Ordinance to Ban Whips in Public in Reno Moves To Next Step

Despite public comments early at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, social media backlash and opposition from an ACLU Nevada representative, a 7-0 vote gave the green light for Reno staff to finetune an ordinance to ban whips in public.

Holly Wellborn, the ACLU Nevada policy director, kicked off a marathon D.1 session of the meeting by calling the proposal “half-baked at best,” with possible 1st amendment violations, as well as targeting the unsheltered specifically.

Councilman Oscar Delgado hinted at the potential problem of “profiling” in applying this now almost certain future ordinance. Councilwoman Jenny Brekhus wondered what this meant for long dog leashes taking up sidewalk space. There was talk of karate in the park, “cowboy culture,” “horse and buggy” heritage, artistic expression and mere possession vs. use but in the end none of the long winded discussions changed the final tally.

The current proposal would make even just carrying a whip or possessing one illegal.

There were mentions of increased calls to police to deal with the loud whips, but when pressed Reno Police Lt. Ryan Connelly didn’t give any decibel comparison between whips “when the tip breaks the speed of sound” or other noisy nuisances. Too many people he said confuse the sound of whips with shots being fired. He admitted if a whip injures someone a battery charge could already apply. There was no indication of any Reno resident ever being hospitalized in a whip incident, so it hasn’t been clear to some advocates for the unhoused what is being targeted here exactly: noise, violence or the poor.

Connelly used the example of brass knuckles which are illegal in Nevada, even to simply possess, as a gross misdemeanor, carrying up to 364 days in jail, and/or up to $2,000 in fines. He also used the example of bar fights, but it was not clear how that relates exactly to whips and if a whip has ever been used in that situation recently.

The word “intimidation” was repeated several times including by Mayor Hillary Schieve, who also called the whips “offensive.” Councilwoman Naomi Duerr called the anti-whip effort a “long-time coming,” talking about the right to “quiet enjoyment” of parks, while councilwoman Neoma Jardon spoke of increased whip activity. Councilman Devon Reese talked of police using the ordinance with discretion, but people our website have talked to fear making it illegal to even possess a whip clearly targets the poor who have nowhere to go during the day. Some unhoused have told Our Town Reno the whip can be stress relieving, a warning signal, and a shout out to the world alerting them to their difficult conditions.

Our Town Reno reporting, August 25 2021

Does Reno Still Have a Payday Loan Problem?

Payday lending is legal in Nevada, with no limit on payday loans, and no cap on rates, with interest that can balloon over 600 percent. In 2019, Governor Steve Sisolak signed SB201, which requires the state to create a database tracking data on loans with a 40 percent or higher annual percentage rate interest, including loan amounts, fees, default rates and the interest charged on loans. It was meant to prevent unscrupulous lending to those who clearly wouldn’t be able to repay, such as people with multiple loans exceeding 25 percent of their income.

Legislative efforts to curb the state’s vast payday loan industry have a long history. In the 2000s, a series of laws tried to limit the length of high interest loans and the amounts charged once a borrower defaulted, but the industry kept fighting back, lobbying for delays and weak implementation or scurrying the rules altogether. It took until December 2020 for Nevada financial regulators to finally be given the green light implement the statewide database. Is it being implemented and if so, how so?

Here are the observations of Reno photographer John L’Etoile has he took photos of many of the money to loan places dotting our downtown:

“Reno has a disproportionately high amount of money loan centers in its lower income neighborhoods. This is obviously to prey on those who may need a cash advance of their paychecks and charge them a high interest rate on the return payments. Loans like these put those in a financial bind even further into the hole when an emergency needs to be covered and there isn’t time to be wasted. These centers have intriguing visuals to draw customers, with promises of large loans given away freely and without worry. Interest rates can sometimes reach upwards of 600% with short payday loans which if used in a cycle could surely ravage your bank account.”

Photos and Essay by John L’Etoile for Our Town Reno

Robert Majors, Persisting with Establishing Huts in Nevada Despite An Initial Raid

A Path to Housing as a Human Right

As a long time volunteer with the Las Vegas Catholic Worker group, helping others selflessly at all times of day and need, UNLV engineering student Robert Majors is impressed with the potential of Conestoga Huts. These durable micro-shelters for the unhoused, offer “safety and security,” and “housing as a human right,” he says, despite the ongoing challenges he has encountered to establish some in his home city. 

The huts originated out of projects in Oregon and have since spread to being used in Washington and now in southern Nevada. 

“In the Northwest and up there, they're really progressive with trying ideas because up there, out there in the winter, you know, people die,” Majors explained.  “So, they're really searching through the cracks for solutions.”

Seeing the huts really appealed to him, as they are easily moveable, and a dozen huts can fit on a small plot of vacant land, creating an instant community, that is if these aren’t removed.  

His first attempt in Las Vegas, in a partnership with Food Not Bombs Las Vegas, ended in destruction in the fall of 2020 and the arrest of that group’s Joey Lankowski.  

“We had an encampment of them, 27 on city property and the city didn't like that. So they destroyed them all.  They gave everybody living there like 15 minutes to get out, [at 4 A.M.]. Joey just happened to be in the area, and he got arrested for filming because he was asking why they were doing it,” Majors remembered during a recent phone call.  “When I got there, they were loading dump trucks and hauling stuff out of the gate. They had 200 yards away from the encampment fenced off already. So they were just guarding the whole perimeter. And there were like 10 different organizations that were destroying these things. Nobody was in charge. They were like, ‘oh, this person is.’ I think the police eventually said somebody from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was in charge, but I doubt that.” Photo with hashtag shared by Majors with permission to use.

A Major Raid Doesn’t Deter Majors

The bulldozing of the initial huts experiment happened even though the advocates had been working with the city of Las Vegas, and porta potties had been officially installed.  “I’m sure they put off these raids as long as they could,” Majors said.  “There were like five raids that almost happened and they all got put off and then this one finally happened.”

The Nevada Department of Transportation released a statement following the sudden removal:

“NDOT’s top priority is the public safety of all Nevadans and visitors, while still facilitating relocation assistance and resources for displaced individuals,” it said. “The decision to pursue this abatement was intended to ensure the safety and welfare of both the homeless and surrounding community due to significant biohazard concerns, including bodily waste, debris and intravenous drug paraphernalia accumulating inside drainage channels that feed into the Las Vegas Wash.”

Some volunteers were discouraged, but not Majors, who wanted to persist with the idea. The new iteration now is to put the huts on trailers and have them registered at the DMV, while at the same time creating more awareness, getting more fundraising through a Patreon called New Leaf Community and making more connections.

“A lot of people were into this idea and it just takes time, and the right opportunity for something to grow,” Majors said of his strategy. “We're a strong community and there's a lot of innovative ideas coming out still, so that's good.”

Adding the trailer means the price of constructing the huts went from $600 to a still cheap $700.  Friday communal building sessions are held regularly, with a nonprofit recently offering its warehouse for the building to take place out of the summer heat.

“We build these with a group of volunteers, some inexperienced, who never cut anything in their lives. One person has to know what they're doing to lead the group, but it's really easy to pick up and learn. We can build one in four hours. And if we are doing more than one at a time, you could probably do like three in six hours.”

Now Adding Trailers, DMV Registrations and Trying to Get Land

The DMV process is tedious but offers new possibilities, Majors said.  “It just has to meet certain code requirements. The hut itself weighs about 700 pounds. So here in Nevada, as long as it's less than a thousand pounds, it's going to be something that you could just register.”

With the trailer option, Lankowski and Majors have now had hitches put on their own cars now to move the huts around if need be. 

“Now they'll just put a sticker on the trailer, they'll say, move this in a couple of days, if it's in a place where it's not supposed to be. And that was when they were unregistered and occasionally they would tow it and we'd have to just bail it out of the tow yard, which is better than having to build a new one. And the registered trailers haven't had any problems so far. So we're doing pretty good with finding loopholes. It’s a little more work because now we have to have people on call to go move the trailers if they need to be moved. The people living in them, you know, it would benefit them if they had a car with a hitch, they could tow it around.”

They are also trying to buy their own land at the right price and in a good location.  

