A New Dawn for More Affordable Housing in Northern Nevada?

A Lack of Inventory and Diminishing Cheaper Options

Local politicians are talking the talk about providing affordable housing and promoting different projects taking shape, but will these make a dent or are the prevailing forces of unaffordability to strong to counter? Home values in Reno have gone up over 25% in the past year, surging to above $500,000 for an average price point. Fewer and fewer entry level homes are being built. More than 40% of the local population rents, and those price points have escalated as well, to about $1600 a month on average.

One organization trying to help turn the tide is the Nevada Housing Coalition, a statewide nonprofit, whose stated goal is to help develop affordable housing through awareness, advocacy, helping create partnerships and promoting new solutions.  

Promoting “housing that has some level of income restriction for those who are able to access it,” is one of the goals, said executive director Christine Hess in a recent Our Town Reno interview. The former executive director for a local economic development organization in Wyoming has been at the helm of the Silver State housing organization for over a year and a half.

The technical definition for affordable housing is when people do not pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing. With current prices, workers would have to make about $30 an hour to meet this technical definition, placing affordable housing out of reach for most current residents. Its’ estimated more than 80-thousand units accessible for this population are needed.

“When we think about affordable housing and I talk about our inventory…we don’t have an inventory of housing that is affordable for many,” said Hess, highlighting the need for not only less luxury apartments in the area but a look into how rent control measures could alleviate the crunch felt by many.  

“We have a severe lack of inventory in the whole state, but certainly here in Reno/Sparks,” explained Hess. With people flooding to the area from outlying regions with the purchasing power of cash, this reduces the inventory and further undermines the Coalition's goal of affordable housing. While these locations may not be restricted or under any rent control measures, previous owners “have maintained the rents at a more affordable level,” said Hess. As more and more homes are purchased by cash buyers, these potential affordable housing solutions are taken off the market. In tandem with weekly hotels continuing to be demolished by developers, cheaper, accessible housing options for many are becoming rare.  

“Housing which serves Nevadans below 30% of area median income,” is the most important need overall, Hess reiterated.  

Built in 2017, the Sinclair Townhomes replaced two Victorian style houses that added charm and a unique character to the Midtown area but cost almost $500,000 in 2018. Currently, Zillow.com has them valued at $667,000.

Educating for Changes Down the Road and Pushing New Laws

“Our work is going to be more on the advocacy side and education,” said Hess. “Where you’re going to see us active and working to help those who do build our affordable housing is making sure we have the resources for that.” The organization is currently focused on advocating that the state allocate a portion of its fiscal recovery funds from the American Rescue Plan to go towards affordable housing. The Coalition has been active statewide as well as locally “to make sure we advocate for those additional and new resources to come to affordable housing,” explained Hess.

Affordable housing goes beyond finding a place to live. It affects local health, education, and the workforce explained Hess. Stable and secure housing is a  foundation for Nevadans to grow. With inventory so low for both renters and home ownership, the impact of a lack of affordable housing will send ripples into other facets of the community and Hess understands these risks and is working to mitigate them.  

This past summer the Coalition helped advance several bills to the state legislature and two made it to Governor Steve Sisolak’s desk which he signed into law, Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill TK. Senate Bill 12 created an “early notification by affordable housing owners when the affordability restrictions were about to expire,” said Hess. The bill now requires an owner of housing that is financed by tax credits to provide notice before terminating the reduced rate. These  early notifications now go to local governments, the Nevada Housing Division, and affordable housing developers 12 months before restrictions expire, giving tenants time to plan accordingly. Hess said this bill is focused on preserving existing affordable housing. 

Senate Bill 284, which was carried by local state Senator Julia Ratti, made changes and technical fixes, including removing a sunset clause for the state tax credits for affordable housing passed in 2019. A sunset clause puts a lifespan on a given bill. With that gone, various affordable housing tax credits will remain in effect past the previous sunset year of 2023.

“It’s really important to remove that sunset because, of course due to Covid, development was strange and different,” explained Hess. The Coalition looked ahead and saw the need for the tax credits to remain in place to encourage the development of affordable housing. 

“Staying in tune and abreast of local housing news is one thing I would ask my community members,” explained Hess about how people can get involved and help address the affordable housing crisis. She also recommended becoming a member of the Nevada Housing Coalition. She knows it is important to think of affordable housing as part of our community. To look at those who most need low-income housing as community members. “They are often those that make our community go round, teachers, our public safety officers, some of our frontline healthcare workers,” Hess said. “They are our most vulnerable, our seniors, those that are on disability, some of our veterans,” she said. Affordable housing is a way to look towards the future. It can allow people to establish a career in the area and raise a family. 

