Hands of Hope Food Bank Scrambles for a New Location

Resilience to Keep a Family’s Legacy of Providing for Others

The Hands of Hope food bank has been in the community for ten years and now faces an uncertain future, following a family’s upheaval and financial difficulties. The initiative though has already shown plenty of resilience, much like the people it helps. It began as Operation Feedback in 2010 by Paul Kadesky. In 2016 Frank Seve’s parents assumed ownership but just recently, due to what he says was his parents deportation to Samoa, he has taken on ownership. 

Seve, 29, explained they were “taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after purchasing plane tickets,” when they tried to return to Samoa for a family emergency in November. As the situation unfolded, Seve and his parents, according to his account we couldn’t independently verify, were advised they could appeal the deportation. He says his parents chose to return but that this may have been a mistake as Seve and his parents have since been told by lawyers his parents will now be unable to return to the United States for at least ten years. The doors of Hands of Hope though have stayed open, until now, with a pressing need to find a new location.

“Tuesdays we open to our veterans,” said Seve, amongst the hum of refrigerators “and every Saturday to our community.” The food bank is currently located on 2360 Valley Road, just behind the Salvation Army thrift store, but Seve has been given notice he needs to leave in March.

With donations, Seve has put in place a innovative model that also brings in revenue. Anyone who needs food simply pays $10 and is then able to fill up a shopping cart of everything from frozen meats and meals to fresh produce, canned goods, and even hygiene products or kids books. 

“They will leave with about two hundred dollars worth of food,” explained Seve as volunteers worked to stock shelves with donated food items.

Seve puts a premium on healthy foods, but is now scrambling to find a new location.

Starting an Emergency Food Service

Seve moved to Reno fifteen years ago when he says his father began working in the Biggest Little City as a pastor. Wanting to do more for the community, Seve’s parents began a food bank out of their church.

“I’m more of a physical worker, doing the work,” explained Seve about the challenges of now operating the non profit. “I notice when I am doing the work, we’re not getting much [food].” He struggles in balancing the business and labor side of the organization. He has maintained a previously created network of grocery stores who all pitch in and donate food to the organization. This allows Seve to go around town to stores like WinCo, Sak’N Save, SaveMart, and Costco to collect ready made boxes of donated food. Then twice weekly he has a handful of volunteers helping him organize and sort all of the donations. 

His group of volunteers are all working to try to find a viable solution to keep the organization alive in a new location.

“The owner before volunteered here,” said Seve “and I guess the new owners now don’t want to deal with what’s going on.” He is looking at the big picture and has begun thinking about a backup plan. Though he does not have access to a location as large and organized as this new location he is keeping his eyes open for a solution. 

Seve says he has accumulated enough food that he is considering starting an emergency food service. In addition to the two days they are open, Seve wants to start putting together boxes of food that anyone from the community can come and grab without having to pay the ten dollars. He envisions this has the potential to help get people and families through an emergency situation where they might not be able to make ends meet.  

“Our doors are alway open, even if they feel like they don’t have the funds to come,” Seve said, wanting the community to know that he will find a way to get them food. “Don’t worry about anything just ‘cause you see a sign that says ten dollars,” he said. 

Seve never thought he would be running a non-profit food bank. He never thought he would get such satisfaction and fulfillment from working without getting paid, either. “If it wasn’t for my mom and dad,” Seve said “I probably would not have the heart that I do right now for the community.”

Our Town Reno Reporting and Photography by Richard Bednarski

New Cares Campus Faces Delays, Pre Launch Challenges and Data Confusion

The multipart Nevada Cares Campus is set to open mid April now, after overzealous excavation and winter storms slowed down its hoped for opening earlier in April, according to Reno’s acting assistant manager Arlo Stockham.

Getting the message out has also been a challenge as to what exactly is being planned for the new CARES money funded location at the site of the old Governor’s Bowl, behind I80 and East 7th Street.

Reno city councilwoman Neoma Jardon, who chaired the meeting, said a promotional video with data points done with SOSU. TV should be out by mid March, with a bigger media push happening in mid April.

One component of the campus will be a “sanctioned safe camp area,” which Jardon called a pilot program never tried before in northern Nevada, adding many constituents are currently writing her emails about homeless in the area. This camp will be accessible to those with pets, living in couples, and with more possessions than just a backpack, but how low the barrier will be to entry remains to be seen.

Washoe County Commission chair Bob Lucey pointed to businesses along 4th Street complaining of increased trespassing, and also general confusion as to when the campus would open, and to where it’s located.

The first presentation of the meeting was made by David Huete, with Haven for Hope out of San Antonio, Texas. That mission runs an innovative multi-layered campus approach, including a low barrier courtyard, which provides three meals a day, daytime resting options as well as overnight beds. The organization, which also has a “spiritual journey” facet, says 500 people move from their courtyard setup to what they call their “transformational campus” on a yearly basis on a path to permanent housing.

Huete stressed the importance of their ID recovery program. “You can’t restart your life,” unless you have some sort of ID, he said. Huete also noted what he called “heavy life skills training” was not popular, and that they’ve refocused more on classes on getting access to rapid rehousing and obtaining jobs, saying it was important “to engage with dignity,” and not to “baby” those being helped.

He also said it’s important not to give up on people you are trying to help, say if they don’t show up for a while, or if they don’t answer their phone. You have to “lean heavily” into housing money and recognize “the struggle,” he advised.

Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson called it a “cool campus,” but Huete emphasized its large downtown land area, covering over twenty acres in the heart of San Antonio, as a key to its success. Some houseless advocates in Reno fear the Governor’s Bowl is too removed from downtown areas and other existing services. They also fear the Volunteers of America run Record Street shelter will soon be shut down, as a way to keep funding the new campus going forward.

J.D. Klippenstein, who wears several hats in the local ring of trying to help the unhoused, from his role as executive director of the recently renamed Faith in Action Nevada (formerly ACTIONN), to also coordinating the Northern Nevada Continuum of Care, said COVID-19 has taught us helping those without stable shelter needs to be better integrated within overall emergency operations.

His presentation led to Sparks Mayor Lawson wondering why previous presentations had indicated there were over 300 beds available in the area to none currently available. No clear direct answer was ever really offered to that question, as the next presentation by Dana Searcy with Built for Zero, pointed to over 700 empty beds . The word beds in this instance is what’s available through vouchers or different shelters and organizations for those seeking to not sleep outside or in precarious situations.

Not clear to us is if members of the Continuum of Care or Built for Zero are getting local money for their presentations and applying for grant money. Built for Zero has been working to compile clearer data of what organizations are working “in the space” and what’s available now. The organization stresses low barrier, and having programs better fit actual needs, but also angered local houseless advocates by apparently supporting the recent sweep of several encampments.

Jardon praised “the data we’ve been longing for,” but also pointed to the square peg, round hole problem of available beds with different barriers for these not always reflecting the actual needs.

“We have the beds,” Searcy said. Notably absent from the conversation was any voice from someone actually unsheltered.

A protest letter seeking to replace police with social workers and mental health professionals for outreach in encampments was mentioned, and Jardon said it would be discussed during the April Zoom of what is a first Monday of the month meeting. It was mentioned members of the Washoe County’s Sheriff office and Reno and Sparks police departments will all be present for the next discussion.

Commissioner Hill also brought up discussing a possible Right to Rest Act for Nevada, which was also included in the protest letter. Simply stated, it would provide the unhoused the right to use public space without discrimination based on their housing status

Our Town Reno reporting on March 1, 2021

Michael Carson, Helping Build a Local Network for Social and Environmental Progress

From Facebook Lives to Community Events

On site of a recent sweep of a Sparks encampment, Michael Carson was up early, arriving before police, broadcasting on his live Facebook feed, and rallying other advocates to help those being uprooted. He’s also helped organize river cleanups through social media.

Carson wants to leave the earth a better place to future generations. He believes the environment, racial justice, poverty and houselessness are all issues on the same boat. He has challenged himself to try and help connect community members working towards improving all of these issues into a cohesive network and web of social change. 

“By weaving all of these organizations, I’m hoping to create a really strong foundation and legacy for the next generation to build off of,” he said in a recent conversation with Our Town Reno along the Truckee river. Carson has been gaining momentum in the community as a catalyst for change.

Carson was approached by Beverly and Autumn Harry, two local Indigenous activists working to protect the environment. They wanted to begin a community clean up along the Truckee River. “They liked what I was doing and wanted to incorporate that into a river cleanup project,” Carson said. He went out scouted for areas that had a lot of trash near the low water level. These areas were targeted first to clean up before the river starts rising from snowmelt and spring runoff.

“It started out with, hey let’s go connect with these communities and bring them some food,” explained Carson “to us building relationships with them.” This outreach happened over a few weeks and resulted with the people camping along the river in helping with the clean up.

To date there have been two cleanups with almost 150 volunteers and nearly 30 tons of garbage collected. Carson talked about how much of the trash in and around the river was a result of a previous encampment sweep conducted by the city of Sparks. “They gave them 30 minutes to pack up all their belongings then bulldozed whatever was left,” he explained “into large piles and left them.” 

From George Floyd to the Mutual Aid Network Movement

After George Floyd’s murder last year, Carson says he began a self-audit into his inherent and implicit biases. By identifying his power and privilege, he says he realized he can work to offset this imbalance. 

Mutual aid is defined as a voluntary and reciprocal trading of resources and services benefiting both parties involved. On his Facebook, Carson recently wrote: “Mutual Aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world.”

Carson looked toward three educators, Caress Fitch, Terra Anderson and Christina Cleveland for more on what mutual aid looks like. They all suggested he reach out to organizations who are helping people with less privilege and resources and offer his time, energy and abilities. 

“Finding organizations who are already on the frontlines working with the people who have less of that power, less of that privilege and less resources,” he explained “and showing up and saying ‘How can I help?’ while simultaneously using whatever platform I have to share with these organizations.” 

Carson also converted his garage and porch into a community food pantry. Over the past year, he has learned not just how his own implicitly was part of the problem, but how he could refocus his privilege and help our neighbors in need. He said his personal audit has resulted in “striving to uncenter myself and really put the focus on the organizations that are already doing this work.”

A recent post on Carson’s Facebook page.

“If they’re starving and they’re cold, they can’t even get out of their tent to go find that help.”

Carson sees the struggle unfolding here in Reno as more of a problem orbiting trauma. With rent and home prices reaching unaffordable levels, and income levels stagnant, more and more people are forced out onto the streets. This is a form of trauma, that can lead to drug use and mental health deterioration.

“It’s hard to say what exactly the problem is, but what I am faced with and what I see as a root [problem] more than anything is people not being able to get the resources they need to heal their trauma,” he said. Because food insecurity is also a major factor working against people without housing, Carson now focuses his efforts on helping people stay nourished and stay warm.