“The important part is buying the land where you're not pulling people away from valuable resources that they need such as transportation, food, social services and stuff like that,” Majors said. “So the land around those areas are like half a million to a million. But we've been lucky in finding some pretty cheap land. We haven't purchased it yet. I think we're going to try to make a purchase [soon] because we have about $45,000 saved. So there's some properties that are from 40 to 50,000 and hopefully we can get one of those and just start something, because I know we've been kind of pushing the envelope from the beginning on what we can do. So if we can get some of these on an empty lot, that is ours, at least that's another barrier between us and the people trying to destroy the huts.”

Another full encampment won’t be allowed even on their own land, but he figures a small group of huts could stay. 

“There are a lot of people on our side who have experience with coding and building laws. And I think we will have enough to at least make something happen. It’s really just knowing the law and finding the loopholes. I don't think it'll qualify as a trailer park, it’s not zoned for that. It's zoned for single family residential. So typically a person would just build a house there, but every single family, residential property is allowed to have up to four vehicles on a property. So at least that's a loophole where we can at least buy this property and have four units there.”

Majors said the volunteers in Vegas are ready to share their expertise and experience with like minded advocates in northern Nevada. “We definitely want it to be a growing idea. It is a simple community solution. It's a tool for housing and a door to shut and lock your stuff in to be safe at night.”

Moving Forward Despite Government Inabilities

Like in Reno, sweeps in Las Vegas have increased as well since the end of the pandemic.  Like in Reno, where there used to be encampments, fences are going up.

“They’ve been doing so many, so many cleanups and putting up fences everywhere, so it’s harder and harder for people to find shade or a sanctuary. We were serving from an empty lot, keeping it clean. We served there for 10 years and the city just came out and put a big fence around like five properties. They say they work with the owners, but I highly doubt they work with the owners. They just fenced off  this place that has been used to feed the poor for so many years,” Majors said.

He says he believes authorities just don’t have the energy, track record and ingenuity to find solutions to really help.

“The government doesn't want to do the job. They want to pay somebody else to do the job because truth be told the job requires a lot of work. It requires setting up organizations and support systems that are beyond the government's abilities, but finding the community that can support that type of project is what the government should be doing. But unfortunately they've been putting their money into other people's pockets for so long that they're just trying to pass it on to the next person who will take their bid. So the direction that it's going, it looks like, they want to do something quick. They want to clean up the street. They want to provide some minimalistic affordable housing and not have a big crisis on their hands with affordable housing. They're just trying to pass it on. I don't think they're looking for a long-term solution. They're just trying to get somebody to handle it. That's how I feel.” 

He says by keeping the fight, finding loopholes, by establishing something that will help, in the end Majors is confident the model will prevail, and will then be used as an example to emulate.

“It’s worth the effort to try to get somebody into a stable situation that's worth the money. You know the amount of money that goes into these things is nothing compared to how much people are paying in rent and how much people actually have to spend on that. You know, it's worth way more than $600 to people.  I think even, even all of our discussions with the city have been like, ‘oh, this is a great idea.’ Like, they are just as lost as anybody else in finding the solution.  So we've been just, you know, working on our solution. It's got a lot of positive feedback. It's inspirational and it's not so hard to do. And if you build one, set it up, put it on display, find one place, that'll hold it and just say, look, this is a solution. That's everything that the government is looking for. They just don't know about it yet.”

Our Town Reno Reporting, July 2021

Words Officials Use Matter and Can Distort Perceptions

The “Semantic Shift” or “Deterioration” Effect

The word sweeps has started being used by mainstream media locally, and even by some elected officials, before some reverted back to the police preferred “cleanup” terminology.  Some anti-sweeps advocates refuse to call the new mega shelter the Nevada Cares Campus, preferring the acronym NCC or calling it a compound, or much, much worse, alluding to incarceration and tragedies in human history. 

Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics in the English department at University of Nevada, Reno, calls this the “semantic shift” effect, “because semantics is obviously about meaning. There's a lot of times it's not just semantic shift, it's semantic deterioration, which means that terms start to get a negative association when we have used them in negative context over and over and over again. “

Different usage of gender pronouns, those who say “cancel culture” versus those who say “facing consequences,” acronyms for government programs rather than using full names, we seem to be on the frontlines of linguistic battles played out mostly on social media. 

“I think, yes, we're in a very salient cultural moment,” Fridland said.  “And what you find, if you look back to any kinds of language change, historically in any era, they really reflect cultural moments. If you look back to 2000, you look at what the words of the year were in dictionaries or even in newspapers, you'll find they all had to do with Y2K, with technological advances, with computers … They reflect what concerns us from a cultural standpoint. So I don't think that there's a huge difference in the types of pressures that are causing language change today. We've had those throughout time. What's different is perhaps the pressures that we're responding to. In the 19th century, when we were getting towards the end of the 19th century, people were very concerned with industrialization. People were very concerned with the rise of feminism. So women terms became sort of hotbeds for controversies. And what you find now is the things that concern us are our ethnicity, gender, right? Those are the cultural moments we're living right now. So I don't think the actual pressure to change linguistically is different than it was 200 years ago, but what's different is the types of pressure socially we're responding to.”

Sweeps, a Word Avoided by Some

This applies locally to the sweeps versus cleanup debate. 

“There is a lot of evidence that the words we choose to describe things affects the perception by others of what we're describing,” Fridland explains. “And so when you say they’ve been doing sweeps, when you talk about sweeps in other contexts, the associations are often sort of clearing out criminalized kind of activity. But I think the police want to use cleanup because they want to present it in a light that suggests, okay, ‘we're actually doing something good for the community.’ There's not an idea of maybe we're hiding something in a way, sweeping something under the rug.  You eat clean, you clean your house. All the cleans we do are good things. So when we're trying to characterize something in a negative light, like it's a bad thing, sweeps is obviously going to help us with that perception instead of trying to describe it as cleanup, then we're saying, oh, look at this wonderful cleanup we're doing. And also think about the orientation that it gives when you're talking about cleaning up, you're talking about whatever is being cleaned up is unimportant, but the benefit comes to those who are doing the cleaning up.” 

Does image above make you think of a campus?

Shelter, Another Word Avoided at the “Cares Campus”

What about officials now almost never calling the Nevada Cares Campus a shelter anymore? Fridland says there is a negative connotation now to the word shelter.

“People, when they go to a retirement home, you don’t say they are going to an old age shelter, why because no one would want to go there because shelters are usually places that are protecting you from some harm, or that are places where we put people as holding tanks while we figure out what to do.”

What about the word campus, rather than compound for example? “Where do we have campuses? We invent the symbolism of what it means to put people that are having a second chance, right. Someplace they can learn, someplace they can be enriched, some place where positive things follow. It's going to a place of enrichment of learning, of education, of openness.  A shelter is more like a holding tank, right? A place where people just go for whatever reason, but not necessarily for enhancement. And then care is sort of saying, we're all in this together. So it's an idea of community. So versus a homeless shelter, which only is a term that we use when talking about people that are not us, we're not involved with right? By calling it a homeless shelter, you're saying it is involving people that are met by that description of homelessness. So it's sort of separating and isolating in that way. It's completely taking the focus off the homeless and putting it on all of us, as a community. So it's a pretty ingenious working of a word or a term that had a negative associated with it.” 

For those who don’t believe the “Cares Campus” is living up to its name, and use NCC instead, or much worse to describe it, Fridland said “we use some sort of derogatory label for things when we don't like it. So I think it's just sort of a counter to all the associations that come with it from a positive perspective that are the sense of community, the sense of enrichment. If you don't want to bring up those associations, then it makes sense to [use] a different label.” 

The sweeps from camps where people had been encouraged to assemble followed the opening of the new compound.

Social Media Opportunities for Effective Branding

Social media Fridland says hasn’t enhanced our savvy ways to name things, but it has created opportunities for large scale branding and marketing.  

“That's the difference between now and a hundred years ago is the internet, right? So it's not so much that we're naming things in a better fashion, but we're advertising them better. We're using the power of social media to get the word out better. And so if you can post a flyer and it goes to 100 people, that's great, but if you can send out a tweet and it goes to five million, then that, that term, or that word is going to be taken as the one much more readily than a term that's seen by a hundred people. Now that we can broadcast, you know, thousands of miles just by doing a tweet or a YouTube video or something like that, the same name gets picked up all over the place. And that's what's become very savvy. Then if you can brand it and you can sell that brand quickly, then it takes on this power, which in previous times we didn't have the power to do.”

