have a problem that we need to address. We're undertaking efforts to address those concerns. But there's not one thing that's going to happen and all of a sudden we're going to have all the ills that we face fixed. We have a fundamental economic inequality in this country and it seems to be widening. Until we are willing to have a serious conversation about that, we're going to be continuing to treat the symptoms rather than the illness itself.”

Q: The US Supreme Court might eventually look at Boise vs. Martin, in which they may review the overall legality of sleeping in public spaces. There was an amicus brief that was written by a Reno attorney at one point in support of the case. What are your thoughts on all of this? ( Boise has formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its appeal in the case, called by some the “camping lawsuit.” It came about due to a city ordinance banning people who are homeless from sleeping in public places.)

A: Well, no amicus brief was filed on behalf of the city of Reno. I think there was a discussion a few months back about whether or not Reno should support such an amicus brief and our council declined to participate. The reality is the Boise vs. Martin case is an important one. I don't know whether it will ultimately be heard by the Supreme Court. Either way, we have a fundamental problem that we have to fix and the courts aren't going to fix things for us. We have to fix things ourselves. So what we have to do is focus on ways in which we can provide adequate shelter resources. We have to focus on programs that help people to reintegrate into both everyday life and living things like hygiene, health, housing, jobs, and job-retraining at times. At the end of the day, cities, especially our city with limited resources and limited powers, are perhaps not the best problem-solvers. Nonetheless, we find ourselves in the position of trying to promote the health, safety, and well-being of the people who live here. So there are a complicated series of things that one has to ask when we decide whether we are being appropriate, loving, and compassionate towards those who find themselves without a home. At the end of the day, I don't believe that Boise vs. Martin decision is going to be heard by the Supreme Court. If it is, I don't think it will fix what we have going on here. So we ought to get busy with the process of fixing what we can on the ground now on our own.

Q: In relation to affordable housing prices, what are some strategies that the council is implementing to address this issue?

A: Affordable housing is often lumped into the conversations about homelessness. In terms of affordable housing and some of the things that we've done, our mayor has helped us to focus on the “A Thousand Doors in 120 Days” initiative. This is one in which the city of Reno can defer sewer hookups and connection fees to developers who are willing to develop within a particular geographic area called “Opportunity Zones” so that the developers are incentivized to build in an area where we need development. So we're not giving the money to [the developers], we're saying we'll take the money later in the project when you get a certificate of occupancy.

A second example is under the newest legislative cycle they passed, SB 103. There is a way for cities to use their judgment to actually waive those [development] fees if in fact we're getting a more affordable component to a project. This is something that we have to, as a city undertake, and in the coming months figure out how to plug that in. 

There are also ways to use the land that the city of Reno owns. Where we own the underlying land, earlier this year we conditioned the sale of a particular parcel on the agreement that would reduce the fair market value of that [parcel] if the developer builds a certain number of units. In this case, it ended up being 12 to 15 units of affordable or market rate housing in that project. Since we own the land we were able to discount the land in order to get affordable housing as a component. We're using those CDBG funds to incentivize and sometimes bridge the gap between what financiers have in their pocket, what they get from a bank, and what they can get from the city. So we actually place money towards those housing components. 

“These programs are all various tools and at the end of the day, we should be throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the problem,” Reese said of increasing affordability for Reno residents. “Some of them are not necessarily going to be absolute fixes, some of them are going to be seen by some as ‘too little, too late.’ But they're all part of a package of things that we can do. It goes back to that concept that the city is not in the ideal position to solve many of the social ills that we face, but we have a role to play and we're taking a very proactive role. This council is particularly concerned with meeting the needs of people in this community who are un-housed.”

Q: Early on in your term as the Councilman At-Large, you seemed to be pretty active on social media. Do you intend to continue to do that?

A: Yeah, I try to be engaged on social media in some small way all of the time. I have tended to always post about upcoming meetings. I try to give a summary of those meetings and when the meeting is concluded, I try to respond and say what we accomplished in the meeting. I think it is probably a double-edged sword. Some people think social media is the area where you go to complain, bash on people, and attack people's views. In my social and online presence, I have to believe that it's a place for us to communicate directly with citizens and to engage in the deliberative process of a democratic institution, so I'm on social media a lot. I don't know if I'm up and down in terms of usage, but I think if you look at my social media, I have tended to be very open and vocal in support of the projects and communities that I'm working with.

Q: You are currently running for election for this position. What are some new ideas for the homeless and affordable housing issues that you will run on, or are you running on a continuation of things that have been tried before?