Carson echoed many community members in that the police going into homeless camps and evicting them is not solving underlying factors. These evictions often happen early in the morning, when temperatures are below freezing and with little involvement from community advocates and volunteers. “If they are worried about it being clean, there are volunteers in the community that are willing to show up and help clean,” he said.

“Sweeping the camps and having people leave behind truckloads of belongings and then relocate to a camp that they think is more safe,” explained Carson “seems to be really problematic.” Carson has followed up with people who were recently forced out of Gateway park and learned that they were not eligible for what little space was available in the shelters nor wanted to relocate to another camp under the Wells Avenue overpass. He said people who are working on sobriety fear that camp would threaten their efforts at getting sober. 

Carson believes the people farthest away from the problem are not addressing the issue, “the city, the police are showing up at these camps saying ‘hey we have a solution, pack up your stuff and leave,’ and that’s not working.”

What needs to be happening, Carson explained, is a collective decision making process with the people in these camps. Through this active involvement of people experiencing houselessness, community advocates, and the city, Carson feels a clear solution will arise.

“Radical transparency from the city and the police will help us as a community find solutions a lot quicker,” he said. “What I want everyone to do is to examine their power, their privilege, and their resources, and then find people who have less then them and go help those people.”

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

Jeremy, Looking to Regain Health and Energy to Move After Third Heart Attack

Since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the United States almost one year ago, Jeremy and his wife have periodically been without shelter. This is their second time camping by the river and it's an experience that Jeremy says is difficult, particularly due to the health complications he’s been suffering lately.

“At the beginning of this year, we were out here and then all summer long we were indoors and we came back out here again because money ran out,” Jeremy said. “We've been out here about two months, at least this time around, and I had my third heart attack three weeks ago, so it's rough. But other than that, I'm all right.”

Jeremy speaks positively about his experience with the healthcare system, particularly considering how much he’s needed them recently.

“Right now, I'm really pleasantly pleased with the healthcare system,” Jeremy said. “I've never had these kinds of benefits, being on Medicaid. They're taking great care of me right now as far as that goes. My [prescriptions] are pretty expensive, but they want me to get better. They don't want me to die and I don't want to die, either. Not right now, not too soon.”

Due to his health-related challenges, he has been unable to work. So earlier this year his wife was still working to get them by, but that all changed when COVID-19 shut down the country.

“My wife was working, she was doing everything she could to keep us afloat and everything started going downhill as soon as a COVID hit,” Jeremy said.

Despite the seriousness of the pandemic and how it could affect Jeremy’s already declining health, he recognizes that there’s only so much he can do to protect himself while cases continue to surge in Washoe County.

“Now [COVID] is really rolling in and getting us and if [COVID] gets us, it gets us,” Jeremy said. “But I'm hoping we don't get it. I'm hoping the majority of us are smart enough that even if we're [living] out here, we can make it through.”

Although Jeremy wore a mask when he spoke with Our Town Reno, he admits he’s not as cautious as he should be. “I'm not changing much of anything but if I get [COVID] I'm going to die for sure,” Jeremy said. “I'm already a recovering drug addict as it is and I can admit that. I smoke a lot of pot and have done a lot of speed in my time and that's one of the biggest contributors to my [declining] health.” 

His biggest disappointment as it relates to COVID, however, is how it’s changed how people interact with each other. “So many people have changed [because of COVID],” Jeremy said. “I mean, you guys are about some of the friendliest people that I've talked to in awhile that just came up to me and wanted to talk to me. You try to talk to anybody else and they think you're the plague. All of a sudden we have a pandemic on our hands and everybody's just staying away from you because you're a bug.”

Aside from COVID, Jeremy is concerned about what happens in camps along the river, including the worst that can happen.

“This place is scary as f***, dude, it's all bad down here,” Jeremy said. “At the beginning of last year, my buddy Mike actually got shot and killed right up here. He was sitting on the toilet and a dude put five rounds in his chest over something stupid.”

Jeremy wasn’t along the river when his friend was killed, as that same night he and his wife were in the process of moving their camp from their spot on the river over to Fisherman’s Park. 

“The night we moved away from here is when Mike got shot and it was very, very real,” Jeremy said. “You could hear the gunshots clear as day. I was only gone 15 minutes, I took one load down to Fisherman's Park and came back and everybody over here was all crying and I'm like, ‘What the hell is going on?’”

Jeremy was told that his friend Mike had been killed, and he and his wife went on to move three times over the next couple of months. But now that they’re back to camping by the river, that reality has stayed with Jeremy. 

“Every night we hear fights over here, every day,” Jeremy said. “There ain't nobody running nothing around here but their mouths. The first day we were out here we were seeing people sword-fighting with machetes, really it’s stupid.” 

Although this is his second bout with homelessness, Jeremy says his wife has handled the transition better than he has. 

“My wife, she ain't never seen none of [this], never in her life has she been homeless,” Jeremy said. “This has been her first time and she's taken it better than I am, really. I mean, she's got her head on a lot clearer than I do in a lot of instances. She's my rock.”

Some of the most difficult things he’s seen since being homeless, Jeremy says, are the fires that occasionally break out. 

“I've seen some crazy shit down here, you’ll see ten fires down here, dude,” Jeremy said. “You never think a tent would go up [in flames] but when they go up, it’s pretty bad and it's the scariest shit. I mean, you're just not going to get out.”

Consequently, between his heart problems and the challenges of day-to-day life without shelter, Jeremy and his wife plan to move to Phoenix as soon as they’re financially able to. 

“I'm trying to get out of here and I'm trying to go to Phoenix when I can, because that's where the rest of my family is and it might be better for my health,” Jeremy said. “I’m 45 and I shouldn't be having these issues at 45. I’m a grandfather to twelve grandkids and I don't look like I should be a grandfather, it kind of sucks. I'm no kind of role model with my grandkids.”

When asked how soon he plans to move, Jeremy said it’s difficult to make plans beyond the day-to-day when you’re without shelter like him. 

“I'm on the day-to-day plan,” Jeremy said. “I'm not even on the one-year, five-year or 10-year plan at this point. All we're worried about right now is if we can get the money and get out of here. As soon as the timing is right, we're out.”

Despite everything that this year has thrown Jeremy’s way, he hopes that everyone can pull through this year, together.

“Don't give up, keep trying and you’ll eventually get out of that hole,” Jeremy said. “I'm going to get me and my girl out of this hole one way or another. That's all I can do and she's been the one doing it all, really. I got to give her the credit, not me. She's been my rock. But don't give up is all that I can say. This is all a part of life and we’re all in this thing together dude, that’s all it is.”

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Mel and Matt, About to be "Swept" in Sparks, Nevada

As the winter wears on and the cold remains, Matt, who has been living in a tent along the river at Gateway Park right by Greg Street has to move again. He has camped here for a few months and is no stranger to police sweeps, having experienced them in the past, he says. Due to rising living costs, he simply could not afford the cost of living anymore and has been homeless for a couple of years. 

“We used to be able to afford a place, but it’s doubled in a few years,” he explained as a Sparks Police truck drove by on the river path this morning. Him and Mel, his partner, were sitting on a park bench trying to think of their next move. Matt is not sure where they will end up but he wants to start the process ahead of the sweep now being talked about for tomorrow. 

Matt is also frustrated at the posted signs and presence of the police. The sign posted on February 15th reads that all property will be considered abandoned as of 8 o’clock tomorrow morning.

“A couple months ago they said they were going to try and help us out,” Matt said as he placed tobacco into a rolling paper. He said there has been some help in the form of Nevada Health assisting people in the area with health insurance. But he said it has not been enough to help in any long term manner.

Posted on Monday the 15th, a new sign from the City of Sparks gave residents of Gateway Park 48 hours to clear out their belongings and move somewhere else.

On scene helping the folks get organized and ready to move was Kurt, who said he was with the Karma Box Project. “There are about 15 to 20 tents and about thirty people,” he explained, “and we have until tomorrow to move these people out of here.” However, he explained there were some issues. He does not like to see the unhoused get pushed around nor have their stuff be taken. 

“Wells Street is being used as kind of a staging area,” he said referring to under the overpass along the river. He said officials are directing people first to a shelter then to the Wells Avenue overpass where they will not be harassed. He thinks the new Nevada Cares super shelter at the old Governor’s Bowl location should be ready within a few weeks, but it seems lots of work remains to get that operational.

Kurt said he believes these police actions are an opportunity for people experiencing homelessness to reconnect with family and receive goods they might not have otherwise received living in camps. Advocates for the unhoused say it can be counter-productive to uproot tent communities, only setting them back in their hopes of regaining stable, legal shelter.

“I’ve had too much stuff happen to her,” said Matt of his girlfriend, Mel, who is disabled. He chooses to avoid the shelter because he says the ones he has access to don’t allow couples and it would separate him from Mel. They have been together for over 15 years and when they were apart, things didn't go well for Mel. “I’ve gotta be around her,” he explained as he rolled his cigarette. 

He cites safety issues during previous shelter experiences, but welcomes ideas for a possible legal safe camp, at Governor’s Bowl, or elsewhere.

The Gateway Park camp on the day before it might be swept and possessions taken out.

While talking with them, there were several Reno Police and Sparks Police present putting Matt on edge. He was uncomfortable and not sure why they were there but said he plans to get as much of their belongings together and be out by the morning. 

“Some of us are here because it’s just unfortunate,” he said “we just ended up where we couldn’t afford the rent.”

He wants the community to know it is not easy living in a tent and not all of them are bad people.

Reporting and Photography by Richard Bednarski

Eddy House Outreach Team Meets Local At-Risk Youth Where They Are, a Photo Series

It’s a windy day near Wells Avenue at a main homeless encampment along the river. Austin Solheim, the Director of Outreach Engagement for the Eddy House, and his coworker Eric are checking in on a few youths and young adults the’ve been helping out.

“Our goal today is to go in and check on a few clients we have established relationships with,” said Solheim. He has built an outreach team of four people, including himself. In total there are 20 transitional youths he regularly looks for. In this particular area, he has established relationships with six clients. The Eddy House mission focuses on homeless and at-risk youth, ages 18 to 24 and works with them to develop life and job skills. What follows is a picture series by Our Town Reno photographer and reporter Richard Bednarski.

Matt has been homeless for about a year and has lived along the river for about six months. He says he lost his job working in a warehouse when the company was bought out by FedEx. Soon after that, he says he lost his residence. This was the second time he lost his job and housing. “Me and my husband are trying to get off the street ‘cause, well, let’s face it, this sucks,” explained Matt, a client of the Eddy House Outreach team. “Trying to find an affordable place is damn nigh impossible,” he said with frustration. The Eddy House Outreach team is helping him replace his identification at the moment. Matt wants the community to “give us a chance. There are a lot of us out here, like me and my husband who are trying to get off the streets. Trying their best, ‘cause it’s not easy.” 