Our Town Reno Interview with Valerie Fridland

Dr. Valerie Fridland is Professor of sociolinguistics and former Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Nevada in Reno. An expert on the relationship between language and society, her work has appeared in numerous academic journals and she is co-author of the book Socio-phonetics from Cambridge University Press. Her language blog, Language in the Wild, is featured in Psychology Today, and her lecture series, Language and Society, is featured with The Great Courses. She is also working on her first book for a popular audience, coming out with Viking/Penguin. She regularly appears on podcasts and programs such as The Elegant Warrior, The Mentor Project, The Lisa Show, CBS news, and Newsy’s The Why.

Why Siegel Suites are the new motels and Why that could be a Problem

The signs dot downtown, with modern fonts, in fashionable green and tacky blue and grey, urging people to call for available rooms. These rooms are multiplying quickly in hi rises and converted casino complexes. The website blares Move In Today! It advertises rooms as “flexible-stay living” starting at $289.05.

The details sound much like those which used to be offered by motels, now being razed. “Some of our suites also include kitchenettes. Want to bring your own bed or other furniture? No problem. We can quickly and easily remove what you want to bring. Rent your Reno apartment today with bad credit ok, no long term lease required, and your choice of low weekly or monthly rent. Our studio apartments are a great value. Each suite comes with free utilities, free cable TV, free WIFI, and more. For those warm summer months, we also have a sparkling pool! Lastly, another great feature of Siegel Suites is our Siegel Rewards Program. The longer you stay, the less you pay!”

The chain started in Las Vegas in the mid 2000s, where it has nearly 30 locations now. No surprise Nevada is its base, as the Silver State has the least affordable and available rental units for low income households in the nation. Stephen Siegel, the chief executive and a former auto-body shop owner in North Hollywood, has said in interviews lots of his customers live check to check, and are on the verge of homelessness.

The company has reportedly battled zoning officials and classification as single-room-occupancy hotels, wanting to sound more prestigious as apartments. But make no mistake, it is part of the “poverty industry economy,” having distributed blankets with the Siegel name at service providers for the unhoused. The “bad credit ok” component speaks to its targeting of the “credit underclass,” those without the necessary credit rating to get accepted in many places.

In cases of late payments due though, according to correspondence obtained by reporters, Siegel “guests” become “residents,” with large mounting bills and repayment plans with added amounts to regular rent.

During the pandemic, while evictions went down elsewhere, they remained steady at Siegel Suites, according to numerous media reports, despite the company collecting millions from counties in federal rental assistance and in Paycheck Protection Program loans. People were removed not for unpaid rent, but for not having an active lease. Others have had “no-cause” eviction notices taped to their doors, with constables changing locks. So the pandemic showed hundreds of Siegel tenants were vulnerable and unprotected despite government efforts, precisely because they didn’t have long-term leases.

While motels get a bad rap in town, what of Siegel Suites? Local complaints on review sites though for Siegel rooms sound like what some motels get, “bed bugs,” “horrible service,” “broken beds,” but without the accompanying political and business improvement district badmouthing.

One reviewer staying at the Siegel Suites Nevadan on Virginia Street wrote: “Don't live there especially if you have kids if there were a 1/4 of a star, that's all I'd give them.” Another wrote about the Reno Suites on 2nd Street: “The place is so dirty! Old and outdated. The first thing I noticed on arrival were the elevators the carpets so dirty the number panel dirty. The hallway carpet dirty spill stains everywhere.Our room was on the 25 floor, a suite. Dirty and stained carpet, chair, sofa. Tables all dusty. Trash on the bathroom floor. TV in the living room didn't work, shower didn't drain. It was so bad that we didn't even feel comfortable sleeping under the blanket. I will Never stay here again. How do you have such a dirty place coming out of a pandemic?”

Our Town Reno Reporting July 2021

Community Homelessness Advisory Board Pushes For Better Local Services, Lower Barriers

Reno City Council Members Offer Some Pushback

The monthly CHAB meeting had more pushback than usual, especially from alternate Devon Reese, raising concerns about barriers being too high for people to get into transitional housing to the alarming lack of available cooling centers during this current heat wave.

Reese pointed to emails and messages he’s been receiving and conversations he’s been having at multiple levels, from advocates to government employees, trying to improve certain services and conditions for “our vulnerable neighbors.”

The City Council member, who doesn’t usually attend this Reno/Sparks/Washoe County collaborative session, lamented the slowness of intake at transitional places such as the Hope Springs tiny homes compound. Reese said the interview process there was taking five to six weeks, and with a last round of 200 people being interviewed, he reported only three being selected while vacant units remain.

“We’ve struggled with the barriers,” said Reno councilwoman Neoma Jardon, a regular at these meetings, as the current chair. 

Jardon also spoke to the lack of information for those seeking housing solutions in emergencies, specifically referencing a local pregnant woman living in a car, and recently pleading for help.

“What is the number for a Sunday at 8:30 p.m. to help these people get resources?” Jardon asked.  “I think we as a region have always struggled with that…. What happens with an 11 p.m. call of the situational sort of stuff? We need to fix that part of it.  I think we took the big steps in getting the [Nevada Cares Campus] facility and now we need to work on how we appropriately and quickly transition people into a safer place as best we can.”

Current Built for Zero statistics point to higher numbers of unhoused, but many who follow these issues closely say even these numbers are an undercount.

“No Easy Way,” Problems with Information System, and Lack of Case Managers

There is no “easy way” to determining bed availability for certain people in specific situations, admitted Dana Searcy, the Washoe County Special Projects Manager behind the local implementation of the so-called Built for Zero model to end homelessness.  So far, that initiative has been partly driven by data gathering, but with limitations there as well.  

Many local providers have yet to enroll in the Homeless Management Information System, known as HMIS, which is supposed to help create a cohesive strategy.  Searcy pointed to the $750 cost for each user as one hurdle, as well as that system not having “a very robust case management program.”  

During his presentations, Doug Thornley, the Reno City Manager, talked of “bumps and bruises” along the way.  He said having just six Volunteers of America case managers for nearly 500 “guests” at the new Nevada Cares Campus was a challenge.  

Screengrab of local providers not yet enrolled in HMIS, which is meant to have a consolidated number of people in region accessing services for the unhoused.

More Clarity on Costs and the Need for Cooling Centers

Reese said the community was hoping for a more “detailed breakdown of costs,” related to the NCC, saying $8 million was spent on land, $7 million was spent on the compound’s construction and nearly $2 million on operating expenses.  

An even more pointed suggestion by the councilman was the need to have a clearly designated “regional cooling center” which could also be used as a warming center during winter months.  Thornley said that was a “fair observation,” and called Reese the “tip of the spear” on the issue.  

Thornley called an announced spraying Wednesday at the campus an “ordinary operational feature of sheltering people”, and “prophylactic” rather than a response to any existing issue.  People inside the compound have told Our Town Reno some sleeping there have complained of scabies and others not showering, and worsening smells. 

The City of Reno responded to a tweet from earlier in the day which Our Town Reno posted, saying the start of the spraying would begin at 10 am rather than 8 am as initially posted and that only portions of the shelter would be closed. The city’s tweet also stated: “there is no bug infestation at the Cares Campus.”

The lack of laundry facilities at the compound was also brought up during the morning meeting, to which Thornley responded that was currently “top of mind,” and that “another container with commercial grade facilities” is currently being looked into.  

Searcy gave updates on the Washoe County run safe camp, also at the compound but in a different location, where the population has now grown to nearly 30 people, according to her information. Four cats and two dogs are also reported to be staying there. Having more dogs remains a problem, and she alluded to future plans of having a dog kennel area.  She said operations for a permanent operator will be decided by an open process, hopefully before “snow flies.”  That’s the same timeline to move the tents onto the former Governor’s Bowl baseball field, just below the current location.

Karma Box Project is the current operator. It is dealing with staffing struggles, and some employees reportedly only lasting a few days.  When Reese asked about the possibility of opening up more safe camps, for specific populations, Searcy said it was “something that we could do,” but talked of logistical and budget challenges.