While we are at crisis levels due to lack of affordable housing and low wages, Hess remains optimistic, but realistic. She does see progress in the near future. “I think that the federal government has brought forward opportunities for affordable housing. We are on the verge of a transformation when it comes to affordable housing. If we can work together to maximize and coordinate the resources that are at the table,” Hess said. Those feeling priced out already in northern Nevada but wanting to stay hope changes come before they are forced to leave.

How Exactly Should We Spend American Rescue Plan Money?

In mid-September, the coalition recommended Nevada invest $500 million from the American Rescue Plan Act into affordable housing, with more than half to build multi-family rentals, including units for people earning below 30% of area median income and those in need of wraparound services. 

Nevada is receiving over $6 billion in all from the federal relief package, much of it which could be used to help with what many in the state see as the most pressing issue.

According to a recent article in the Nevada Current, the Nevada Housing Coalition is also recommending the state allocate:  “$125 million to preserve existing affordable housing stock; $50 million to invest in land through Community Land Trusts; $50 million for creating more affordable for-sale homes along with expanding down payment assistance, especially for groups hardest hit by the pandemic.”

Our Town Reno Reporting by Richard Bednarski

Robert, Waiting for "Death," Burritos and Cigarettes on the Streets of Reno

When you walk past the Space Whale in downtown Reno, currently, you will usually find friendly 58-year-old Robert, a Missouri native, now unhoused in Reno, sitting there with his group of friends. I found him there on an arid Saturday afternoon. But this time he was alone. He was sitting there with his back towards the busy main street, his hands clenched tightly on the side pavement in order to provide support to his bent back which perennially hurts due to severe osteoporosis. 

Robert has no money and no family, having recently lost a brother he was close to. With nowhere to go, he says his only rescuer from this would be “death.”  He was living for a while at the 777 motel on Virginia street doing odd jobs.

“My brother … he passed away a year or so ago and my unemployment ran out … I was working for more or less room and board. But then for the guy that I was working, doing this work for, I got injured,” he said at the start of our interview. Some of his thoughts ramble and are hard to understand. He did pick ups it seems. One time, he was supposed to walk several miles to help the man’s father. “That's when my back got hurt and my ankles are really in bad shape, swelled up. I could hardly walk. And he wanted me to walk all the way down to the CVS pharmacy … but I told him, no, that's all. I went down and prayed…”

He says they communicated by walkie-talkie and that he would also clean rooms at the motel, but that one day, the gig was suddenly up, and he was asked to return the device and turn in his keys.

Robert says he is in the middle of negotiating trying to get another previous job back as an assistant supervisor of porter services on the day shift at the Cal Neva casino but he is unsure if that will succeed. Several volunteer groups like the Reno Burrito Project occasionally visit Robert on their rounds and he enjoys the food and conversations.

There’s also Miami (name changed, in shadow picture above) who came by and handed two cigarettes to Robert while I was speaking to him. Robert had an instant gleam on his face and was happy to see the “good kid” around. Miami himself lives off provisions that the St. Vincent Catholic Charities provides but makes sure he helps Robert and many like him, with whatever little he has.

Robert also mentioned that the recent smoke from California fires was sometimes unbearable. But he said, as a heavy smoker “I can deal with it probably better than most.”

His skin on his arms had several blisters. Robert has heard of the new mega shelter Nevada Cares Campus but doesn’t go. He says it hasn’t been “what it was cracked up to be.” He says he’s heard that in order to reside on the campus, people have to have their own soap, towel and blanket. He says he’s not going to steal those. While there have been issues with blankets and towels not always available at the campus, these are not required for admittance.

My classmate Shelby and I visited Robert the next day to help him with some pillows for his back and some sunscreen and aloe for his flaky skin. We were almost heartbroken to not find him in the same spot, but then he waved at us from a distance.

Reporting by Kingkini Sengupta for Our Town Reno, September 2021

Washoe County and Alexis Hill Now in Charge of Regional Services to Help the Unhoused

Contracts and Food at the NCC Compound Under Review

The contract for Volunteers of America as operators of the COVID emergency funded 600 bed big tent Nevada Cares Campus was recently renewed until the end of June 2022, and it remains unclear to us until when the Karma Box Project contract will go to run the adjoining safe camp. 

“We couldn't just go out to bid with a new provider because that just would've been too much for us to do, so we will be going out to bid, next year on a new contract with VOA,” Hill said in our interview. “Additionally, we're using our American Recovery Act funds, those COVID funds that Congress gave us to give additional incentives to work for VOA, bonuses, pay increases because, the staffing isn't where it needs to be. And the city of Reno is also partnering with us on that.”

As far as Karma Box, “that's also going to be up in, I think, less than a year for their contract,” Hill said. “It was a pilot project. We started, and now there will be an opportunity for the community to apply for that, if that's something that they're interested in, in the coming months.” The last document Our Town Reno was able to locate was a May 2021 three-month contract with monthly renewals.  There have been concerns from advocates about how both organizations are handling their contracts. 