Answer: My ideas are informed by necessity. I don't think that we are unique among communities in this country who are grappling with housing, affordable housing, and homelessness issues. I wouldn't say that I am doing anything other than what is necessary. I do think there are things that we have to do better. The truth is, when people are hurting and suffering, we have a moral obligation to act and respond. I go about each day trying to think about how I can improve this community. It's a community that's given me a lot and at the end of the day, if we are to move forward together into the future, we have to do that with all of us benefiting from it. If only the folks on the upper end of the spectrum economically benefit, and the middle-class continues to shrink and the people in that tail end of the spectrum economically, are just frozen out of social life and that's not right. That is not consistent with my values. I prioritize people over things. In the next legislative cycle, I would like to see us taking a more proactive and aggressive stance on taking an opportunity to fix some of these issues. [During] this last legislative cycle, our city's priorities were pretty small and I would like to see them expanded.

I’d like to see us get as aggressive as we can with seeking to find resources and opportunities to expand the program. We're going to continue to support housing across a broad spectrum of housing types. I believe that housing of all types, whether it's dormitory style housing, student housing, tiny villages, or apartments on all sorts of spectrum, and even entry-level housing and upper-level housing frees up housing stock for everybody. It's one of those things where economists and people who really study housing markets are very pointedly and adamantly in favor of developing more housing stock. So wherever that housing stock lies, it benefits people at different ranges in the spectrum. We should be doing that. 

“People have to be able to have a place to sleep,” Reese said of one of his priorities for his campaign. “I'm interested in exploring things like, the idea of a community-based camping ground. [It can be] a space where people can be safe, where they can camp if that's their desire or if that's their circumstance. I think people are camping in parks because that's out of necessity. I'd like to see some way in which we could find opportunities for there to be land that is set aside for the provision of that type of temporary housing. I don't think it should be long-term because I think people need the physical things that come with a roof, a toilet, a shower, and an address in a mailbox. But out of necessity, I'm interested in exploring that.”

Q: In closing, what message would you like to share to the city's homeless and those who are struggling on the streets?

A: Well, I don't want to be emotional in my approach to it, but I want to tell people that there's always hope. Love is the thing that will unite us as a community, as you saw … at Pickett Park. Everyone deserves the dignity and grace that comes with being a human being. People are not illegal by their circumstances in terms of being homeless. I want us to take a compassionate approach to people's wellbeing. At the end of the day, our priorities and our values will dictate our policy choices and that for me has always been people-first. If we come to accept that there are some fundamental inequalities in our society at-large and then we think about how that implicates our positionality here in Reno, I think we can come to a better understanding of the types of solutions that are necessary to make sure that people are safe, well, and have access to resources like food, medicine, and hygiene. All of those things are just part of the inherent dignity that people have. I hope people understand that that is who I am and I hope that's reflected in my policy choices. 

Reporting and Photography by Scott King for Our Town Reno (Note: Some questions and answers were trimmed for clarity)

A Quaint Campus Coffee Shop is Closed as Student Luxury Housing Spreads

Gone, Suddenly

“It came out of nowhere…going from expecting us to get an extension of sorts to the new landlords being like, ‘Oh hey, you guys gotta get all your shit out in a week,’” said 23-year-old now former barista Braulio Claro of the long rumored then abruptly realized closure.

“I feel like it’s … a very special place where I have grown a lot as a person,” Claro said on one of his last shifts. “Any time I didn’t want to be at home, I would find myself here,” he said, expressing a sentiment shared by many students, UNR staff and locals.

Rebecka Bethel and Grant Uba will miss their relaxing times inside and right outside Bibo’s, which felt to many like a grittier, more expressive and freer enclave than most other areas in and around the university.

“Character Destroying” Gentrification

22-year-old Rebecka Bethel explained that while she is sad, she is also frustrated with the deeper issues connected to the closing. “Over the past few years it’s been really apparent that Reno is getting gentrified,” she said. “All the houses on 4th street and Ralston are being torn down to build a ‘Neon district’…those are peoples’ homes.”

“It seems like there’s a lot of land elsewhere without having to destroy a lot of the character that is Reno,” said Bibo co-owner Paul Martin.

Old homes on nearby blocks, some with deep historical significance, are also being moved or destroyed to give way to new luxury student housing and UNR’s expansion. Bibo Coffee Company has other locations around town and is trying to reopen one near campus, but some former patrons say they feel it will be difficult to recreate the unique atmosphere it had in its Record street location, across from railroad tracks, with plenty of trees providing shade, and a view of Reno’s downtown skyline.

Listen to an audio feature on one of the last days of the coffee shop here: https://soundcloud.com/user-677215943

Reporting and Photography by Karina Dominguez shared with Our Town Reno