The Eddy House has been in their new location for about a year. They have 20 residents who live here as they get their lives on track for more independence. Their network of housing, built through partnering with other community organizations, is able to house about 80 youth in need in emergency situations. The two level building on Willow Street, just west of the Renown Regional Medical Center, has this clothing room where youth can find clothes to replace dirty and ragged ones. There is also a set of nicer business clothes available for interviews. 

The first floor of the new location is a large common area surrounded by offices, bathrooms, and a small kitchen. On staff are three case workers to help individuals get identification documents and find stable work as well as housing. The Eddy House also has a marriage and family counselor on staff to help with any issues that might arise.

“We were able to go 24 hours,” explained Solheim of expanding to overnight capabilities since January last year. The bottom floor of the Eddy House features two large rooms where individuals can sleep. This room features the overflow and emergency sleeping area. Behind the glass windows are actual bunks, with storage, for the longer term residents in transition. 

Located right next to the entrance is this job board where youth can come in and find available jobs. And if they do not have clothes for the interview, the clothing room downstairs has a section devoted to business and professional attire. 

The outreach team is a group of four employees who go out about two or three times a week. Solheim wants to increase outreach to include two outings every day. Currently, they divide their time up to reach out to youth across the area, with some clients in Carson City. Once they meet with a client, the outreach team works towards getting them to the Eddy House where they can sleep, shower, eat and be in a safe location. Solheim hopes to expand the program to include all of northern Nevada and parts of northern California. He is also working to establish a transportation network to help clients get to the Eddy House.

Healthy nutrition is often neglected when people live without stable shelter. People will take handouts they receive and purchase the cheapest food available. The Eddy House has a volunteer supported meal program where the community can sign up and provide meals for around 40 people during the week. They never waste the food, making sure it all gets eaten through leftover nights and taking it over to other homeless in the area.

As snow recently melted, Solheim and Eric approached a tent to check in on a client. They learned from another person that the young woman they are looking for recently moved into a hotel. Solheim said homeless youth sometimes will pool resources and rent a room for a week to get out of the elements, shower, and create a sense of normalcy, if only for a week. 

The outreach team has a vehicle that allows them to get further out into the community. This vehicle also allows them to get out to homes of youth who may be on the verge of homelessness.

As a woman works on her bike chain, Solheim learns about her story. He believes it is important to have a conversation with people to learn more about their individual circumstances. “Just be open to new ideas,” Solheim said. “Be open to what we learn and try something new. There’s not one solution for every person. There’s a billion solutions out there and one of those solutions is going to fit every person,” Solheim said, always remaining hopeful. He says the goal is to find individual solutions for each person rather than a standardized approach. 

Solheim has been using the first few months of the Outreach program’s existence to build a map of clients, collect data, and establish a working plan for the summer. Currently, he and his team check in on clients about every two or three weeks. The primary goal is to find out what barriers are holding people back and how he can help them get into the Eddy House and on a path towards a job and stable housing. “We don’t want to be a cookie cutter program,” said Solheim.

Reporting and Photography by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

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New Protest Movement for Unhoused Begins in Reno

Waiting for the Next Step after Motel Voucher Program Seemingly Gets New Lifeline

“Currently, we are hanging out to see what happens and gauge the next step,” Erika Minaberry, an advocate for the houseless and a member of RISE said of the new protest movement on Tuesday afternoon.

Red and black flyers shared on social media earlier called it an “Occupy City Plaza” movement, demanding an end to police sweeps and asking for the establishment of a “sanctioned, autonomous safe camp.” The flyer also said it was to “provide a protective barrier around more than 50 women who have been evicted from temporary housing in motels.”

The Washoe County funded program was set up a few months ago through reimbursements to RISE. It’s to help some of the women on the waiting list at the new shelter for women, Our Place. That campus between Glendale and 21st Street run by the non-profit is already full. Yesterday an anonymous source told Our Town Reno RISE had run into cash flow problems to keep the program going, and were funding it themselves in emergency at least for last night.

“RISE does not have the resources to pay for motel rooms up-front,” Bethany Drysdale, the Media and Communications Manager for Washoe County, emailed us this morning. “However, Washoe County is working directly with lodging providers in the region to ensure that no one is deprived of shelter. We mirror the federal commitment to keep people housed, and will utilize FEMA reimbursement for motel vouchers.” Our anonymous source confirmed this was the case.

Drysdale also pointed us to the January 21, 2021 White House memo entitled “Memorandum to Extend Federal Support to Governors’ Use of the National Guard to Respond to COVID-19 and to Increase Reimbursement and Other Assistance Provided to States.”

A sign in table was set up and new donations were sought out. Photo by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno.

A Community Steps Up amid Winter and Shelter Uncertainties

The new movement comes as RISE long an advocacy movement has now also moved into coordinating part of the region’s shelter services with Our Place. It also closely follows a donation drive which led others being extended motel vouchers during a recent string of snow storms. Ground has been broken on a new super shelter at the old Governor’s Bowl location to be called the Cares Campus, but even though a media day for that is being planned for next month, there seems to be a lot of work left to do there.

Plans include a possible area for safe camping. Many people we interview without shelter repeatedly complain local shelters are for the most part too high barrier, with too many rules, too early forced wake ups, and too many restrictions on couples, presence of pets and amount of possessions one can have.

Safe camps and safe parking spaces have long been advocated to decriminalize those without stable shelter when they feel unsafe in regular shelters, unwanted there, or when the shelters are full.

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

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UNR's Marczynski Student Emergency Fund Assists Growing Group of Students in Need

“I’ve never seen so many students in need”

“The last five years have been pretty intense when it comes to financial stress to students,” explained Sandra Rodriguez, the director at the Center for Student Engagement. Back in 2009, amidst one of the worst economic recessions, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN) began noticing students dropping out of school and they wanted to find a solution. 

The president of the student body government created a fund to help students overcome periods of financial and/or emotional duress. Money was placed into a special account dedicated to assisting students who were struggling to make ends meet.

The former Associate Vice President of Student Life, Gerald Marczynski oversaw the fund, giving it its name. Along with his wife, Cynthia Marcyznski, the Director of the Counseling Center, the duo “were amazing about helping out students in need,” said Rodriguez. They helped students through trials of food insecurity, mental health troubles, and financial insecurity. Flash forward ten years and both Marczynskis retired in the summer of 2019. This was when the ASUN decided to make a greater effort to expand the fund and it formally became the Marczynski Student Emergency Fund.  

“As the cost of higher education goes up, I’ve never seen so many students in need,” Rodriguez said. She has over 30 years of experience working with students in higher education. She emphasized the needs are legitimate; things like housing, food, glasses, and prescriptions are all being requested. These are the tools helping students succeed in their academic endeavors. Since last year, the fund has grown immensely and she says has been a lifeline for many students in need. 

Results from the past three Civic Engagement Surveys at UNR show food insecurity by ethnicity; people of color are most affected over the past four years. Graphic shared by Center for Student Engagement with permission to use in this article.

A Quarter of Students Face Food Insecurity

“As of this last week, we’ve already had 90 applications for that account,” said Rodriguez, referring to the first week of the Spring semester. The pandemic has placed a seemingly boundless amount of stress on students. Every two years the university conducts a Civic Engagement Survey and last year, nearly 4000 students responded. The past three surveys, 2016, 2018, and 2020 have shown that nearly a quarter of students face food insecurity. 

Furthermore, students of color are more likely to be food insecure and face financial duress, compared to white students. As of the fall 2020 survey, 30% of students were uncertain that they could pay for tuition and fees for the current semester. Because of this the ASUN has also boosted both its Pack Provisions food pantry program and the Marczynski Student Emergency Fund. They have also begun targeting groups more likely to face financial and food insecurities. 

As the reach of the pandemic widens, the emergency fund is being put to the test. Rodriguez explained that any university student experiencing an emergency can apply for this fund. It begins with a quick survey found here. Once students fill out the short form they will be contacted within 24 to 48 hours for an expansive face-to-face, COVID safe interview by a member of the Dean of Students Office. 

“They work with the student to try and not only bridge the gap but then to connect them to resources that will help them get through the entire semester and get them back on track,” said Rodriguez. The assistant dean will look over the student’s work and seek to clearly understand the underlying problem for the student. 

There is a level of intense intervention that goes into play along with the funding. Counselors will look at all resources available to the student for ways to boost their success. Is there financial aid available? Are there campus jobs? 

“How successful is a student going to be if they can’t have the books they need to go to class,” questioned Rodrigeuz. The Dean of Students knows these emergencies can be the hair on the camel’s back for students. It becomes a choice of paying for tuition or eating. “That’s the value of the intrusive discussion between the Assistant Dean and the student in need,” said Rodriguez. Usually the need for financial assistance is immediate and because of this the turnaround time for receiving aid is oftentimes less than three days, rarely a full business week. In addition, during the application process, the Dean of Students will reach out to the involved parties to let them know of pending assistance.

Funding the Fund

The initial annual allotment of funds comes from the student government body and is around $43,000. As of December 2020, the ASUN was able to place another $57,000 in the fund. Money that would have gone towards various programming in a non-pandemic world, was redirected into relief funds, including the Marczynski Student Emergency Fund. Alumni Relations and Institutional Advancement also help run a fundraiser campaign every year to increase the fund’s value. 

“It is just amazing how generous the community has been,” said Rodriguez “in particular we’ve also had businesses who have found out about this campaign.” This campaign is currently underway and can be found here. At the time of our interview, the fundraiser had brought in almost $22,000. Rodriguez went on to explain that many donations have been between one and two thousand dollars. She explained there was no way ASUN could have kept up with the increased need the pandemic created. 

“You never know when we’re gonna find ourselves in need,” said Rodriguez. “I just really want the community to know of the existence of this fund and the fact that it’s named after two people who devoted 40 years in higher education to helping students in need, the fund exists, it is in place here to get the students through a rough patch.”

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

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A New Type of Toilet from Portland on the Truckee River

From Portland to Reno, Conceived to Withstand Abuse

The Reno Restroom project began with the idea to provide restrooms to anyone utilizing the Truckee River path, including people without stable shelter who often gather in areas along the water.

“There’s a lot of people, all involved,” said John Enloe, the project manager from Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA), of the process of getting just one of these Portland conceived bathrooms operational.

Enloe explained Renown Regional Medical Center provided a lot of in-kind contributions as well as financial aid. Other funding organizations include the collaborative organization called One Truckee River, the Washoe County Health District, and the City of Reno. Enloe said there is a long term goal to install 18 more of these types of restrooms on the path between Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake, even though it could be a while before a second one is installed.  

The Portland Loo was initiated in that city over ten years ago. According to its own website, the Portland Loo “has proven to be a durable and inexpensive solution to keep your city clean and crime-free.”

It’s not without its detractors though. According to the Portland Loo Wikipedia age, one police officer called it "(former Portland city commissioner) Randy Leonard’s crack house right there" and "a favorite nighttime destination for drug dealers and prostitutes, who conduct their business behind its closed door." This is a similar refrain to what some people say happens in Reno’s motels.