We did find out Hill shares some of the concerns of advocates from food, to inadequate facilities, and insufficient staffing at the campus, and that new decisions could be made soon on meals. 

“I know restroom facilities and the laundry facilities are huge issues, that we've had with implementation,” Hill said. “So we're scrapping [with] what we’ve got and we're moving with indoor restrooms, connected facilities, because right now they're outside. And then we're working on a new laundry facility that meets the need for as many people are on the campus.” She said the new bathrooms will take a while though before even being contracted for and then installed.

Hill said she’s also aware of concerns about the quality of the food being served by The Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission and Catholic Charities, with possible changes looming.

“We’re actually going out to contract with food services, Washoe county will be,” Hill promised.  “We are well aware of the concerns with that, and we want food to be also served in a way that isn't wasteful. Right now, you're just getting a tray and you may not like everything on your tray. And you may have diet restrictions or you may have religious exemptions. So we need to make sure that we're working on that as well. So that's something that we'll be going out to bid on. “

Better Staffing Needed at Cares Campus

A main priority, Hill reiterated several times during the interview, is getting more and better staff for VOA. “We are well aware that the staffing is not where it needs to be,” she repeated several times. “That's why we're creating this bonus pay and incentives. And it's tough in America right now for any organization that's hiring. It's just a competitive job market. And, we have to rise to that occasion and working with this population is a special person.”

She said part of the challenge is getting staff who are not just trying to keep the campus afloat, but actually helping people on their journey to get back into housing. “We don't have enough staffing to do that currently, but we are hiring up, to have those caseworkers where they can meet people where they're at again, look at, you know, this is your case history, this is your track record,” Hill said. “Some of these people that are living in the campus have jobs and let me find the right fit for you because it's not going to be the right fit for every other person. So it may be transitional housing. It may be straight into Section 8 housing and maybe into a lower income apartment house.”

More Washoe County staff has also been hired to work solely on homeless services. “We’ve hired 10, this fiscal year, before we had two devoted homeless services folks in the region. And so we're looking at a lot more hands-on full-time folks,” Hill said.

New spending she says will also go toward a day center, expanding the safe camp, support services, a building for counseling, housing and job placement, as well as transitional housing dorm units on site, and eventually also adding the inside bathrooms and a better laundry facility. 

“We’re also looking at creating some privacy for folks who are in that campus right now. It's pretty packed in there,” Hill acknowledged. “What we'll be doing is creating incentives for folks who are looking for housing to go to that next step. So working with each person where they're at, they're all on a different part of their continuum, the continuum of care on their housing journey and finding where they best fit within the region's services.” 

What about Winter Plans and Ongoing Sweeps?

Advocates also complain it seems plans are made at the last second to help the unhoused, with proper cooling, warming or get out of the smoke centers beyond the Cares Campus, still not available. Hill said plans are underway for the upcoming winter but that she wasn’t ready at the time of our interview to reveal them all to Our Town Reno.

She did speak of the need for new tents at the safe camp. “The tents are not good for the winter. So we've got a tent plan for how we're going to keep people warm during the winter. I'm not ready to release that quite yet today.” She made guarantees though. “People are not going to be suffering on our government facility, but, that will be something that I'll be releasing next week, but, we'll be doing that. And then we've got some plans in the works for warming facilities as well on site.”

Court rulings forbid any sweeps when no shelter space is available but Hill said cots have been available even when the campus is at full capacity. Unlike advocates, the language she used seemed not to oppose ongoing sweeps.

“It's not full because there's I think a hundred cots that you can still fit into the cafeteria areas,” Hill told us. “We don't really do sweeps at the county [level], that's an enforcement situation on the city of Reno and the city of Sparks, just because they're in the midst of all that. I think it's really important that we make contact with people who are living on the river and who are living on the street, whether it's a police officer or whether it's someone from Karma Box that is getting their name, and seeing how we can help them. That's really important and part of this process of ensuring that we get people the help that they need and get them into housing.”

What About Relations with Volunteer Groups?

Several people staying at the campus have told Our Town Reno their happiest moments are when volunteers show up with healthy community meals, needed supplies, guidance and friendly conversation just outside the compound’s gates. But the volunteers say they feel tension coming from security guards and other staff.

“I think that that is really important that we work with all of these community groups and make sure that they're doing what we need, we're doing what they need and having that dialogue,” Hill said of establishing a framework going forward. “And so that's what I'm hoping to see CHAB will help facilitate because bringing these folks to the table and ensuring that we're all on the same page, because I think the one issue is, bringing food on site on the campus that creates some problems because we already have a contract, which we're paying for food, in the region. So figuring out how to find that balance between, you know, how can we give people the nutrition that they need and then also, how can we ensure that this group feels part of the process. I think that that's a balance we're going to have to strike, and hopefully everyone's excited to work with us because we're excited to work with them on that,” she said.