Searcy was repeatedly called upon during the CHAB meeting which can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE5a28e3aAw&ab_channel=CityofReno

Jardon Seeks Updates on Transition of Leadership and Other Pressing Matters

The agreement for transitioning the lead on sheltering services from the city of Reno to Washoe County was also briefly discussed, even though Thornley offered no firm progress. He said going forward, post agreement, Reno federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HUD money, the “bulk of which is now” for contracts with Volunteers of America, which operates the Cares Campus, could be used instead for other supportive housing. 

The meeting closed with Jardon seeking multiple updates for the next meeting on August second,  from getting more clarity on the tiny homes facility and their intake process, the Village on Sage street, future laundry services at the Cares campus and safe camp, the availability of cooling centers in the area, hiring more case workers, moving along on the idea of having a safe parking program, coming up with a local map of overall homeless facilities, and facilitating advocate outreach at the compound, among more than a dozen requested items. She said the next meeting would have to start earlier and last longer to address all these issues.

Our Town Reno Reporting July 2021

Pilot Safe Camp Officials Defend Themselves Against Mounting Community Concerns

Meant as a Step Toward Housing amid Frustration of Waiting Lists

It’s a stifling day in late June and small clusters of Washoe County paid for nine by seven tents with elevated cots are bunched up or lined up in a row above the former Governor’s Bowl baseball field, caught between chain link fences. Dirt in that wide location, right by the highway, is being churned and flattened, for a future more permanent “long term” legal camp site, where 50 total tents are said to be planned. 

At the current location, a few misters have recently been added to the dining area.  There’s a few possessions outside, with just one tent visibly open.  “They’re all out working, most of them,” Grant Denton, the executive director of the Karma Box Project operating the safe camp said, as he arrived midway through a visit with Catrina Peters, a Washoe County official who calls herself a collaborative problem solver on her LinkedIn and Austin Solheim, now the Washoe County Homeless Services Program Specialist.  When asked about the spacing of the bunched up tents, the words “available footprint” keep getting repeated. 

The team is reporting one “successful move out,” as in one person who already went from a tent at the safe camp to “a stable housing situation.” No further specifics are given, making it impossible to verify.   When asked about people at the nearby Nevada Cares compound already on multiple waiting lists, not being able to afford their own rent on their income, and frustrated at how this might all turn into a police enforced warehousing situation, amid ongoing sweeps of informal encampments, Peters also brings up the complaint of too little affordable housing . “So we'll definitely have to be patient with people, but again, engaging in case management and having a housing plan we see as really the first key step to getting folks off to a permanent stable living situation,” she said.  “I can tell you for the safe camp specifically, our first eligibility criteria is, are you willing to resolve your homelessness as soon as you're able to do so. Housing is our absolute top number one priority. That is the sole laser goal here of the safe camp,” Peters said, but not offering specifics as to where that housing might be found. 

Instead, the tour of the safe camp continues, under the hot, broiling midday sun. There’s 24-7 staff and security, a bathroom, which is a remnant of the old baseball field, a bike rack, a cell phone charging station and a trash can but no showers. cooking space or washing machines in this area. There’s nowhere to sit besides the picnic tables. Showers can be used at the Cares campus but that’s a long walk away.  It’s approaching 100F but there’s no water coolers, either, no ice machine and no shade besides the common tent area with picnic tables for meals and conversations.

Old baseball field bathrooms are now being used at the safe camp, with an added charging station above water outlets.

A Trickle to Welcome New People and to Adapt to the Heatwave

Only 14 people are reported to be staying here so far, even though it’s been open for several weeks now.

Asked about complaints that people are being accepted at a trickle, Peters said, “we want to bring folks in, in a way that really makes folks feel welcome, but also that they understand kind of what we're trying to help them with.”  There’s also one cat sleeping in a tent, but no dogs yet.  “We’re really taking that as a learning opportunity to be able to further expand that once we've got all those processes and procedures down,” Peters said of the cat and the possibility of more pets being accepted. 

When asked about volunteers bringing an ice machine Peters says they should reach out to Solheim, the new homeless services program specialist for Washoe County, formerly with the Eddy House  “We are a county facility and we've got, you know, insurance and a lot of kind of logistical requirements that we'd have to be cognizant of, really depend on kind of circumstances,” Peters also said. 

“We are definitely learning as we go. You know, safe camps are something that we don't have a lot of experience in as a community,” Peters said when asked if the project had been rushed and if insufficient provisions had been taken to prepare for the heat wave. “You know, when we started this planning, this project in March, the heat of summer wasn't kind of top of mind. So, you know, we're flexible and dynamic, we're responding to needs, but also, it was a tight timeline and we really did the best we could with what we had.” 

The overall money spent on the safe camp so far is unclear. The initial $34,000 or so per month contract with Karma Box Project to operate the safe camp was initially made for three months, starting in June, according to Washoe County documents. Peters said after the three months Washoe County will be “working on a competitive procurement,” but the contract indicates operations with Karma Box could also be extended at current rates.   When asked how Karma Box was selected, Peters said “it was an emergency contract,” pointing us to the official Washoe County documentation, but not wanting to address the question as part of the interview beyond saying the “documentation” would be provided if requested.  

A screenshot of part of the “documentation” which was sent to us after the interview, but which participants did not want to discuss during the visit.

Complaints about Food Not Known, Dogs Not Welcome Yet

“The only commentary I've heard about the food has been extremely positive,” Peters responded when asked about the alleged poor quality of food being served, seen in multiple photographs, including “mystery meat” for dinner. “So if there were complaints, we would happily take those again. We've got the complaint box to kind of get at that. We've also been able to engage a lot with participants, especially some of the first ones that moved in. Hey, how's it going? Are you comfortable? Is there anything else we can get you? And I've heard nothing but positive things about the food. So if someone did have a concern, we would love to hear that so we can remedy it.”

Solheim, the Washoe County Homeless Services Program Specialist, said a suggestion in the complaint box had led to the misters being installed.

“We are moving in four per day, at this time,” Solheim said of operations gathering pace. “And we're going to continue to do that until we fill this safe camp. Our goal is not to have a full safe camp because we want to be engaging in those conversations about what it will take to get [people] to get into something more stable.”  

Solheim, who used to do outreach for the Eddy House, now engages with people staying at the safe camp. “We meet them where they're at, right? For some individuals, it might take them a little longer to get out of their tent than others,” he said. “We're not here to force anybody into working with us, but we're here to encourage them. Biggest thing is that every single person in this safe camp we are going to know their name, and we're going to know what's going on with them. We're going to be working with them on those housing focus conversations. And for some individuals, it might be as simple as, ‘Hey, did you make that appointment? Would you like me to help you out with that today?’”  

Many unhoused people we’ve interviewed were initially interested in the safe camp, but without dogs being accepted, the desire to try it out has vanished for many. “We're looking at some policies and procedures right now,” Solheim said, when that question was repeated. “We have to, you know, dot all our I's and cross all our T's make sure that we have everything that is creating a safe environment for all our participants.” 

Plans have been set in motion to put up a mural on the side of the restroom.  A question and beginning of an answer about possibly paying people living in tents to paint the mural themselves rather than paying an artist was interrupted when Grant Denton arrived.  

“I haven't read about that or seen that, but there are other places that have micro businesses where they get wood in and they chopped the wood and they create firewood,” he immediately said. “So how do you get folks to take ownership of a spot and feel like there's a sense of belonging at the same time being a temporary condition, because you don't want folks that live here forever. You want them to move to the next phase. So how do we create a solid, strong community while moving folks to the next phase? And you can do it. There's just a fine line.”

“I say, keep, keep trying,” Denton said for those frustrated with waiting lists including to get into the safe camp. “We do have a process for how many tents will be filled a day, you know, and what that looks like. And, you know, some people don't come some days and then the next day there's four. And then next day there's none. And then if somebody doesn't show up one day, do you fill their tent the very next day? Well, that wouldn't be cool. You know?”