Enloe said another organization, the Truckee River Fund, which has money from water service rate payers, provided One Truckee River, a grant of almost $125,000 to begin the project here. Each restroom will cost a couple hundred thousand dollars and be connected to the existing water and sewer systems here in the Truckee Meadows. “A bathroom on steroids, if you will.” said Enloe.  

The restroom is open to the public during mostly daytime hours and available year round via a key code that unlocks the door. Smoking and vaping are not allowed inside, and it reopens after ten minutes of use.

“Designed to discourage less than savory acts”

Designed to be nearly indestructible and graffiti proof, these “Portland Loos” are constructed from special coated-stainless steel which also makes them easy to clean with a hose. The open wall panels allow anyone to see how many occupants are inside, helping to reduce crime and loitering. However, the slats are below knee level and above shoulder height and angled in a way that provides privacy. 

The toilets operate with low voltage, in fact low enough to be powered by solar panels. “It’s not a place people can hang out in,” explained Enloe. “It’s designed to discourage less than savory acts.” The plumbing is all wrapped with a heating element to prevent freezing in the cold winter months. At night, a small light illuminates the outside but switches to an interior light when occupied. 

Enloe said those without stable shelter have become some of the main users of the restroom, even though on a recent cold day, no one showed up to use it over a twenty minute period. “We are getting a tremendous response,” he said. “The response from the community that’s using them has been very positive.”

The restroom includes hand sanitizer, a sharps disposal, and a baby changing station. The open air design helps keep the facility’s odors down and ensures easy cleaning.

Trying to Keep the River Cleaner

“I think everybody is optimistic,” said Enloe about the community’s response to the restroom. “I’ve been on that bike path and been wondering, when’s the next restroom.” Enloe hopes the addition of these public restrooms will ultimately keep the river cleaner and safer for the community, leading ultimately to more use from the public. Anything that goes in the river, TMWA has to take out, Enloe said. Everything from soda to human waste, TMWA has to treat and remove in order to keep the quality of the water drinkable, something nearly half a million people benefit from.  

“Right now there are two more in the work,” noted Enloe. “We’re just finalizing the locations.” Potential locations include one closer to downtown and one near the end of Reno and the beginning of Sparks. These two restrooms, which will further serve the homeless community could be up and running within the next year if all goes according to plans. Enloe though anticipates the ongoing pandemic could cause delays. However, he says the funding has been secured and the final stage of design and selecting location is underway. 

Located on the outside is an easy to use handwashing station ensuring proper sanitization. This also decreases the amount of time people spend inside.

A Needed Amenity

“We really just want to prove it out and see that they’re used and that they’re practical,” said Enloe. He hopes the community will treat them well while utilizing them because that means less human waste will go into the river. “I think it’s a needed amenity,” Enloe said, “I think it’s better for everybody and better for the community.”

Other communities recently taking on Portland Loos as well include Athens, Georgia, Sacramento and Astoria, Oregon.

The blue light inside the typical Portland Loo is supposed to make it difficult for intravenous drug users to find a vein for injection, but alleged vandalism, drug use and drug deals inside bathrooms were one reason Chico abandoned a project for 24-hour downtown bathrooms. Reno’s first free Portland Loo is open just 12 hours.

Our Town Reno Reporting by Richard Bednarski

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Donors, RISE, Mutual Aid Group and Washoe County Step up with Motel Vouchers

Mary Gilbert and Wendy Wiglesworth have set up a sign up table at Deer Park so people in need can get newly available vouchers to sleep at motels until at least the end of the month, amid raging snow storms and freezing nights.

A Pressing Need, and Help Arrives

“So yesterday we received, a really huge donation from a semi anonymous donor, right and his goal was to match up to $20,000 in donations that were made through Facebook. As of this morning, we exceeded over $21,000 just from Facebook donations, as well as $10,000 from the private donor, which is included in the $21,000. Math is not my strong suit. People are my strong suit,” explained Mary Gilbert, who is part of the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality group known as RISE.

The donor has been identified on the Reno / Sparks Mutual Aid group as Patrick Sean Carter. He lists himself on Facebook as a “Poker Donk Extraordinaire. Derivatives price strategist” with a picture of himself leading a dog sled. We tried to friend him for an interview but did not hear back from him immediately.

RISE also operates the recently established Our Place shelter, on the corner of 21st St. and Glendale Ave., which currently has 102 beds for women. More than 50 women on the wait list for Our Place have already been given vouchers to stay at motels until the end of the month with money provided through a Washoe County program.

“Yesterday, our team started getting a little bit scared and stressed and worried that people were going to die in these elements,” Gilbert said of all the thousands of other people in our area sleeping in tents, cars, and along railroad tracks, alleyways, the Truckee River, and other hidden spots. “[Then] we received a call from one of the members of our team who let us know that she spoke with someone who wanted to donate $20,000 to get people into motel rooms and keep them out of these really gnarly, scary, unsafe elements. So as of last night, we in a rush got eight hotel rooms and we housed 12 adults and eight dogs. And as of today, we're hoping to at least triple or quadruple that.”

RISE has set up a table with forms for anyone who wants to get enrolled in the new program. Volunteers can gather there to help as well or spread the word that the informal intake center is at Deer Park. Recent figures have pointed to over 7,000 people in northern Nevada without stable shelter. Many avoid shelters saying there are too many rules and requirements, and that staff are not friendly. The new Our Place shelter for women is totally full.

“Basically at this point they just need to come down, bring their stuff,” Gilbert said of those who want to get a voucher. “We're hoping that some of the volunteers will be able to assist them with rides. We'll be doing like a quick intake process to make sure that they will be safe there. We'll also be providing them with local resources that might benefit them a little bit more than a temporary stay in a motel.”

Forms are ready for people to fill out if they want to get a free no questions asked motel room today through tomorrow at Deer Park in Sparks between F and 18th Street. “They are good for anyone. We are trying to get everybody as safe as possible and out of these elements as soon as possible,” Gilbert said of the vouchers. No ID is needed, and pets are welcome into certain rooms.

A Moment and Hope for Lasting Change

An Econo Lodge and a few Motel 6s have agreed to accept the vouchers, as well as other locally owned motels.

“We are currently trying to find additional places that are willing to house folks,” Gilbert said. “So far, we have reached out to the casinos in downtown Reno and they are not willing to house our unsheltered neighbors on a large scale.”

Wendy Wiglesworth who lived on the river herself has been doing outreach along the river, since late last night, to let people know of the emergency motel opportunity. Gilbert is hopeful this will start a new trend of caring and generosity for the unhoused in Reno.

“Honestly my hope is that this is just the beginning, that this is the catalyst that causes the community to start putting more money towards these things. My hope is that this starts like a chain reaction of folks wanting to donate more and more so that eventually we can get to a point where we can purchase our own place and, and be able to house folks on a regular basis instead of it only being for emergencies.”

Gilbert hopes with new money on hand they will be able to get over 20 rooms for a month. “Our hope is that with creative solutions that we can house more than 22 folks, for a much longer amount of time, we're creative, we're resilient, just like our unsheltered neighbors. This doesn't stop after the cold goes away. Community mutual aid has been something that we've been seeing a lot more of since the pandemic started. Regardless of the person they deserve shelter, more food and safety, and it's not just a city problem. It's not just a County problem. The reality is that we can't do anything without our community. It’s important to meet people where they're at never tell people that they should or shouldn't do something. It's walking with our neighbors and yeah, making sure that they're safe and feel welcome and make sure that they can trust us.”

Our Town Reno Reporting by Richie Bednarski on January 28, 2021

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Aric Coward, Housed By a Friendly Neighbor after being Pepper Sprayed at Shelter

Paula McDonough Offers A Free Room and Assistance

“I'm just confused why our government does that to people that can't do for themselves anymore,” Aric Coward said as he reflected on his overall situation, hoping he could get more than the $800 disability Social Security check he receives monthly. A problem getting that money for a few months led to a tailspin of going to the shelter, and then being pepper sprayed in the face when he says he didn’t get out of bed fast enough, moving slowly after three strokes.

We caught up with him sitting in the downtown Reno book-lined apartment living room of Paula McDonough, who has graciously offered him a free room for a while after hearing what happened to him.

“I was on a mat, I got pepper sprayed, I couldn’t see anything,” Coward remembers.

He says since then no one from the shelter or city has reached out to him to see how he’s doing. Advocates for the unhoused paid him a hotel room then a motel room and then McDonough offered free lodging at her place at the Arlington Towers on Arlington Ave..

“Houselessness has been an issue I've been involved with for at least 40 to 45 years,” McDonough, a former auditor in the casino industry, who has volunteered at shelters, told us during our visit. “It's nothing new to me.”

McDonough has long done whatever she could do to help the local community without stable shelter. To her, it was the least that could be done. McDonough said Coward is more than welcome to stay until he turns 65 in October and will be eligible to receive more Social Security and Medicare. She is currently working with local organizations to find him affordable housing and helped him get on several waiting lists, including for the Washoe Mills apartments, which have low-income rental assistance programs. 

Coward’s favorite pastime, he says, is walking along the Truckee river path, which he can now see from his room.

Seeking Legal Recourse

“He did say that his vision seems to be a little off, since he got pepper sprayed,” said McDonough, sitting in front of an unfinished puzzle. Coward is unhappy about the whole incident and wants to seek legal retribution. However, he was recently told by Washoe Legal Services he would not have a case unless there were expenses accrued as a result of being pepper sprayed. They suggested he seek justice through a personal injury attorney.

McDonough says she is working with her optometrist to see if they can check Coward for any damage to his vision that may have occurred from the pepper spray attack.

“I’m hoping that everybody can survive the year with everything that’s going on,” he said hinting at a bit of optimism. “Things like this should not go on. The city should not have any kind of dealings with these people that, you know, allow things like this to happen,” Coward said. “My main concern is I don't want this to happen to anybody else.”

Before driving Freightliners, Coward says he worked as lead custodian for the Cal Neva Casino. He really enjoyed the work but after a while came to realize it was not for him. He drove trucks for some time until he could not work anymore. He says he suffered one of his three strokes while driving, fortunately not hurting anyone. With a now mostly useless left arm and poor mobility, he has since struggled, but is grateful for all the help he is now receiving from compassionate neighbors and advocates for the unhoused.

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno in January 2021

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Lauren and Megha, High Schoolers Sharing the Warmth

From Blankets to Sustainable Help

When Lauren Adajar, now 15, was challenged two years ago in eighth grade by her teacher Ashley Ingle to come up with a project to make a difference, she came up with a blanket drive. 

“The topic I looked into was the housing crisis,” she remembers.  “I ended up doing some research and eventually what I came up with was a blanket drive, which looking back seems like a simplified version of trying to make a change. It’s very short term and not super sustainable but I saw a need and wanted to try and fill it,” she said. 