Hill also defended new signs outside the Cares Campus, which are adding checks to the entrance. “It's very important that we know who's coming in. .. If we don't know who you are, we cannot help you. Additionally, sadly, there's not a lot of people, but there are some people who go into the campus who are there to disrupt, who are there to create a problem.”

Struggling to Find Housing for Those Ready for It

One main frustration for Hill has been seeing people at the campus qualifying for housing and ready to move but with no housing available.

She said she knows of 15 people in the safe camp ready to be housed, but there’s no housing for them right now.  “They have their IDs, they're in the system because we have a housing specialist who's been working through the safe camp because the county has been operating that since day one in June, to move out into the housing,” Hill said. “[But] they're on waiting lists, [so] we need to grow the capacity… And that takes time because emergency housing is not a full-time housing solution and it's unacceptable for people to live there for years. That's not going to happen at the county level. We are going to get people housed, in an appropriate place because we are pushing for that housing first. So you don't have to earn housing. We at Washoe county, we're going to ensure that you actually get in the right place, get rehabilitated and go on your journey.”

Hill said the county will also work to help create this much needed lower income housing, including looking into inclusionary zoning. “How do we get that very low AMI [Area Median Income] or wraparound service housing, and then how [do] we work with the cities to make sure that they're also doing more affordable housing and that missing middle housing… How do we make sure that our communities have … that anyone who wants to work in Reno can live in Reno and same thing with Sparks or Washoe County?”

For others, she said there needs to be more supervision. “There are some people that also we know, cannot live on their own… Some of these people that have been at the [former] Record Street campus and now moved to the Cares Campus. There [are people] who aren't mentally ill enough to be in the state's care, but are in a situation where they cannot live by themselves and need extra support. And so that's where permanent supportive housing comes in. And that's something we're working with the Reno Housing Authority to ensure that we get folks housed as well. “

Regionalizing Efforts and Following the Built for Zero Model

Overall, Hill sees the regionalization of homeless services, and following the model of the Built for Zero program, as steps in the right direction to helping the unhoused. 

“When I was compelled to run for office, one of the things that I saw with our homeless services is that everyone was doing their own thing,” she said. “And I think, well intentioned certainly, but the city of Reno had the men's shelter, the CAC, Washoe County had the women's shelter, Our Place on Galletti,  and the city of Sparks was doing their HOPES team, which was helping with the softer, kinder approach to enforcement on the streets, and in the parks. And then we have, 30 [or so] nonprofit organizations that are focused in the homeless realm, but everyone was again doing their own thing. And so one of the best practices of the Built for Zero program, which the county has signed on to as well as many other communities throughout the country, is that they give you tools to regionalize your homeless services,” Hill said.

The first step in Built for Zero, which Hill pointed out received a $100 million MacArthur foundation award, is to “build an integrated, command center team that can take responsibility for getting to zero,” as in zero people unhoused.  

“You can't fix the problem unless one person's in charge and kind of operating all the amazing arms of investment and different organizations to ensure that you're doing the right thing,” Hill said in our interview. “So that's one of the main reasons that it's really exciting to have the county in charge, because again, it was fragmented before. So now the county has the continuum of care. And what that means is that we will now receive funding through HUD that we can apply for, for homeless services directly. The city of Reno has been applying for that funding, but because we're a higher population in Washoe county, we can receive higher amounts of funding and working regionally with the city of Reno and the city of Sparks, as well as with our nonprofit partners. We can also look to really make those dollars stretch.”

There have been social media posts about the food being served at the Campus, which Hill said is closely being looked into as part on oncoming changes.

More Money Coming In and the By-Name List

Hill says the new leadership structure and newly arrived $38 million of American Recovery funds will allow to make the improvements she talked about at the Cares Campus. More money will come from Reno, Sparks and local fundraising efforts.  “Future iterations of this will have a foundation element and a nonprofit element where people can give cash,” she said. “And then there will be, you know, opportunities for the county to invest as well. This is a regional program. Homelessness doesn't know jurisdictional lines, whether you're in unincorporated Washoe county or the city of Sparks or the city of Reno.”

The second component of the Built for Zero model is the By-Name List to “Build a comprehensive real-time, by-name list of all single adults experiencing homelessness in our community.”

“It’s also working with our nonprofit partners to ensure that they use the same system,” Hill said.  “We don't currently have a database where everyone is using the same system. So that's our next step is getting everyone  incentivized to get on that same system.”