Defending a Go Slow, Pilot Approach

“You can see a perfect circle,” Denton said. “And then when you try to draw it in the sand, it's not going to be perfect. So if we were to just have all these things here at once and realized that the ice machine has always fallen out and the coolers don't work and what it takes to manage and maintain these things…. And it is a pilot program too. So we have to see what works and what doesn't work. So like doing everything perfect all at once, sometimes it doesn't work like that. And if you look at the tents being bunched together, so this gives us an opportunity to kind of iron things out, as we grow with the least amount of damage.”

Advocates also complained he slept in a tent himself for a while, taking up space, but Denton said accepting just a few new people at a time is deliberate. Seven staff for Karma Box Project also work here.

“Our main gig is to develop relationships with these folks outside of just case management,” he said. “I know it seems like it's a weird job description to give somebody, but it's important. And so that's what our guys will do. A win could be someone that doesn't tell you, good morning for 52 days. And on the 53rd day, he says good morning, like that's a win, you know, a win is getting someone to help, help you clean an area up. And so identifying the soft wins versus the hard wins would be getting housing, right? A hard win would be getting a job, but it's identifying the soft wins as well. Does that make sense? “

Peters jumped in to indicate people working at the safe camp had three days of training. “We did training on deescalation conflict resolution, reviewed the policies and procedures of the safe camp so that everybody knew kind of what those looked like,” she said. Peters said new people at the safe camp also get to see a case manager within 48 hours.

Work is ongoing at the more permanent safe camp site, which seems weeks away from completion.

Told to Wrap Up Interviews after 35 Minutes

Denton also responded to complaints of people at the Cares Campus not being able to find housing, but also seemed to not fully embrace the housing first model pushed for by some advocates who have been protesting at City plaza, during public comments at local government meetings and on social media.

“I know that sometimes it's never going to be fast enough,” Denton said. “Like if you could go through right now and scoop everybody up and get folks into housing, that would be awesome. But then you'd also have to address their mental health issues. You'd also have to address other things. I can take you and I can put you in an apartment, but if we don't learn how to sustain that apartment, then we'll have issues.”

Denton said the Karma Box Project would apply to renew its operator contract whenever it gets to the official request for proposal phase. When the contract was initially awarded in May, Eric Brown, the Washoe County Manager, said there would be “eight metrics for success,” and the pilot phase would “verify that the safe camp concept is or is not a viable alternative to a shelter.” “Can we achieve the same outcomes?” he also asked. Those metrics and what Brown meant by shelter outcomes were not visibly apparent. One document shared with us had a list of monthly performance measures, including safe camp participant chore and responsibility updates. Thirty five minutes into the interview, Peters said the interview needed to wrap up, seemingly irritated by some of the questions. Follow ups on how exactly people are selected to get into the safe camp will have to wait.

Our Town Reno Interviews, June 29 2021

Liz, Repeatedly Moved in a Season of Sweeps in Reno

Liz, who had initially been at the Wells Ave. underpass, says she thinks it’s five times and counting for her to be swept since the Nevada Cares Campus opened in mid May. She’s now staying right by the compound, and was moved Wednesday from a sidewalk area to a nearby dirt patch. She’s been hoping to get into the new Washoe County run safe camp area at the compound, but it’s been a drip of few admissions every day for that section. She’s suspicious of the massive sprung structure where hundreds of people are sleeping in bunk beds, not wanting to get a tour or fill out paperwork for that.

“We’re looking at three months out,” she says of her understanding of when she might be able to get into the safe camp, with a full list of people having been promised spots already to fill the 44 tents. She said she has post traumatic stress from previous experiences at crowded shelters, including being thrown from a top bunk and injuring herself, and does not want to repeat that.

“Everybody’s convinced this is the perfect solution, but it’s not,” she said. “There’s fewer and fewer places for us to go,” she said of the unhoused, “and some of us don’t do well with large amounts of people.”

People have been helping Liz and other unhoused with water during hot days.

Earlier this week, one anti sweeps advocate wrote to journalists he felt “disappointed and exasperated and a bit betrayed,” after meetings with Reno officials which started after the conclusion of an Occupy style protest at Believe Plaza. Four of them are facing a court date on July 29th after pleading not guilty in community court. Meanwhile, volunteers have set up a hydration station with a sign up sheet at Believe Plaza where several unhoused people congregate on the grass during the day.

According to shared emails, as part of an ongoing sweeps calendar, Zone 7 (Galletti Way to the E. 2nd Street Bridge) and Zone 11 (N. Edison Way to S. McCarran Blvd) have been targeted for June 29th.

“Myself and others in my group sincerely do want to work with the City, but, I have to say, our collaboration so far has been deeply disappointing,” was what advocate Ilya Arbatman who was outside the compound on Wednesday wrote back to city officials. “Please, respond to this question honestly: what is the rush? Why do you have to sweep these remaining zones immediately? Whose timetable is this, and what circumstances is it determined by?”

Our Town Reno reporting and photos by John L’Etoile

JW, In Transition and Grateful for the Stop the Sweeps Protest

JW, who is in transit, he says, from sickness to health, and Nevada to Oregon, has been spending the past few days around the Believe Plaza, grateful for the ongoing protest.

”I think they're doing a wonderful thing,” he said. “I think we're making history here. I feel the sweeps are ridiculous.” He says the advocates have been a caring community, making him feel more connected to society at large.

Lots of people stay near City Hall with blankets during the day but without tents, so it’s not considered camping or an encampment. He says the houseless look after each other all the time and now it’s nice to see advocates taking such a direct approach to help and protest. “We take care of each other. You know, you got to give him water, got to get them rehydrated, get him awake, make sure they're healthy. I'm not a field medic, but I feel like I am,” he said of helping others.

He says he was evicted recently after having health problems, including an epileptic seizure in Yerington. He has sores on his arms and legs, gout, and difficulty walking. He used to be a manager at a Family Dollar store, and worked in casinos. He’s hoping to go back to his native Oregon soon and get back to driving a cab in Medford, which he thinks he can still do, like he used to.

He says when he takes fares, if they are a veteran, or someone visibly in need, he’ll pick them up and he won’t charge them. He has no intention of trying the new Cares Campus, saying the place doesn’t look inviting at all.

”Don't judge a book by its cover,” he says by way of ending the interview. “People are people wherever you go. People judge me because I look like a transit. Well, I am a transit. But I'm not a slob. I clean my area. That's how I was raised. When we'd go camping in the woods, you know, you make sure the fires out, you pick up your garbage and make it look nice for Mother Nature. You don't leave your crap behind. “

Our Town Reno Reporting, June 2021

Inside the NCC, with Clogged Toilets, Unhealthy Food and Questions for Future

Our Town Reno has been trying to get a sense of operations inside the Nevada Cares Campus, but for now, unlike before it opened, it seems off limits to official tours and reporters.

“At this time we are not doing tours as we work to acclimate folks to the space and ramp up services. We are continuing to explore space for single women and our regional partners at Our Place. As of today, we are not turning anyone away. They will have space in the system, no matter their status,” Jon Humbert emailed us, after we emailed Reno Direct and VOA officials about concerns of limited spots for single women, as well as a lack of laundry services, clogged toilets, crammed bunk beds and unhealthy food. Our Place is the Glendale Ave. shelter for women run by RISE, which has been running at full capacity.

We also emailed about a man being handcuffed just outside the compound, Humbert wrote: “For the incident at the campus, I will refer you to RPD for any information on their investigation.” RPD was cced on the email but did not write back.

The worst complaint at the new campus has been concerning men’s toilets, which apparently were all clogged since late last week, making hundreds of “clients” have to use just a handful of porta potties. According to previous information from Humbert what’s been built so far came at a cost of $9 million dollars.

Despite the high price tag, we’ve been getting emails and messages from people staying or working inside with a wide range of complaints. Many are wondering if Washoe County does take over the entire operation, as expected instead of Reno, whether some rules, services and management will be changed. There are also concerns that the safe camp has yet to open, and worries over management of that separate initiative. The Washoe County website currently says it will expand outreach work with the Karma Box project for a temporary site, and that in the Summer / Fall 2021 an RFP (Request For Proposal) “will go out” for a long term camp operator. This has made some wonder how the Karma Box project was chosen initially, and based on what proposal and track record.