Adajar distributed the blankets she had collected, along with clothing and hygiene items, through a RISE event on 2nd Street.  “That was the first time I looked poverty in the eye,” she told Our Town Reno during a recent interview. “I spent several hours talking to this line of people that stretched well beyond the end of the block. I heard their stories. I was able to make connections. I was feeling completely overwhelmed. After the distribution, I sat in my room crying for an hour because I couldn’t handle what I had seen. I think that experience was important because it was the first exposition to this topic and these people. Poverty in general is a very hidden issue. I made the realization I wanted to do more. It shook me to my core.” 

Adajar has now teamed up with a school mate at Davidson Academy, Megha Tenneti, 14, who is a 9th grader.  Both had older siblings at the prestigious school for highly gifted students.  

Together they have created a Davidson Academy chapter of MEDLIFE, an international organization with roots in Peru, which provides medicine, education and development for low income families around the world.  Adajar’s sister is part of the UNR chapter.  

Tenneti’s personal drive to help the poor started in India where she visited her family as a child.  “You go on the streets and there’s just rows of homeless people. It was really heartbreaking to see.  I thought I couldn’t do anything,” she said. 

Now she does her research and makes frequent presentations.  “We have Powerpoints and lectures to educate people on the plethora of issues surrounding the cycle of poverty and that way everyone has an idea of how we can volunteer the best we can. We plan on becoming more action based after the pandemic starts going down a little,” Tenneti said. 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our interview was done over Zoom.

Inspired by Others, Seeking to Create a Youth Movement

Tenneti was also inspired by another school mate who started an organization to combat menstrual  inequalities called Red Equity.  In Reno, she also volunteers with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and RISE.

“Society treats [the poor] like they are … trash. It’s disgusting. They’re just normal people with experiences and we want to connect with them,” Tenneti said during our Zoom interview. “I wanted to focus on getting rid of those stigmas so that people can be comfortable and not have stigmas against a population. They are people and we can’t dehumanize them. We can’t treat them as less than.  We need to help them to create an environment of equality and equity. We need to look at ourselves as a community rather than ignoring them.” 

Moving forward, the two teenage students want to turn their initiative into a movement using social media and in person events.  Adajar has been using the #spreadthewarmth hashtag.

They want to unite students their age, “high schoolers who maybe don’t know the realities that some people are forced to face but want to know what lies beyond their bubble of privilege” Adajar said. 

“A lot of people are scared to reach out to local shelters,” Tenneti said of what blocks some high schoolers from also making an effort.

Tenneti is also thinking of reaching out to students struggling locally, even more acutely during the pandemic.

“We’re so privileged to go to this school and have this education that I think our whole goal is to basically educate ourselves, and how people our age, live in motels and don’t have access to proper education, have the resources they need. We’re getting out of our bubble.  We need to break out of it and recognize everyone,” she said. “We should also create safe environments where young students can get the resources they need.”

Right now, they are also organizing a new blanket drive, and even ready to pick up blankets from people wanting to donate directly.  They are open for messages on their Instagram which is called damedlife.

“There’s a long way to go, and we’re not trying to be like know it alls,” Adajar said to conclude our interview.  “We definitely don’t know everything and there’s things we will never know from our place. We’re trying to do the best we can to help people, to provide sustainable support and not make it a one and done situation.”

Our Town Reno Reporting

Sarah Blithe, Addressing Inequality and Enduring Stigma in Brothels and Legal Sex Work

Local Revelations, Academic Interests and Teamwork Lead to Award Winning Book

Sarah Blithe is no stranger to inequality and disparity in the workplace. As an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Nevada, Reno since 2012, her studies often involve how people’s identities can affect how they’re treated by their employer. A major and recent focus of her studies resulted in the release of Sex and Stigma: Stories of Everyday Life in Nevada’s Legal Brothels, which keeps winning her awards and also helps in court cases.

“I thought [brothels] would be a fascinating place to study,” Blithe said in a recent Our Town Reno interview, looking back on her work’s trajectory. “So we called the brothels and did participant observation in many brothels across the state. We did interviews with sex workers, brothel owners and other people who were involved like bartenders and security people. That led us to just this really fascinatingly rich study that has carried on for a few years now.”

Published in January 2019, Sex and Stigma has since received five national and academic book awards. Blithe’s book, co-authored with Anna Wiederhold and Breanna Mohr, was the culmination of a research project that began in 2013. 

The idea for the project started when Blithe attended camel races in Virginia City with her children in 2012. While her kids were up front looking at the camels, Blithe saw a work email with a call for articles on hidden organizations by the Management Communication Quarterly journal.

“I thought, ‘Wow, that's so cool, I wish I had something to study,’” Blithe said. “The announcer was also making really lewd comments about the women riding the camels and I realized that that particular race was sponsored by one of the brothels. I was new to Reno at this point and I thought, ‘Gosh, this is really interesting and maybe I should study the brothels. It fits in with my interest in organizations and gender inequalities.”

Blithe then paired up with Wiederhold, an expert in community organizing who was also at UNR at the time. They started their data collection efforts in 2013 and after a full year of research, an interesting development occurred with the project. 

“I was working with one of my undergraduate students at the time and I asked her if she would be my research assistant because she was just a standout student and a remarkable writer,” Blithe said of when she offered a list of research projects she was looking for help on. “She then said, ‘Well, I really want to work on the brothel one, but you should know that I worked there.’”

Although the first round of data collection happened before the student came on, she was then included as a full co-author on the project. 

“After our student came in, she decided she wanted to do some additional interviews with people who had left the brothels,” Blithe said. “She then facilitated a second round of data collection where we spoke with women who worked [in the brothels], but then left and were doing something else for whatever reason.” An auto ethnographic chapter written by the student was also included in the published book. 

Book Makes Appearances in Recent Court Cases

Since publication, Blithe has been impressed by the different ways her research has been used within the legal sex work industry. 

“Since publication, our book has been used in some of the court hearings about whether or not brothels should have a ‘lock-down’ policy,” Blithe said, referring to the practice of women being unable to leave brothel grounds while under contract. “In the book we argue pretty strongly that lockdown is illegal and a discriminatory practice that some of the brothels do. I feel the best outcome of the book is that now in almost all of the brothels, there is no lockdown policy anymore.”

A key point in disputing traditional lockdown policies is that legal sex workers are independent contractors, not employees. 

“This means that whoever is contracting their services, doesn't get to tell them when or how many hours they work,” Blithe said. “[Workers] can't leave at all for the time that you're on contract, which might be two weeks and for one woman I met, it was three years. They can go outside, they could be on the brothel ground, but they have these rules that restrict their movement and their mobility.”

Another outcome from the book’s publishing was its use as evidence to support that human or sex trafficking isn’t happening in the brothels. 

“Nevada is the only place with legal brothels so this is not just a local concern, but I would say there's a [national] concern that there's trafficking happening in the brothels,” Blithe said. “But our research did not find any evidence of trafficking. It's certainly not widespread or rampant as people who are anti-brothel would suggest.”

Blithe does point out that sex trafficking is a significant problem in our society, but reaffirms that it’s not as prevalent in legal sex work, as opposed to illegal sex work. 

“There’s a bit of a moral panic going on about sex trafficking and it is a real problem,” Blithe said. “But it's just not as associated with legal sex work as it is with illegal sex work. In the illegal [sex work] context, it's a different version of the same occupation, so I would say that was one myth that our research dispelled a bit.”

Long Term Stigma and Complexities

A main finding of the book was revealing the stigma long attached to the women who work in the brothel, while brothel owners are elevated as quasi-mythical figures.

“There are businesses who won't work with [female sex workers], they sometimes have a hard time getting car loans, housing applications approved, that sort of thing,” Blithe said. “At the same time, the brothel owners are kind of like celebrities, they actually enjoy a positive status associated with their role. One of our main findings was looking at the way that stigma isn't applied equally across all people who are associated with brothels.”

Another thing that stood out to Blithe was the variety of transferable skills utilized by the women involved in legal sex work, yet the stigma from their occupation is a barrier if they try to exit the industry.

“Many of the women that have built these incredible skill sets: sales, negotiation and communication,” Blithe said. “They have all kinds of really amazing skills and sometimes that doesn't translate if they want to exit the industry, they find it hard because of the stigma associated with their occupation to describe what they can do in terms of getting another job.”

Another aspect of her research for the book covered the work-life balance of the women.

“Many of the women who work [at brothels] are moms and many of them said that work-life balance is one of the reasons why they've picked this particular occupation,” Blithe said. “So maybe they work a month out of the year and then they don't work for 11 months, which for some of the women really helped them achieve work-life balance and in ways that are kind of creative and outside of the traditional box about work-life balance.”

For Blithe, who did not have much exposure to brothels prior to her research, she found a wide variety and diversity in both the women who worked there, as well as their reasons for working in brothels.

“You see people who are completely outside of what you would have expected in terms of a wide range of ages, all different types of races and ethnicities, different ways that women choose to present their identities,” Blithe said. “There's a lot more diversity in different reasons why women work there. Many of the women who work there are really satisfied with [legal sex work] as a career, they’re doing it as a sales career or because it is satisfying something personal about them and their sexual desires.”

A More Nuanced Picture

Blithe said for many legal sex work is a chosen career women take pride in.

“It's not all just about survival, for many people this is a chosen or selected career that they take great pride in and don't want to bear the stigma of people looking down on them for something as if they were forced to do it when this is, in fact, a career that they enjoy and they're excelling,” Blithe said. 

Blithe suggests that the book has been well received by the community since its release due to its balanced approach to the legal sex work industry. 

“What we're trying to do in the book is paint a more nuanced picture [of the legal sex work industry],”  Blithe said. “We try to provide a variety of evidence and to create a well-rounded picture of what's going on in the brothels rather than a book that was coming out trying to persuade people to go one way or the other. So I think that's why it's been pretty well received by people on all sides of this issue.”

Challenges and Risks of the Pandemic

Blithe also mentioned that women who work at the brothels, much like many workers across the country, have been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“That already has been really problematic,” Blithe said of brothels being forced to shut down, mentioning the legal challenges of collecting small business unemployment for many of the women who may not have created an LLC for their contracted services. “I think there are definitely women who have been turning back to illegal sex work, while others are riding it out on their savings and those who are trying to find different occupations and use this as a turning point in their careers, which is also something that the brothel owners are concerned about,” Blithe said.

Blithe is particularly concerned for the women who may have turned to non-sanctioned sex work during the pandemic. 

“It's much more dangerous to perform sex work in hotels or on streets than it is in brothels,” Blithe said. “So that's a concern, not having any income at all is a concern. This pandemic has been very hard on this particular industry because the brothels really see themselves as providing a service to the community. So they have been pushing to try to reopen, without much success right now.”

All things considered, Blithe and her coauthors believe Sex and Stigma is just one step forward in addressing the stereotypes placed on legal sex workers. 