At this point, the system isn’t even being followed at the Cares Campus she said. “We [want to] have a dashboard on our website, that you hold us accountable to. The old way of doing things was we had so many contacts this month with someone who is seeking housing, that's not cutting it. So to get down to that zero, you have to have a list that shows that people have moved on. We don't have those statistics. I'm assuming they're not great to be perfectly honest. We haven't had the staffing moving from Record Street, expanding into this giant campus, to get people housed, but that's why the county's taking over and why our partners have devoted these resources to additional operating support in this giant capital campaign, the biggest investment we've ever seen in this region for homelessness since I've been around to ensure that we're meeting the need, and meeting people where they're at, so we can get the results that the community expects for the money.” 

Hill remains hopeful despite all the current challenges. “I will tell you, this is one of the best times in my career working for government. I worked in government as a staff member in policy and in planning for over a decade that I've seen a lot of federal funding. That's huge. The fact that we're able to make these investments and you have these partnerships that I don't know if that would have happened without the federal funding. That's another silver lining of the COVID situation. Although, because of COVID, we do have additional homelessness because it's people who have lost their jobs and cannot live anywhere in our community.”

Working together will be crucial to the end goal of getting people now living on the streets permanent housing. “How do we support each other in all of these efforts and not pointing fingers and actually let's just do it, let's get the job done,” Hill concluded.

Our Town Reporting by Richard Bednarski

Trippy Casino Experiences of Reno

With a nose full of floral perfume and stale tobacco smoke, walking through glittering hallways is something that feels far from home for most. But, falling asleep at the Keno machine with ice melting in a free drink is someone’s bed for the night. Muffled beeps and an echoed yell reverberate through the mirrored rooms. Folks have an overpriced chicken fried steak for a 12am dinner on a fake balcony just adjacent to the casino floor. A security guard sleeps and wakes himself up when he falls sideways on his bench. Vacationing families wander through the halls, lugging suitcases and neck pillows, attempting to conquer the myriad of escalators and identical hallways. If someone were to die and get stuck in a limbo state, this is where they’d be. Individuals meandering, trying to find the bar, or a bathroom to no avail. No one knows how long they have actually been inside the walls of this game house. Only that their Moscow Mule is empty and 26 on red.

Photos and Essay by John L’Etoile shared with Our Town Reno

Center Street Cycle Track Derailment?

Agenda item D.1. tomorrow states there will be a staff report for possible action on completing a “Virginia Street Urban Placemaking Study in an amount not to exceed $150,000.” This has come to the angry surprise of some local bicycling enthusiasts who fear it will conflict with previous studies starting to pave the way for a Center street bike lane linking Midtown to UNR.

The Truckee Meadows Bicycle Alliance is organizing an urgent meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at Craft wine and beer on Martin Street to discuss strategy ahead of Wednesday’s public comments. Free "Save Center Street Cycletrack" tee-shirts will also be handed out.

“As a reminder, we will be attending the Reno City Council Meeting tomorrow at 9:30 AM to oppose Item D.1, a place-making study of downtown which the RTC [Regional Transportation Commission] has used as a reason to slow progress on the protected Center Street Cycletrack,” its latest statement reads.

The message by the alliance’s current president Ky Plaskon says there is no opposition to having bike lanes on Virginia Street, but rather is against “the pause on a priority project, the diversion of funds from the Center Street Cycletrack for use on road improvement and using funds for studying another street that has already been studied. We are proposing to ask the City Council to oppose the placemaking study and send a message to City Staff and RTC to get the Cycletrack project rolling again and stop increasing costs.”

There have been other road projects to make Reno more bike friendly, but many have been slow going or didn’t meet initial expectations, such as here in Midtown. Many cyclists still feel unsafe biking in many parts of town. Photo by Richard Bednarski.

An earlier message by Manny Becerra published on the alliance’s website put the blame on casinos. “Unfortunately, the City and RTC have put a pause on the approved project at the urging of The Row Casinos to study a bike path on Virginia street instead,” he alleged in a written statement. “This is causing months and even years of delays. That is despite the concept of a bike path on Virginia having already been studied in April 2019. Special event closures and traffic on Virginia led to a dismissal of the idea of a bike path on Virginia Street because it would “cause unacceptable traffic operations throughout the corridor”. Still, the City and RTC are going to spend $150,000 on a public opinion survey to study it again, putting months and even years of delays on this project.”

Efforts to establish better bike lanes in downtown areas go years back, frustrating many cyclists.

This week’s Barber Brief quoting a recent Reno News and Review article stated an attorney for downtown casinos known as The ROW Michael Pagni “expressed the company’s desire to have the protected bike lanes moved to Virginia Street, calling it “a more appropriate corridor” and arguing that “Virginia Street provides greater access to retail and other business uses which are likely to be frequented by bicyclists,” among other advantages.

The Brief then goes into a longer analysis of the overall future of Virginia street, encumbering perhaps the excruciatingly slow pedaling in getting more bike lanes in needed corridors to turn Reno into a safer, greener, more bike-friendly Biggest Little City.