While some inside have commented on feeling “warehoused”, or worse in a “prison camp”, and feeling less safe, less in a community and more stressed than when they were camping previously, others have said they are grateful for having a legal bed and an opportunity to rebound, despite the early challenges the campus might present.

Some people eating at the NCC have called what’s occasionally inside buns “mystery meat.” Several have told us they much prefer healthy meals offered by volunteers, which in previous years were served by several groups in the courtyard of the Record Street shelter, before being shut down for security reasons.

Photographers apparently aren’t wanted on site either.

Our Town Reno Reporting, June 2021

Anger Prevails from Encampment Packing Up, to Occupy Protest to City Council Meeting

Anger prevailed around Reno this morning, from an encampment at N Edison and Mill Street, to public comments at a city council meeting, to a protest outside, where passersby were encouraged to sign a petition to stop ongoing sweeps.

“Where’s left to go after that?” asked Dwight George, a Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe member, who went inside City Hall to make a public comment. He said City Council was “failing us.” His brother Everett George said enforcement “shouldn’t be the baseline” for people with nowhere else to go. He said the Nevada Cares Campus was not the solution. Meagan O’Farrell read out a petition asking to stop sweeps until the safe camp component of the new Nevada Cares Campus opens and has spots. She said there would be an occupy protest in front of City Hall until sweeps end. The petition had nearly 800 signatures as of Wednesday morning.

One of the protesters who goes by Cowboy called it “warehousing.” Disabled and elderly, and formerly living in a tent, he was swept recently along railroad tracks and has been staying at the new mega shelter.

Cowboy is trying to get housing at the Village on Sage Street after being several years on the waiting list of the Reno Housing Authority. He said he wasn’t allowed to leave his cat more than 30 minutes inside the shelter, wasn’t allowed to use a pillow he had brought with him, didn’t like the food being served, and was cold and feels crammed in with others at night. He said he was in the couples and pets section where some of the couples yelled at each other. Toilets have clogged up so hundreds and hundreds of people have been using just a few portable toilets.

“The men's restroom has been out since Thursday, it's been locked up and they don't have sufficient amount of porta-potties for the people that are there now,” he said.

Advocates have been wondering when the safe camp would eventually open, who will run it, how many spots there will be, how these will be allocated, and whether Washoe County might eventually change management operations to different organizations.

There have been growing complaints over operations at the Nevada Cares Campus from clogged up toilets to unhealthy food.

Over at the N Edison and Mill Street encampment, people were packing up as City of Reno officials took photos and drove up and down the winding road there.

Advocates had been hoping this could be converted into a legal camp until the Cares Camp safe camp opens.

Wraith was helping people pack up and making sure they had rides to leave and go hide elsewhere. She calls herself a street mom. “It's runaway kids and it's people that don't fit in your world,” she said of those at the encampment. “And we do. We take them in, we make them family. We make sure they're fed. We make sure they don't overdose and die and kill themselves.”

She said she would be open to a legal safe parking area. “If you provide us a place to park our cars, that it won't be towed, vandalized or broken into, we'd be willing to,” she said. But she was angry too about feeling discarded and ignored by community leaders.

Our Town Reno Reporting, June 2, 2021

Volunteers Launch New Mutual Aid Community Garden

It’s a balmy Spring Day in a downtown Reno neighborhood, and a small team of volunteers is starting to transform the quarter acre side yard of a rented house into a community garden, to grow healthy food and herbs for those in need, and also to offer a nurturing collective space.

Patricia Curtis-Ostler, 62, gets teary eyed when asked for an interview. She’s wearing heavy duty gloves and a gardening tee-shirt. She’s an experienced volunteer, helping other initiatives such as Reno Soup for the Soul, Reno Burrito Project, the Can Care Collective and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

“We've been tilling, we've been pulling weeds,” she said of her weekend morning in the garden. “We brought a bunch of tomato plants, peppers, all kinds of things. And I just think that it's all amazing that this group could pull together. There's just so few of us and we're really doing an amazing job so far.”

She says helping others and with positive projects keeps her healthy. “I get to live the life that I get to live and be 62 years old and healthy is because of the fact that I go out and I do things for others and truly love others,” she said.

During the pandemic, she used some of her other skills to sow 500 masks for those in need. “My heart's big, my soul's big and just being part of this wonderful, amazing community is great for me,” she said.

“This project came together by following a lot of instructions from Indigenous mentors and leaders that I've had in my life over the last couple of years. I spent a lot of time with the land here, praying with it, giving offerings to it and asking it for guidance and a lot of areas of my life, but specifically asking for permission and guidance on what to do with this land here. And what came through really, really clear was to create a communal garden that we can use to grow food and different herbs, to make plant medicines and to create crops, to cook meals, to serve our houseless communities,” explained one of the initiative’s organizers, Michael Carson (in foreground).

Work at the garden started with sharing the overall vision and initial designs, followed by digging rows and mixing in organic compost.

“Pretty soon here, we're going to start planning various plants and herbs,” one of the coordinators Michael Carson explained. Carson has also been involved in helping people displaced by recent police sweeps, and with food donations, and said the plan is to share the forthcoming crops with others.

“We have a mutual aid program set up where we offer fresh produce and canned goods to people to cook at their homes and then bring back to us. And we take that out to serve different encampments of people who are experiencing houselessness,” Carson said. “With my partner, Monica Jayne, we both feel … there's an opportunity to really shift our inner environments and create a new earth that the next generations can really thrive from. I am absolutely feeling a deep transition within myself and also seeing that manifest in the world outside of us and in our community, especially.”

The endeavor is open to other volunteers as well as donations such as irrigation supplies, more organic compost and portable fencing.

Our Town Reno Reporting, Spring 2021

Petition to End Sweeps Before Safe Camp Opens Gains Traction

As of Sunday, the petition to Stop the Sweeps in Washoe County, was quickly reaching its initial goal of 500 signatures.

Petition coordinator Bridget Tevnan, who works for the Reno Food Systems and helps with local mutual and direct aid movements, explained that after the recent sweeps at Fisherman’s Park, Wells Ave. and the notices at N. Edison and Mill for expulsions next week, enough is enough.

“It’s traumatic to be displaced in that way. When we think about the way that we're splitting up these communities and their support networks, that's really harmful. Social workers are losing touch with the people they're working with,” Tevnan said.

The N Edison and Mill encampment is on land partly owned by the Truckee River Flood Management Authority, which Tevnan believes could easily be converted into an emergency temporary legal safe camp, given it was apparently already a spot for COVID FEMA trailers .

“This is an emergency housing situation,” Tevnan said. “Why not let the people stay there ? The precedent has been set for using that land for emergency housing and we don't see why they couldn't use it for emergency camping and put, you know, trash cans and toilets down there … at least have people have a safe, sanctioned place to stay until the Cares Campus is fully open and operational. Again, there might just be a disconnect between talking to the people who need the service and what the city thinks should be done. ”

Our Town Reno recently asked to get a tour during open hours.

Advocates have been helping neighbors without stable shelter go try the new Nevada Cares campus as well, but Tevnan said that people must understand the massive shelter is not for everyone.

“A lot of folks, they’ve had very negative experiences at shelters, you know, they've experienced theft, violence. And then, they're just not really environments conducive to well being,” Tevnan said.

Many people had been hoping for the Washoe County run safe camp at the new compound instead, which hasn’t opened yet, and which seems will be smaller than expected.

“I've heard of mixed numbers. I've heard as low as 40 and then up to a hundred. So that is very unclear,” Tevnan said.

The number one request on the petition is : “A complete stop to the sweeps until the Nevada CARES Campus Safe Camp is fully open (with promised mental health care, addiction counseling, transportation, and workforce development), and a stop to sweeps again, if the Safe Camp becomes full.”

The setup of this COVID Cares Act funded initiative seems rushed to many, including Tevnan, and without proper input.

“I think kind of a major flaw in our political system is just that people are unwilling to admit when something isn't working,” Tevnan said. “You know, we don't expect them to have come up with a perfect plan, although I think they could've come up with a better plan if they had been speaking to people who are living in these conditions, that they have the place at the table and advocates too. Advocates have been kind of raising these concerns all along the way. You know, a healthy dose of humility might help, because the abject suffering that we're witnessing hasn't triggered some kind of empathetic, more compassionate response.”