“People tend to get hung up on stereotypes and stigma and there are so many accusations and ugly words that people associate with women who work in the brothels,” Blithe said. “If we could help somehow reduce the stigma and misperceptions that people put out into the world, it would help make this particular occupation less oppressive. Whether you like it or not, this is a legal occupation and it deserves to have the same rights that other occupations are afforded in the state.”

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Aric Coward, A Victim of Alleged Pepper Spray Attack by Guard at Homeless Shelter in Reno

Coward says the alleged attack took place two days ago, Monday morning around 7:30 a.m., when he was told to wake up, and when he didn’t immediately move he said, after words were exchanged, a guard from the Allied Universal company, which has a multitude of local security contracts, pepper sprayed him in the face. Coward says his eyes still burn two days later, his face still feels heat and that his already poor vision has gotten blurrier and hurts when he looks at the bright sky too long.

“Hopefully, I’m going to be ok,” he said, though still feeling traumatized at what allegedly happened.

Our Town Reno contacted Volunteers of America which coordinates the shelter’s operations, but their phone number does not answer and says their voice mail is unattended to.

Our Town Reno then received an email from Linda Grace, the VOA Regional Development Officer, stating the accused security guard would no longer work at the site.

“VOA’s top priority is the health and safety of our guests, residents, and staff The incident that occurred early on December 21, 2020, at the shelter on 4th street was immediately brought to the attention of VOA management,” Grace wrote in her statement.

”VOA immediately reported the incident through proper channels to the City of Reno, as they oversee both VOA’s contract and Allied Security. The police were called, and VOA asked that the security guard involved in the incident be immediately removed from service at the shelter, and any other VOA locations. VOA has been assured that the security guard in question will not be returning to our program site. Volunteers of America-NCNN serves close to 1,000 individuals every day through a variety of programs VOA cares for people who feel abandoned, who have given up all hope. We care for men struggling with homelessness, veterans, low-income seniors, the working poor, families, and individuals suffering from mental health issues. Our first priority is the health and safety of our guests.”

Later Wednesday, the Corporate PR Manager for Allied Universal Security Services, Vanessa Showalter, based in Santa Cruz, also sent us an email saying the accused guard had been suspended. “ We are aware of an incident that occurred between one of our security professionals and an individual,” the emailed statement said. “The security professional involved was suspended pending an investigation. Our security professionals complete on-going training to help ensure that we uphold top security standards in order to serve, secure and care for the people and businesses of our communities. Since this is an on-going investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

Coward said the same security guard had harassed him the previous day before the alleged pepper spray attack, and when seeing him again still in bed Monday morning, allegedly said “Oh, it’s you again.” Coward says he can barely move, having suffered three massive strokes over the past 15 years, and so it’s impossible for him to react quickly. “First he was being nasty and aggressive, and then next thing you know I get pepper sprayed in the face,” he remembers.

Coward said he’s had a very difficult 2020 already, with his Social Security benefits having stopped for several months, until he got help from a friend and a lawyer. He says he started getting his $800 a month again recently but that it’s not enough to afford stable shelter.

A former truck driver, Coward says he’s been more or less homeless since he suffered his first stroke over a decade ago, and that he’s been unable to return to work since.

“I’m scared to even walk out in the streets,” he said, when we asked if we could meet him in person. He didn’t know what he would do after leaving the Sands, but said “as sure as hell, I won’t be going back to that shelter.”

“I don’t understand what the hell is going on,” he added. “I’m at a complete loss. I want that man arrested.”

Coward said a complaint had been filed at the shelter, but he didn’t know what will follow. He says he’s extremely thankful for the whistleblower and the advocate who are helping him. “It’s nice to know there are still people like that out there,” he said.

Of being offered a night at the Sands, he said “I slept comfortably. I didn’t feel someone was going to attack me.” Of future nights up ahead, when he will avoid the shelter? “I’m leaving that to the man upstairs,” he said.

Our Town Reno reporting on December 23rd, 2020

Darius, Struggling without an ID and Local Recovery Programs

New Tent Daytime Services Welcome

“I typically come here to take a shower and I eat here. I come here [for] lunch and dinner,” Darius said of the new big tent shelter area on East 4th street.  “Currently, I'm homeless. I got my own little camping set up, but here they got places for people to sleep, shower, and food.”

He said he’s thankful for this new sleeping option, with added benefits of daytime use for meals, shade, bathrooms and showers.

“It's a good thing that they are here. It's a lot of people homeless. It's a lot of people who [aren’t] in the right mental state or whatever. And some of them don't know how to take care of themselves. Some of them will sleep anywhere. “

He said he’s found ways to get early morning day labor without needing an ID, which he says was recently stolen.

“My plans is to keep working at this one job that I'm working in. My ID was recently stolen. I just could go there by five in the morning. That's what I'm doing. It's the only place I can work right now because of my ID situation. “

“Reno isn't bad at all. There’s plenty of jobs here. There's helpful resources here that I know of so far,” Darius said of his overall situation, even if he did point out some frustrations with how a recovery program he thought about is seemingly set up.

“Hell to Get a new ID” and Housing

“It's been hard, especially during this COVID-19,” Darius said of trying to get a new ID to replace his stolen one. “The DMV is shut down. When I had a few hundred dollars a few weeks ago that I had saved up and I was online actually trying to figure it out, how I can order my ID for my driver's license from Arizona. And it was just terrible, the website is not user friendly and you know, I'm stuck out here. I can't really do much without my ID, so it's terrible.”

He says he’s been thankful for getting some work, but that' it’s not enough to get his own housing.
”[This guy] paid me on a little debit card thing or whatever, you know, it's been getting me by, but it ain't life changing, it’s not getting me off the streets, but it's money in my pocket. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's better than nothing.”

He says he’s also tried to get into a sobriety program by the downtown shelter but that he disagrees with the way it appears to be set up.

“ I tried to get in there because I just got tired of living in my tent. I drank a lot. I want to quit drinking. I'm only 27. This is ain't my life. This ain't me at all. So I walked in them doors and I asked, ‘Hey ma'am do you guys have any open beds? How can I get in the program? She said, ‘yeah, man, just fill out an application and we'll get back with you.’ But then she told me you have to work 40 hours a week and you don't get paid for that. That basically pays your housing. And I find that kind of weird and it doesn't really make sense that you guys have worked a contract to send people to work 40 hours a week where they don't get paid, but right next door and the buildings are literally connected, right next door, it’s a homeless shelter where people need work and they don't have contracts for work. And I find that a problem right there. I find that kind of weird. And it's like, it's proof that we live in a backwards ass society. Excuse my language.” 

Often, city and county officials will talk about “aid-resistant” citizens, or people on social media will say people living in tents refuse services. But what if the services are unclear or don’t feel fair to those thinking about getting them?

Food aid is easily accessible, but many people on the streets such as Darius complain about the complexity or the rules of local recovery programs.

Why not Day Labor Jobs Offered at Homeless Shelters?

“Right next door, these guys got jobs, but they're telling people that the only way you can live here, if you work for 40 hours a week. That's slavery, if you asked me, so that's the only issue,” Darius told us of why he isn’t too sure about signing up yet for the local recovery program he says he thought about getting into.

“I don't even know. It's a bunch of little things just in that same category. If you ask me that’s not really trying to help people out the situation, but it is just basically using them and getting government grants. I mean, I don't know for sure,  but I'm pretty sure.  I would like to see a lot of places that have day labor jobs and stuff like that. I would like to see a lot of their contracts go to the homeless shelter. At the homeless shelter where  there’s a lot of able bodied, men and women that's in the right state of mind, they just need work and they don't have contracts,” he told us as a way of a simple solution.

“People just only want to keep getting richer. They don’t want to help figure out how to really fix the problem,” he said as we concluded our interview.

Reporting and Photography by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Anonymous Under 21 Stripper Speaks Her Mind on Still Pending Lawsuit Against Reno

One of the strippers in the lawsuit felt that her well-being and the other women were not part of the conversation when Reno placed the new restrictions on strip clubs. “Seriously, I had a stable living, I was receiving a steady paycheck, but Reno thinks I’m gonna be better off unemployed. Like they actually think I’m gonna be safer without money.”

The lawyer in the case Mark Thierman told Our Town Reno the case is still ongoing but proceeding very slowly due to COVID-19.

In her interview, the stripper said she learned how to take care of herself at a very young age, and stripping was a way for her to maintain a sense of consistency in her life. 

She is aware that her career choice may not earn everyone’s approval, but she says no one has the right to judge her. “I feel like the law was placed on us because people have their religious morals and feel the need to convert anyone they disapprove of, but I’m not like embarrassed by what I do.”

She says the choice to become a stripper was her choice and that if you disapprove of her lifestyle, then ignore it. “The dictating of moral code is my main f***** issue,” she said.

She said she does not feel protected by the new restrictions; instead, she feels judged. “If they really wanted to protect us, they would regulate the people who come to the club sometimes, like we are seriously being punished for our ‘protection.’”

The city of Reno placed the new regulations on the strippers in April 2019 stating they were performing in an environment where alcohol is served only for those aged 21 and over. The Reno City Council also voted to remove private booths, require brighter lighting and increase the amount of video surveillance in strip clubs, amid ongoing back and forth discussions of the place of strip clubs in the Biggest Little City going forward.

Mark Thierman, the lawyer defending the strippers in the lawsuit, says the new stipulations are infringing on the stripper’s First Amendment rights.

The stripper we interviewed agreed. “When I danced the entire routine was mine, it wasn’t like anyone else’s.”

Reporting by Gracie Gordon for Our Town Reno

Denise Cook, In the Middle of Bed Bugs, Divided Donations and Social Media Firestorms

Raising the Alarm on Donations Not Received

From for profit recovery homes to foster care, to pawn shops and easy loans, from GoFundMe scams to fake panhandlers, the so-called poverty industry is rife with opportunities to take advantage of another’s misery for monetary gain.

Locally and recently, there were accusatory back and forth comments on Facebook about helping or profiting from cancer survivor, Section 8 housed, Medicaid and Social Security assisted, Sparks resident, Denise Cook, who has a blog called Help me! I’ve fallen and can’t get up!

In May, Cook posted a video of bed bugs crawling around her residence at The Lofts Apartments on the Facebook page of the Reno/Sparks mutual aid group.  She said the problem had persisted for over three years, despite regular sprayings. This time, after the community’s shock, a more radical approach was taken. 

“I was out of my apartment for seven weeks and they were supposed to get rid of the bedbugs,” Cook told Our Town Reno in a recent phone interview. “And then they literally gutted the apartment. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that could have been saved, but they just didn't want to bother with it.”

It was election season and incumbents seeking re-election in both Reno and Sparks rushed to help as Cook was put in a temporary apartment.  A challenger in her Sparks ward, Wendy Stolyarov also checked in, helping with support and purchases she needed.  It was a chaotic time as Cook’s cat hid and then likely ran away and much needed items such as her mobility scooter had to be left behind or were left behind unwillingly in all the rush and newfound focus to finally get her apartment rid of bed bugs. 