Our Town Reno Reporting, September 7th 2021

Local Mutual Aid Groups Helping More People in Need Breathe Safely

As part of its growing endeavors, Reno / Sparks Mutual Aid is now teaming up with other groups, both local and in California, to provide quality N 95 respirator masks, to those in need, many of them living mostly outside, through a nearly permanent slog of dangerous air quality and threatening COVID variants. 

The initiative as one of the coordinators Meghan Archambault explained to Our Town Reno on a recent phone call is called Help Sierra Breathe.  “What happened is somebody from Mask Oakland reached out to Heather Carpenter from Washoe Basics and said, you know, I've been wanting to see about helping groups in Reno and in the surrounding Lake Tahoe area to get these N 95 masks out. Mask Oakland originally started doing this in 2017 with the wildfires that they were seeing in California. And so she let me know, and I said that Reno Sparks Mutual Aid would most definitely be interested in helping get masks out.”

In addition to the Bay Area non-profit, which helped get access to masks which can be occasionally difficult to source through its existing vendor network, the initiative also brings together Puff Puff Pass the Love and Washoe Basics here in Northern Nevada, as well as Mask Sonoma, Rural Resistance Placerville and Black Lives Matter Eldorado County.  

“We quickly realized that not any one group could handle getting N 95 masks out to the entire Sierra Nevada region because the Sierra Nevada region is what's being affected with the wildfire smoke, which is giving us the worst air quality consistently, honestly, in the world,” Archambault said. 

With financial tax-deductible donations, Reno / Sparks Mutual Aid and Washoe Basics are buying masks in bulk orders from Mask Oakland, and then distributing them themselves and via other groups. Archambault recently went herself with her husband distributing close to a hundred along the Truckee River. 

“It does damage before you even realize it's doing damage, with the wildfire smoke, it does make you more vulnerable to not only health effects from it, but to COVID-19 because it's causing lung damage,” Archambault said of the double whammy the region is currently getting. 

Wide Outreach and Distribution Amid Terrible AQI

More masks are being distributed to fire evacuation shelters, outside the Nevada Cares Campus during outreach gatherings and to people living in motels.  

“A lot of the people that we have in our group, they walk a lot,” Archambault said of the mutual aid community, which includes both people being helped, and those doing the helping, which also overlaps. “They take the bus a lot. So they're outside more than your average person in this smoke. We also have people that are individuals we help frequently who are immunocompromised, who haven't really been going out because of the fact that COVID-19 was going on. And now should they go out? Not only do they have to worry about COVID, they have to worry about the wildfire smoke. And so we've been able to get those individuals N95s for when they have to be outside as well. We're seeing communities that have 400, 500, 600 AQI and we've had days like that here in Reno, where they canceled school. ” 

One recipient who has been staying at the Washoe County run safe camp said the mask has been helpful to feel more secure.  Another recipient living in subsidized housing with poor ventilation and severe asthma was also “incredibly grateful.”  Archambault said poor ventilation is a problem in many apartments and motels.  

“Some of them have old style, swamp coolers, which are just blowing air in from outside. So it's basically blowing in cooled off smoke. It’s really uncomfortable for a lot of people and even more so for the ones who can't really escape it, whether it's because of their housing or lack thereof or the fact that they have to take the bus and walk a lot or whatever. There was one woman I talked to downtown who was unsheltered. And she said that she had to get taken to the hospital because she just couldn't breathe.”

Archambault said that woman has been fearful of going to a shelter with too many other people around her as well.  “Either capacity is limited or they're then taking another risk of being around other people and potentially catching the Delta variant. And it's kind of this whole snowball effect of do I want to go inside a shelter and be around other people? I mean, frankly, the city of Reno could do well to open something like a clean air shelter, and get air purifiers down at [the] Cares [campus]. Our primary concern with this initiative is making sure these masks get to people who would have frankly, no shot of accessing them if they weren't able to get them from us.” 

More donations, she explains, means new orders and more quality masks being given to people who need the most, and can’t afford them themselves.   “The n95s that we get, they're the ones that have a tight seal around the face, straps going around the back of the head. And they have a bracket that can be fitted just by pressing it against your nose, but they really do provide protection. I have severe asthma. I was running around in the smoke for hours just a few days ago and I had no problems and they really do provide a lot of protection.”

The mask program has been a collaboration amplifying capabilities of different mutual aid groups including the Reno/Sparks Mutual Aid, which has a thriving community on Facebook.

Organizational Virtues of Mutual Aid Groups

Organizationally, this has been a step up for the group she helps coordinate. “One of the biggest lessons that we're learning is that every single group has its own ideas of how to distribute and how to contribute and how to come together. The community is going to be different when we all have this spirit of wanting to help others, especially the most vulnerable members of our community. It functions so well because while we all have different ideas and different ways of doing things, we all have a general goal, which is to help each other. And when we're able to bring a coalition together like this, not only are we able to share resources and volunteers and that kind of thing, but we're also able to share ideas and camaraderie and everything else. Because when we talk about mutual aid, one of the biggest ideas behind it is that it's community helping community. So it's been easy for us as groups to, to incorporate this distribution into work we were already doing.”