People staying and working at the campus have complained about the lack of laundry services there, as well as administrative hurdles to get pets accepted, and the quality of the food being served.

Tevnan said one man she brought the campus twice was disappointed with the experience. “He tried again, and, you know, he just wasn't able to you know, work it up within himself to stay in the bed option because it felt so uncomfortable,” Tevnan said of his overall experience.

Our Town Reno Reporting, May 2021

Local Professional Women Give Tens of Thousands of Dollars to Nonprofits

Often a good idea can fall by the wayside, or be hoped for but not realized, but when local business owner and realtor Mignon Lagatta ran with her idea, it resonated through the community. In the spring of 2017, Lagatta created a group of professional and retired women with the sole purpose of raising money to donate to a local nonprofit. 

“Thank You Ma’am is a non-profit that gives back to other nonprofits,” explained Lagatta over the phone. “We’re a group of women who get together on a quarterly basis and commit to each giving a hundred dollars.” 

Lagatta is a Nevada native who grew up in Carson City but left the region after high school. She lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles and then came to Reno. “I think my favorite part about Reno is we have that [culture],” she said. “I feel like Reno just has a little bit of everything.”

Four times a year, Thank You Ma’am members meet to select a new local organization to support. They focus their efforts on small groups that are not funded through federal dollars and try to highlight organizations that are not well known. Members are able to nominate a nonprofit  and all the names go into a hat. At each meeting, four names are drawn at random; the member who nominated the selected group then has five minutes to sell the nonprofit and convince the other members of Thank You Ma’am why the nonprofit is a good fit for their generosity. By the end of one hour, there is a vote and a local group is selected. 

“Our goal is to try and get more organized so we can reach a bigger demographic,” explained Lagatta. But over the past year Lagatta saw the most growth in membership, despite meetings being held exclusively on Zoom. Lagatta had an initial idea of having 100 members and at the April 2021 meeting, there were 103 members. With each contribution, Thank You Ma’am was able to collect $10,400 dollars from the meeting and put their total donations since their launch just shy of $100,000. 

Groups they have supported include the Urban Lotus Project, the Reno Gleaning Project, Awaken, Project 150, Nevada Youth Empowerment Project, the Eddy House, and the newest recipient is Forever 14, a group committed to preventing teen suicide. 

Lagatta wants to help as many nonprofits as possible “and there are so many out there we don’t even know about,” she said. She encourages her group members to go out and find these organizations and elevate them through a nomination. Lagatta also encourages these nonprofits to approach a member of Thank You Ma’am. Community members interested in joining in this endeavor can visit their website.

“Pull together, come together,” Lagatta said. “Let’s support our local community and just dig into the needs of our community. There can be ten nonprofits nominated but only four can speak,” she explained “but every meeting there is potentially four nonprofits being spoken about that nobody’s heard of.”

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

The Biggest Sweep Yet Begins on Eastern Side of Wells Ave. Tent Village

Advocates, some in vans, others on foot, helped dozens and dozens of people living in tents scramble to save some of their possessions. Clusters of construction workers and coffee mug holding police watched. A woman tried to start her RV but it stalled. A man pushed his bike with two carts attached to its bike but one of them collapsed under the weight of tarps and full backpacks.

Elmo, with a red beard, and a long whip “to relieve stress”, felt it had been a “trap” all along for local officials to allow and even encourage people to stay here for weeks. Last week, as the new Nevada Cares campus opened, sweeps began in earnest first on the western side of the Wells Ave. overpass. Tuesday morning, a firetruck, city cars and a bulldozer rolled into the much more crowded easter section.

“They pushed everyobdy here, and now they are making everybody move,” he said. He wished there were more dumpsters, “and just leave the homeless alone. We are not doing anything wrong. Just because we don’t have a house doesn’t mean we are bad people,”

He said he hoped to get into housing again soon, but would go hide at a secret location. He felt the new massive shelter was too crammed, and felt too stressful.

Our Town Reno reporting, photos and video, May 25, 2021

Ilya, Bearing Witness to Today's Start of Major Sweeps in Northern Nevada

Several dozen people were still at their tents Thursday morning as a bulldozer arrived with different vested workers as well as police to begin the first of what will be many scheduled sweeps and camp clean outs in the weeks to come, coinciding with the opening of the large COVID Cares Act funded Nevada Cares campus.

Ilya Arbatman said notices which had been handed out had indicated this first operation would take place on either the 17th or the 24th. Media reports quoting Reno city officials had indicated Wednesday or today, but many in the camp were still confused.

Arbatman arrived early Thursday with other volunteers to help those remaining at the camp along railroad tracks save some of their belongings and move before police and contracted workers forced them to do so. Some were simply moving to the other side of the bridge, which could face its own sweep in the coming days.

Screengrabs from a video by John L’Etoile from this morning.

Arbatman said one transgender individual without stable shelter had concerns over the new campus, which has been advertised as being for men and people identifying as couples, whereas the Our Place shelter, which is usually full, has been catering to women.

“That was concerning for some because for a greay area like that, I’m not really that optimistic that Volunteers of America [operating the new campus] is going to be able to handle it.”

He said based on the conversations he’s had “one to five percent” of people previously living in the tent city would utilize the campus. Others he said would need to “coerced to go there. There’s no a lot of excitement about that,” he added. He said they might face the option of going, getting arrested, or “scattering.”

A sign was put up in front of operations, saying “No Tresspassing, Active Construction Zone” under the overpass, which wasn’t initially enforced. He said by the end of the day he thought it would “all be rubble.”

Our Town Reno reporting, May 20, 2021

Carl, At Wells Ave. Tent City Ready to Give Cares Campus A Try

As notices were handed out up and down railroad tracks in Reno, Carl sat down in an outdoor couch to have a cigarette.

“Any property that is left will be thrown away, could be considered trash and thrown away,” he said of what was on the notice. “Anything that is not considered trash, I guess you would have to notify whoever, some, somebody who is in charge to tell them.”

His latest housing situation at the Riverwood Apartments ended with “bad blood happening with the roommates.”

As the sweep looms, he says he’s been helping others at tent city picking up trash. “You know, we got bags and rakes and shovels and stuff. It’s not like we come out with big bulldozers or anything.”

He says he will try out the Nevada Cares Campus if he is allowed in. “I'm planning on getting suited and booted and, and trail on over there,” he said.

He hopes it will be lead to housing and other opportunities. “I would definitely love that. I mean, if I can shower there and have electricity and what not, you know, that would definitely be a plus.

Carl used to work in construction in Illinois and flipping houses but says his friend’s company fell through.

”I saw opportunity out here, which there is a lot of opportunity to actually do work through a good staffing company but I'm not stable enough to make sure I get me a good night's sleep, to make sure I can make it to work on time. You know? Cause like some of the warehouse jobs that I been on, you know, I got to get up at five o'clock in the morning, you know? And sometimes out here you're not getting any rest. You're not. Cause you know, you got that, a lot of everything out here. I don't hate on anybody for what they do, but it's kind of a jungle out here.”

He’s not too worried about oncoming sweeps. “I got my tent in the bag and my backpack, so I really ain't got much to give away, I ain't got much to carry and I ain't got much to give away.”

He says there’s lots of misconceptions of those struggling. “Not all of us are drug addicts and all that stuff. Some of us were actually trying to step up the game and what not and it just fell off, on bad luck, not from just gambling and all that crap either. Honestly walking down the road, you can see who's a person that's actually trying and the person who's not, you know, you see a person that just wants to be a drunk hurt on the street, but it's like, you know, what got him to that point? You know, there was obviously something that struck him if it gets to that point.”

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

Rebel Hopes for Housing while Keeping His Dogs Happy

“Just emotional, unconditional love,” said Rebel about his two dogs, Freyja Marie and LadySyff. “You feed ‘em, you take care of em, you get it back.” Rebel flagged me down and asked if I could take a photograph of his two dogs. We then started talking about his experience here in Reno and how he came to be without a reliable place to live. 

Rebel arrived here almost three months ago because he had some friends whom he could stay with. Previously he lived in Colorado, off the grid, and enjoyed a simple life. Then came the pandemic and he was forced to leave due to the risk of transmission. He has been homeless before and this time around is glad to have his dogs.