Previous attempts by Cook to get help through different legal organizations, government offices, her own GoFundMe attempts, media, Nextdoor and social service agencies had been unsuccessful but now it seemed she was finally being helped by caring neighbors and community leaders. They took over directing the help and seeking out donations rather than the mutual aid group.

Cook, who is in her fifties, says she also made new friends. “ [Community support] was amazing. It was just overwhelming with people being nice and helping and people did a lot of stuff to help me. Like I'm a plus-size and it's hard to find clothes in my size and people went and bought clothes for me and stuff. So that was really nice because when I left, I wasn't allowed to take any clothes, just what I absolutely had to have, like meds and stuff and it was incredible.”  

A previous fundraiser Cook organized for herself, using the same visual as on her blog, had not gotten very far, before a post on a mutual aid group did get lots of attention.

Many Setbacks Despite all the Help

The bugs were still a problem though.  “They did a heat treatment. And so you would think that would have gotten rid of the bugs before they moved me back in, but they didn't. So I still have that. It's not as many, but I still have them,” Cook said in our recent interview. “So all of that was done, all this, losing everything I owned or nearly everything I owned. And then I'm back in the same situation where I'm still dealing with bugs and it's incredibly frustrating,” Cook said over the phone.

Donation accounts had also been set up to help her, but that set off divisions and allegations of theft of what was intended to help her.

“I never saw it. I have no idea,” Cook told us of some of the donations. “They raised money through Facebook, mostly I know of two donations outside of Facebook that were sent through PayPal.”

She says a well known person in the mutual aid community we tried to interview, but who never got back to us to respond to the allegations, used her own accounts to receive some of the donations. Cook says this woman also kept telling her that her left behind items would be replaced and that new ones would arrive.

Cook says the woman also threatened to sue her for libel after she started writing about these developments, including allegations she only received about half of the more than $5,000 she estimates was raised for her.

“There's no way for anybody other than her to know how much she raised, because it didn't go through a platform. It went directly to her,” Cook told us.

Others in the mutual aid community corroborated these accounts, while some took the side of the accused woman, saying Cook was exaggerating her problems.

“She said it was pro bono and that the funds were supposed to be used to help me,” Cook told Our Town Reno. “Somebody at one point said something about me getting gift cards. And I said I hadn't received any gift cards. And so because sometimes people say something and I don't know if they're just asking or if they're asking because they donated that and they're checking to see if I got it. But it seemed like people had donated gift cards, but I didn't get them,” she said. 

We couldn’t get this accused person’s version so we decided not to publish her name, but it’s unfortunate that a story of a community coming together to help Denise Cook went so sour, that her cat disappeared, that she lost so many possessions in the ordeal, that she feels donations meant for her were never received, that she had to deal with new problems when items disappeared, that people in the mutual aid community got so angry at each other and that bed bugs that set it all off apparently remained.

“I don’t know what to do,” she recently posted on her blog. “I’ve spent everything I had on trying to replace things, and it’s all for nothing. I want to scream, and just shake people who wronged me. I’m not going to DO that, but sure want to.”

She also says her apartment’s management should also be responsible for some of her losses due to the persistent bed bugs. 

After the story was published the mutual aid group released this statement in the comment section: “We would like to clarify the anonymous person referenced in this story is not an admin, moderator, or affiliated with our group, Reno/Sparks Mutual Aid. Further, our group was one of many that assisted with the effort to help but were not spearheading it. The fundraiser on Facebook was not started by us nor did anyone on our moderation or admin team have access to it.

We believe that aftercare is a necessary part of mutual aid, and know that many members of our group became friends with Denise, including our founder. We cannot comment on the person who collected donations. We are heartbroken that Denise is still dealing with the same situation and ask the Reno Housing Authority to act swiftly as promised in many emails sent to Denise over the years.

Finally, those hoping to find Denise’s cat should like Help Bring Mama Cat Home for more information.”

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Cowboy Tom, from Cook in the Air Force to Cookies for Kindness in Reno

From Donated Cookies to Full on Meal Donations

Thomas Hill, the high energy hero of Reno behind Cookies for Kindness, also known as “Cowboy Tom” recently orchestrated the donation of 700 Thanksgiving dinners. These dinners included everything needed to make a full dinner for four people. Hill also included his own cooking tips he has cultivated over the years from his previous time as a cook in the Air Force. 

As a disabled veteran ,severely injured in a car accident, Hill says he understands the importance of helping others.

In a recent interview with Our Town Reno, Hill explained that in 2018 he started selling cookies he made to supplement his income, and that Cookies for Kindness resulted from surplus he wasn’t selling, as he was now handing out free cookies to the homeless and seniors at his low-income housing complex.

“It was so many seniors,'' Hill said from his workspace in the cafeteria of the Bridge Church on Foster Dr.. “[Some were] on oxygen at the time and they couldn’t cook anymore, so I would put out cookies in the lobby.”

His signature recipe is a banana-doodle cookie. His cookies became so popular he soon began to sell out and had over 25 events booked for 2020. His business now included catering, cooking for large scale events and fundraisers. He had plans to replace his beat-up truck, which he spends a lot of time on maintaining, with a van that had his logo on it. He had plans to grow his business to facilitate more donating. Then came the pandemic and with it, Hill lost business and his supplemental income.

Hill is adept at pouring his energy into social media and networking, as well, leading to more meals for organizations.

Helping Even More During the Pandemic

As the pandemic put a halt on paid opportunities, Hill decided to put his skills to helping those in need. Over the course of the year, he estimates he has donated over 8,000 meals along with putting together 150 backpacks with school supplies for local kids in need.

Hill networks with other non-profits knowing that when they combine forces, the impact is far greater than the sum of the parts. He used this network to facilitate his hugely successful Thanksgiving donation. Hill was able to gather turkeys, stuffing, celery, gravy, and other items—all from local grocery stores and sources. He is most proud of organizing the donation of a 53 foot refrigerated trailer from ITS Logistics to help store the food. In addition to these meal kits, Hill also cooked and served 160 hot meals for the homeless on Thanksgiving day.

This year, Hill has also been cooking for the Eddy house, a local safe house and organization that helps at-risk youth develop independence, averaging almost a dozen meals a month, including healthy breakfasts. He also began helping seniors on Indian reservations. “I was able to put together 150 care packages that included things like sanitizer, masks, and whatnot. As well as big bags of food for them. It worked out really well,” he said.

Looking forward, Hill has plans to spend his Christmas cooking for Casa de Vida, which provides support for young pregnant women. He wants to craft a special dinner for them complete with decorations and delicious food. Hill thrives in these settings when he can pour his creativity into cooking and help people in need. He says he enjoys seeing the smiles his food brings them. “I believe if we all just take a deep breath, be kind to one another, we can pull anybody that’s down up and help everybody out in the community.”

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

Brandon Deriso, From Concert Promoter to Open Mic Studios and the RenoCast Podcast

Building a Podcast Studio in the Ruins of a Pandemic

With a background as a concert promoter, putting Reno on the map seems to have always come naturally to Brandon Deriso. Also as a small business owner with experience in a variety of industries, he knows what it takes to make things happen in the Biggest Little City. So when the COVID-19 pandemic overtook the country with its subsequent economic fallout for small businesses like Deriso’s, he immediately began looking for his next big project.

“Between concerts and the coffee [shop] and having a street food cart, COVID pretty personally attacked me [economically],” Deriso said during a recent interview with Our Town Reno after he approached us for a possible partnership. “So I was sitting around for a few months trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do with my time and I thought, ‘Well, I've got some contacts with some rock stars. I've got some contacts with some people that can do some cool things. Maybe I should just talk about that for awhile, while people are sitting at home listening.’”

With that, Open Mic Studios was recently built and launched on East 2nd St. Installed with five microphones and phone-in capabilities, Open Mic Studios was made to adapt to users’ needs by functioning like a live terrestrial radio station or for pre-recorded podcasts. Deriso’s goal is to create a space that suits the needs of the community, a goal resembled by his recently-released local podcast: RenoCast.  The podcast has been producing a steady clip of episodes, but the existing location is now being lost.

“The first thing that the studio put together was called RenoCast,” Deriso said. “I never had any aspirations of being a podcaster. But what was happening is people were coming in to check out what we're doing over here and they'd want to start their own podcast, but sometimes they would need like an active listener so I just started sitting in the seat and backing people up and I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be like a thing that has to happen.’”

Being Booted Out

Things were going well for his new studio initially during a turbulent year, as Deriso started bringing people into the studio to be featured on RenoCast, including City Councilwoman Naomi Duerr and Tyre Gray, President of the Nevada Mining Association. 

“So some really cool people just kind of came out and it was just all personality pieces,” Deriso said. “It was like, ‘Who are you in our community? What do you do? What are we doing here? What's it been like to live in Reno?’ So these things came out pretty cool with these personalities.”

All of that changed, however, when Deriso was notified by Basin Street Properties that he would have to vacate the studio space in favor of a gym being built in the same space. Open Mic Studio has existed for nearly six months under a licensing agreement, not a lease, which means the building is legally able to make Deriso vacate the space. Nonetheless, the notice came as a shock to Deriso, who had paid his rents in full and ahead of time despite the pandemic, as he intended to utilize the space for years to come. 

“I was shocked, to be honest,” Deriso wrote in a subsequent email correspondence with Our Town Reno. “Up until this, the building and staff have been somewhat supportive of our efforts. This however, is just such a slap in the face. I let [Basin Street Properties] know up front that I was going to pay ahead and weather the pandemic storm in the hopes that after it was over, we could discern if any concessions were needed and warranted.”

The decision by Basin Street Properties to make him vacate in favor of a gym, Deriso says, will lead to him moving his coffee shop out of the building as well. 

“I might understand if they were doing something meaningful with the space, but they’re going to destroy this already iconic radio studio, evict a paying tenant, and lose another lease in the process, all to build a gym for the building. I don’t even think gyms can be open during all this, can they?” Deriso wrote.

“Secondarily, most of the tenants in the building have already vacated as well. The offices upstairs, which outside pandemic would have hundreds of people there daily, are almost completely vacant. I attempted to open the coffee shop and it was more costly to keep it open than closed. So I paid all that rent knowing I’d be closed, just to keep my relationship strong with the landlord, only to be pushed out of the one space that actually was functional.” 

While staying local, Open Mic Studios is increasingly looking to online, remote possibilities due to the pandemic, but is also thinking of reviving the in person vibe.

Thinking of Live Podcast Recording

Now, Deriso is exploring his options on where to take his studio next. One idea has been to transition to a live-podcast format. 

“We’ve been toying with the live format for a while now and this will give us a good reason to follow through with that,” Deriso wrote. “Reno can expect to enjoy podcasts recorded with a live audience hosted by Virginia Street Brewhouse very soon. We haven’t even announced the move yet and already we have a couple of options for a new location. We have a lot of art in that little 200 sq. ft. space and wherever we go next needs to be prepared to become as Reno-famous as the Awful Awful.”