Some people being helped still don’t understand there are no strings attached to the help. “I had a lady who asked me for a pen… so that she could fill out my “BS form.” And I said, what form? And she goes, well you people always have some kind of form or something I got to fill out. And I said, no. I said, we've got water too.  And she looked at me and she goes, well, ‘what do I got to do is just take it.’ And she was just stunned that we were able to do that.”

Archambault is disappointed more isn’t being done at the Cares Campus, but is more than happy to step in with help.  “Those are folks who are outside pretty much 24/7. And you can't tell me that the ventilation at the Cares building itself is going to help with the wildfire smoke. Especially if people are coming in and out constantly. It's disappointing to see the city leave vulnerable populations behind because unfortunately it feels like that's been somewhat of a pattern where they almost are kind of missing the forest for the trees.” 

For those who want to help with their time, the Sierra Breathe website also has a volunteer section, with different roles from coordination to distribution and social media. From those donating, there’s possibilities for recurring monthly payments or one-time donations.  

“None of us are paid doing this,” Archambault said, keeping in line with the mutual aid philosophy. “This is going back into the effort, to protect vulnerable people. It can be so toxic that the city is saying, do not leave your house, remain indoors, you know, run your air purifiers. Don't run run cooling systems that have an external intake. That's well and good, but that doesn't help the person who's sleeping down on City Plaza because they don't have a place to stay, because they don't feel comfortable in a shelter environment that doesn't help them. So we're the ones who are going back out and we're helping them.”

Archambault said this project can also be an entry point for people to get into the local mutual aid movement and help in many different ways. 

“They can join our Facebook group. One of the biggest things that we sometimes need help with is when we have somebody who is offering something, and then somebody says, yes, I need that thing that you are offering. But I don't have a car…. So we love drivers. We love people who are willing to step in and say, I have a car, I have a truck. I have the time I will come to your house and drop it off to your house. That is one of the easiest, biggest ways that people can get involved right now with the things that we're doing online, besides helping to distribute masks, or donating. I would say that the most crucial aspect of this coalition is we need the monetary donations to keep going. So getting involved in the mutual aid movement can seem intimidating, but there's little tiny things that you can do that are a part of mutual aid that are so appreciated and that are so wanted and so needed by people who need help. It's it's not something to be intimidated about. If you want something to do, I will help you find something to do.”

Reporting by Our Town Reno, September 2021

Evacuated to Reno as Caldor Fire Threatens Their Homes in South Tahoe

When the Caldor fire ignited over two weeks ago on August 14, Timothy Pritchard was not concerned. It was well over 35 miles away and on the other side of the mountains. By August 29th, Pritchard said he could not sleep due to the thick smoke and haunting orange glow in the night sky. The fire was knocking on the door of South Lake Tahoe, a community of about 22,000 people, many of them working class. 

“I felt nervous, I didn’t think it was going to come down to that,” said Pritchard as he sat on his cot, resting his knee, which was in a brace and recovering from recent knee surgery. He was in the corner of a massive room at the Reno/Sparks Convention Center, which has become an American Red Cross evacuation center for folks fleeing the flames. “And then I started panicking to get everything together.” 

The Caldor fire has burned over 200,000 acres and is only 18% contained and is now forcing evacuations in Douglas County. The fire is only the second fire to successively burn across the mountain divide in California’s history. The first was the Dixie fire, which is still burning less than 100 miles to the north. 

“We left at two o’clock in the afternoon and I didn’t get the bus until almost six,” Pritchard said. After arriving at an evacuation center in Carson City and learning it was full, the bus brought everyone up to the convention center. “By the time we got here it was like nine-thirty, ten o’clock, so it was a long day. “

Pritchard has lived in South Lake Tahoe for about 13 years and says it was like a dream. He never thought a fire would get this close. “It jumped so quick because of the winds,” he said. This fire has spread so rapidly fueled by hot and dry conditions as the west is deep in drought. 

“They are saying we might be here eight days ‘cause it’s still burning pretty good,” Pritchard said. He remarked on the ghost town feel of South Lake Tahoe. At times he could not see across the street because the smoke was so thick. “When you go out you have to have a mask and put your hoodie on because the ashes are falling on you,” he recalled. 

The massive room is set up with over 400 socially distanced cots and as of August 31, there were about a dozen evacuees staying there.  The American Red Cross evacuation center is off of South Virginia Street, across from the Dutch Brothers coffee shop in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. 