Born and raised in Indiana, he has family in Las Vegas and plans to eventually reconnect with them in the next year. Until then, he is trying to find a place to stay and get off the streets as soon as possible. Rebel has suffered with anxiety stress disorder and has found natural ways to manage the issue and no longer relies on pills. Having worked in construction when he was younger, he recalled a day when he was just feeling two crowded and flipped out on the jobsite. Fortunately, his boss at the time knew this was an issue and paid for a medical evaluation which led to his diagnosis. He explained the issue originated when he was thirteen years old. 

When we met him, Rebel had been homeless for about two weeks due to a bank problem and had to leave where he was staying. Though he hopes to get back on his feet and find a place to live, he knows it is near impossible. He has tried various motels and the cheapest rate he has found was over $100 a night before pet fees and taxes, which would only go so far on his $850 disability check. Rebel is also concerned this amount will not be enough to get any reliable housing. 

“Not enough actual low income places anymore,” said Rebel. With no credit history and an income far lower than the average rent price, Rebel is concerned for the houseless community. He said the biggest problem is money and without low-income housing, the houseless community will still struggle to get a stable place to live. 

Rebel heard about the tiny homes that have recently been built and thinks this is a viable and realistic solution to addressing those without homes. “Cause there’s some of them out here, that I know, if they didn’t have access to the booze as much, and work, they wouldn’t be here.” Rebel has had his struggles with drugs and has been sober off of meth for twenty years. When another person heard this, he asked for Rebel’s help. 

“Only thing I can do is make you stop and think,” he said “if you truly want to quit, I’ll talk you through it.” He is hopeful he will be able to help this person transition off drugs. 

He’s heard of the new massive shelter going up but isn’t too sure what it will mean for him yet.

“A lot of it is location,” Rebel explained “like me, I’ve got two dogs...it’s distance, really.” He foresees the biggest struggle people will have to contend with when living in the new CARES Campus is the distance from the services they rely upon. He recently began having some pain in his leg and is worried he will not be as mobile as he used to be. Rebel knows there are others who struggle more with injuries and their mobility. 

“A lot of what’s going on out here is just because there is not enough low income [housing] for the ones like me,” Rebel emphasized again. He knows the affordable housing crisis needs to be addressed and urged the community of Reno to call upon state legislatures and local politicians to address this issue. “I don’t make a minimum of $1200 a month and I’m having a real hard time getting into places.” 

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

Project Unity, a New Generation Steps Up in Reno for Progress

Taking it Upon Themselves to Seek Change

At the beginning of summer last year, protests were erupting across the country over a range of issues, including police violence and conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. Helen Miranda and Ashley Solano decided they needed to do something about it. Being friends since their sophomore year of high school, the two decided to start Project UNITY, a group aimed at organizing protests and activism in the Reno area. 

Solano was born and raised in Reno, while Miranda moved here from Los Angeles when she was eight years old. Disappointed in the lack of local action, Miranda and Solano took it upon themselves to create the change they wanted to see, even if it was just the two of them. Since then, they have organized protests against inadequate immigration facilities, sex trafficking, and police brutality. They have also hosted donation drives for Reno’s houseless community. 

“Personally, I want the right people to care. I want our government officials to do things about what people want,” Miranda said, when asked about what she wants to see change in Reno. “Like we are out here trying to touch so many people, but if it doesn't touch the right people that have the power to change, then where are we ever going to go?”

Solano currently works at a warehouse sorting mail, while Miranda works as a realtor. Miranda is also a mother and soccer coach, with help from her mother when it comes to child care.

Project UNITY’s Facebook banner features two women, hand in hand, surrounded by cacti and butterflies. The signs surrounding them detail the issues Project UNITY cares about, such as fighting against racism and for immigration rights. The word “unity” is shown in Spanish and English. Photo from the Project UNITY Facebook page with permission to use.

Hope Despite the Doubts

Besides the limitations of COVID, one of the biggest setbacks for the duo were the initial fears and doubts surrounding Project UNITY, and whether people would listen to them or not. 

“Maybe people's opinions in the beginning did get to me a little bit, but I feel like I'm way over that. And I feel like now it's just like, I know that I can make a change, whether it's just us or with a whole group of people,” Solano said. 

“I didn’t want to feel the failure,” Miranda said. “But, at a point it just got to where me and Ashley were like, ‘Okay, if it's just going to be the two of us protesting, the two of us doing things, the two of us feeding the homeless, the two of us doing things for one individual.’ If it means changing one individual's life, because they decided to contact two people, I wanted to help.”

Miranda and Solano pointed out how they acted as extra support for each other, saying that even if they didn’t know each other, they would still be doing what they are doing now. 

Solano (left) and Miranda (right) hold a Mexican flag at their first ICE protest on June 14, 2020. Photo from the Project UNITY Facebook page with permission to use.

Looking Forward to the Future

In the future, Miranda aims to be a soccer coach, so she can be the mentor to others like the one she had growing up. Beyond that, she wants to change Reno for the sake of her children and grandchildren. Solano plans on doing some sort of social work, while continuing to help others. 

“Because if you're always thinking, ‘Okay, I want to, maybe one day I want to make a change. Maybe one day, I want to do this or that.’ Then it's never going to happen until you say, ‘Okay, well, this is how I'm going to make it work.’ Even if it's on your own. Even if it's yourself believing in yourself with, um, the whole world against you. If you believe in yourself, it's your, it's your life.” Miranda said.

Miranda and Solano’s passion for social justice mirrors that of their generation. The two young adults have shown that age doesn’t matter when it comes to helping others.

“I definitely want people of our age or younger to know that if you really want to make a change, just go for it,” Solano said. “Don't worry about what people think, don't worry about who's next to you, who's behind you, who's believing in you. You have the power to make a change. And if it's really like you have good intentions sooner or later, people are going to see it.”

Reporting by Rachel Jackson for Our Town Reno

Streetplus Responds, Fires Out of Control Downtown Reno Ambassador

According to the Downtown Reno Partnership Business Improvement District, they “contract with Streetplus, a company with 25 years experience improving cities through hard work, to hire, train and manage” the Segway riding, uniformed team of ambassadors. The website goes on to say, “they work with Reno Police, Reno Fire, REMSA and City of Reno code enforcement to maintain the district.”

After sending a series of questions to Streetplus, including whether the ambassadors had proper training, we received an email from Steve Hillard, listed as President and Principal, with an address out of Exton, PA.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” he wrote back earlier this month. “Streetplus is committed to providing well-trained and professional personnel to perform ambassador duties for the Downtown Reno Partnership and we’ve provided these services since November 2018.  The Ambassadors receive initial and ongoing training structured around their job duties and the various situations they are required to deal with, to include protests.  After a thorough review of the situation, the person involved is no longer employed by Streetplus.”

We were still left wondering who this employee was, how long he had been with the ambassadors and whether there had been initial warnings to Reno team could have been better in tune with. We were also wondering about the ambassador’s own self regulation. Initially, we received a text message from another member of the Reno ambassadors saying since the shirtless man was not in uniform the pictures we posted were of no concern.

Here’s what one of our readers who lives in a tent communicated with us, before the protest altercation: “This "ambassador" Chris, was down at the tracks, where I live in my tent, a few nights ago. It was around 10pm and I was pretty much the only one about.  He came up drinking a beer, it didn't seem to be his first one either. He stood in clear area close enough for me to hear everything he was saying. When he first arrived, he was held up from a train stopped on the tracks, a common thing for them. When he was able to cross the tracks he started complaining about all the people living in tents and how there is no place that he could go and enjoy a little privacy any more. Then he started calling everyone that was living out there faggots and leaches. I sat there quietly not saying anything. He knew that I was keeping an eye on him, as were several others from their tents. He started going off about people shouldn't be watching him and that it was his job to everyone else. It was pretty clear that he was looking for a fight. After about 20 minutes of getting no reaction, he must have gotten tired of listening to himself rant and rave, so he left….. You could tell that he felt superior than everyone around there.” We could not independently confirm this account, but it left us concerned as well as to mechanisms to prevent such worrisome behavior from ambassadors.

Our Town Reno Reporting, May 2021