Despite these recent challenges in having to change locations, Deriso aims to have the studio utilized the same way a record label functions with musicians. A platform like this is particularly important now, Deriso says, considering how much the city is changing not only on the ground-level, but also in the eyes of the world.  

“Reno is starting to really show its influence on the outside world,” Deriso said. “This town has so much character, so much personality that when people come here, you can't help but fall in love with the charm. That's why I think it's a little dangerous when we start projecting to the outside world to move here, because you can really destroy that little shining thing in the center that makes us what we are, [represented by] that little star that sits on top of the arch. That [star] is not there by accident, that's what the heart of this city looks like.”

Deriso is having to move his whole setup, but he is used to change while remaining set on Reno’s potential.

Making Amends with the Past

Deriso knows the value of the small-town charm Reno offers, particularly because he admits he’s taken it for granted in the past. 

“I really damaged this community before,” Deriso said, in part from his time as an influential concert-promoter. “At some point in my life, I was really wreaking havoc on my relationships and the people who cared about me and I didn't know what I was doing. [Today, I] look back and go, ‘Wow, you were the villain in your own story,’ and I've gotten to this place where I can accept that.”

Reno is a generational town, Deriso says, which is represented by his own family roots, as both of his parents grew up and lived in the Biggest Little City. Therefore, when you fracture relationships in a town like this, it takes time to redeem them, he explained. 

For Deriso, his roller-coaster experience with Reno began when his father was murdered, when Deriso was in his early 20s. At the time, Deriso had a good-paying job and was a member of a local band.  in 2005, a Sparks man was found guilty of first-degree murder with willful intent of walking into the house of his father, Miles Deriso, and shooting him.

“So this major thing happened and suddenly I became aware of just the normalcy of the office and how that functioned and how people were, and that just wasn’t for me,” Deriso said. “So I quit that job and I went to work at Club Underground and I was in there all the time.”

Deriso became the manager, in part because of the number of people his band was drawing in. Seeing the potential in Reno’s live-music scene, Deriso shifted Club Underground’s direction away from a nightclub vibe, to one more geared toward live music. Inadvertently, Deriso’s career as a concert promoter then began when he made an offer for the heavy-metal band Mushroomhead, to play at the club in early 2004.

“[Mushroomhead] accepted my offer and it was not really a large offer, which was the best part because suddenly we had this massive turnout with a fairly high ticket price and the bar ring was huge,” Deriso said.  

Going National and Having Problems at Home

Then in 2005, Deriso booked a co-headline show with Shiny Toy Guns and The Rapture, which also turned out to be a hot ticket in Reno. At the same time, however, he was also contacted by a band called Clutch. When Deriso was told if he was going to book Clutch at Club Underground, that he’d have to make the deal on his own, Deriso took a gamble and went forward with the deal anyway. 

“I took the Clutch show myself and you have to understand how stupid that actually was, because I had no money that I was guaranteeing these guys,” Deriso said. “But I put the tickets on sale the day I confirmed [the booking] and the tickets sold out in 37 minutes.”

Just like that his career as a successful concert promoter was launched as he went on to organize over 300 shows a year in various markets. Deriso soon found himself involved in 2,800 live productions in 44 cities across the country over the next few years. In 2012, he even booked and oversaw Andre Nickatina’s nationwide Where’s My Money Tour, featuring Prof. 

These high-profile commitments, however, in turn led to the fracturing of some of his relationships at home in Reno.  “What starts to happen is this: this nice young kid is getting all this attention and people want stuff from him and he wants stuff from them and so it sort of was this like moving a needle [away] from being a good guy,” Deriso said. 

People would often reach out to him, looking to hang out or grab a lunch someplace. When Deriso started passing on these opportunities and taking old friends for granted, he says he felt like that’s when things really took a turn.

“That little dismissal of a relationship is the catalyst for all of it,” Deriso said. “That extends far and wide when you do things that harm relationships. That's the part that people struggle with the most because when you're damaging a relationship, like if I smack you in the face, it's a pretty clear response of what happens. But if I'm like, ‘I'm over you, why don't you go ahead and go now.’ What do you even do with that?’”

Shortly thereafter, then, Deriso says he hit a low point. But it was also a time that he met his wife, found his faith and has been working to make amends with the city of Reno ever since. He says he’s only able to do so today because of his understanding of what’s already been done. 

“I was in a lot of pain because most of these relationship damages were done amongst people at home, people that were investing money into my company or people that were trying to be my friend, so that's still a struggle,” Deriso said. “The first way to overcome that, when you're so painfully fully aware of who you were, that there’s only one option for who you can be and where you can go. That [understanding is] helpful because this town has been a little forgiving and it's also been a little unforgiving.”

Deriso is behind a wide range of initiatives locally, working to keep culture and the entrepreneurial spirit alive in the Biggest Little City.

Paying it Forward

After his concert promotion success, Deriso went on to own local a women’s fitness studio and his perspectives changed even more. Now, he says, he doesn’t see employees as working for him, but working with him. He wants to find a way to pay it forward, in a sense, by creating opportunities like having university students and other community members at his new Open Mic Studios. 

Now that he’s eight years removed from that low-point in his life, he says he just wants what’s best for the city of Reno, particularly as it continues to change and evolve. Sometimes that brings him into the foray of city politics, where he admits being vocal in this most recent election cycle. He wrote an opinion piece which was published on This is Reno last year, criticizing Mayor Hillary Schieve and a now disappeared Reno centric Facebook page. Although change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Deriso hopes Reno can maintain the core of the character it’s always had. 

“Over the years, thinking back to the mid-to-late 90s to now, even that evolution is very noticeable and you find yourself as an old-Reno type trying to fight for what looks like old Reno, against people who are saying, ‘This is progress,’” Deriso said.

“I think ‘progress’ is sometimes a deceptive word, just because it's moving doesn't mean it's progressing and I think that's something that we really have to look at when you start talking about the development. Development is key here in how we develop and why and where,” Deriso said of a changing Reno.

Wary of Some of the Change We are Getting

When the city revealed a plan for a ‘New Reno’ back in 2014, Deriso was very supportive of it. In the six years since then, however, he feels Reno’s been duped by bringing in development projects that aren’t true to Reno’s character and is instead trying to be like everywhere else. 

“Reno was a town really and truly run by the people of the town,” Deriso said. “There's a funny dynamic that happens with Reno because you get people who have this incredible, authentic, artistic sense of self, but then they want to use that to mimic the outside world a little bit and I think that's where Reno hits its glass ceiling frequently.”

So Deriso would like to see opportunities for other industries as well as a focus on the arts, while also making housing available for those who are already living in Reno, as opposed to courting those from outside the city to come live here. 

“When Reno outgrows the self-aggrandized piece of its personality, it just changes things,” Deriso said. “I want to show what Reno is and what I am and what this is, because that's what's going to spread the right kind of message and love.”

Spreading the right message specifically for Reno will be an element of his new Open Mic Studios, where he aims to host a number of ongoing, locally-focused projects. One such project that’s being discussed right now is having someone who will run a Q&A podcast where people can write in questions on how to navigate local government systems at the state, county and city level. These podcasts will cover a range of topics from how to get a marriage license to navigating the foster care system. 

By providing a platform for those in the city of Reno to share their voice as well, particularly on local matters, Deriso hopes to bring back the small-town relationship element that has always been inherent to the Biggest Little City.

“Relationships and how we relate with one another is everything,” Deriso said. “We have to do everything we can to be able to look at a person that you think is a scumbag and wonder why they're not. That's what makes Reno, Reno. We're all a little bit scumbag, a little bit high-class. We're all a little bit Pabst and we're all a little bit champagne. So I think if anything, we've got to abandon the notions of the things that are breaking us apart in the moment.” 

It’s that small-town relationship element, after all, that Deriso understands and now appreciates all too well. So although the location of his new Open Mic Studio will have to change, he says his mission to provide a platform for voices in an evolving Reno will continue.

Reporting by Scott King for Our Town Reno

Abbey Nyberg, Combating "Hostile Architecture" at UNR

Seeking a Ban on Hostile Benches

Abbey Nyberg, who is pursuing a dual program for Secondary Education and English, has teamed up with two other students, Matthew Graham and Elliot Bailey, to present a proposal combating “hostile architecture” on campus.

“We all got together because we are all passionate about stopping [this],” she said.

With the presentation now part of a non fiction English class assignment, she aims to soon get support from ASUN [The Associated Students of the University of Nevada] and “take our persuasive letter to [UNR] President Brian Sandoval and then from there we are hoping to hear back from him on a potential ban on this that could be written into the bylaws of the university or something like that to basically ban all future hostile architecture with an emphasis in those anti-homeless benches.”

“Obviously homelessness is just skyrocketing in the Reno-Sparks area, with our current housing market. I’ve just seen it increasing it drastically in my lifetime,” the Northern Nevada native said.

In our interview she referred to a recent study indicating a third of all university students in the US are housing insecure at some point during their higher learning experience, with 18% having actually experienced homelessness at some point during their studies. 

Specific statistics are hard to come by, with local reporting often relying on the use of Pack Provisions, the university’s food pantry, to gage the current extent of student and faculty poverty. A recent Nevada Today article indicated the need for food assistance is expected to double among students this academic year.

“The standard looking bench has shorter seat width than normal,” Nyberg said of the ubiquitous green benches seen across campus. “Hostile architecture can be found all over the UNR campus, particularly anti-homeless benches, any kind of benches that have bars in them, or bars at every seat are considered anti-homeless, in addition to benches with sloped bottoms, where you can’t really sit on them or lay on them long term, those are also anti-homeless.”

Without Stable Shelter, and On Campus for Long Hours

As an IT worker at the Knowledge Center, Nyberg says she sees individuals there who are clearly without stable shelter and inside from as early as five a.m. to when she leaves work at five in the afternoon. 

“I’m a little bit concerned about where the individuals I see everyday are going to go on those days that it gets colder,” Nyberg said of reduced hours during the upcoming Wintermester, which will coincide with harsher weather and dorms still closed due to COVID-19.

Why does hostile architecture even exist?

“I think a lot of it has to do with the belief that homeless people are somehow dangerous or that they’re dirty or representing the community in a way that’s not desirable if that makes sense,” Nyberg answered. “It may not look great to have a homeless individual sitting on the street, but I would rather have them have a safe place to be than having to put themselves in unsafe situations just to find a spot to rest.”

Does she have any other ideas to help students and faculty without stable shelter?

“I think it would be really cool if a university could open up a low income or adjusted housing situation with students having an opportunity to live on a campus and have a place to live on a much more affordable cost than say the dorms,” Nyberg said. “It’s pretty ridiculous to live in the dorms with a higher cost than some rent they could pay off campus. Something like that would be really nice to see, to help out those students even if it’s something where they can come and go based on their needs, that would be really awesome.” 

Our Town Reno reporting in December 2020