“From what I understand we have room for 400 to 500 people,” said Steve Walsh, the Regional Communications and Marketing Director for the American Red Cross. He had arrived earlier in the morning on Tuesday after driving up from Sacramento. “We are definitely ready to receive more.”

The American Red Cross has set up hundreds of cots for people. They have food ready to go, bottles of water, and charging stations established inside. There are about a dozen volunteers helping to run the operations of the shelter. There is plenty of space and each cot is about six feet from the nearest one and all COVID-19 precautions are in place, including testing. 

“We are in the middle of an incredibly heavy fire season,” said Walsh. “If you live in an area where you think it could be evacuated or is prone to fires, think ahead.” He urged people to remain vigilant and plan ahead. He also said the Red Cross is fully supplied for these types of situations. 

“If you want to support Red Cross evacuation services, donate to us financially,” said Walsh. He said this is the most impactful way to help in an evacuation like South Lake Tahoe. It focuses the resources directly on what they have identified is needed the most. Walsh expects more people to arrive and fill up the evacuation center and said the doors are open to anyone needing a place to stay. After that they help each individual evacuee in taking the next steps towards safe shelter, either after or before they can return home. 

“Every summer is ‘the worst on record’...and every next summer, that is surpassed,” said Walsh. As the drought worsens across the west, areas of forest are drying out sooner and this leads to more fuels and hotter fires. 

Canfield left behind a household of plants and is now stranded in Reno without a car or many possessions. 

“It was horrible, I had to pack up my meds and a little bit of clothing that I needed and come here,” said Brandon Canfield. He was sitting on his cot with few possessions. 

He was surprised at the evacuation and remembers the Angora fire, which burned only 3,100 acres in 2007, but destroyed over 200 homes. Canfield remembers seeing flames during that fire and not being evacuated.  

“I think they are overreacting and they don’t need to evacuate everybody,” he said with frustration. Canfield misses his home. He is stranded in Reno, without a car, and not sure what to do. “It’s horrible for people who are evacuating.”

He tried booking a room at the Atlantis Resort but could not afford the $200 a night price tag. He struggles to sleep in such a large room and is concerned about what it will be like when it fills up with evacuees. “[I am] stuck in Reno with a little bit of money and nothing to do,” Canfield said. “Being homeless in Reno basically.”

Our Town Reno Reporting and Photos by Richard Bednarski

Jessica Castro, A Powerful Advocate for the Unhoused Passing On Love, Nourishment and So Much More

As the heat faded and light winds moved some smoke out of the area, local community member Jessica Castro parked her car outside the CARES Campus on a recent early evening. A line of unhoused people began forming outside the security gate as people knew what was inside Castro’s trunk. 

“I would say we hand out at least 160 waters a day,” said Castro as she took a break from hurriedly passing out waters and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Conversations from the line of people filled the air. She has been coming down to the emergency homeless shelter two to three times a week since police sweeps of encampments around town began back in June. 

The line of people patiently waiting quickly grew to over 40 individuals and would eventually swell to nearly 100. Some in wheelchairs, others with pets, and all looking for cold water, something several said is not regularly provided at the CARES campus. 

On this day, Castro has two people helping her, but sometimes it is only her. Bill Sims has been helping her for almost two months. “People were protesting at the Believe sign and through that I got connected with Jessica,” explained Sims about how he started helping Castro soon after the police sweeps began earlier this summer. 

Sims believes the largest challenge facing Castro is the amount of need people have while staying at the compound. “But I am glad they are lining up to actually get hydrated and get fed,” said Sims. He believes helping out unhoused people should not fall on a small subset of people. “If we had more of the community out here helping our unhoused neighbors then we would be able to help them more.”

Within a half-hour all the food that Jessica Castro brought was gone and she called a friend to bring more. In the meantime, she gave anyone who needed it a cold bottle of water, hygiene kits, toothbrushes, and feminine hygiene supplies. 

“As you see they’re my friends at this point, I know them, they come talk to me, I see them three times a week at this point, they are very welcoming,” Castro said. The supplies are funded with help from the community. “Because I do it on such a large scale all of the time, I’ve had to fund quite a bit of it myself,” she said.

Castro identified red tape as her biggest hurdle to being able to provide cold water and food to people staying at the CARES Campus. “Whether it be the security staff trying to shut me down, whether it be the VOA staff not wanting me here, making it uncomfortable for me,” said Castro, “or the cops constantly circling like sharks.” Despite these many hurdles, Castro pushes ahead. “They know that I’m here, they know that I care, they know that I'm going to be here again in a couple of days, regardless.” The smiles and joy she she's in their eyes is the most rewarding part of the work she is doing. 

“I think they’re trying to do a good job here...the mental health of people here needs to be addressed more,” explained Robert Barbor. His arms were full of water, fruit, and sandwiches for him and his partner, who waited inside the CARES Campus. He has been staying here for about two weeks after getting kicked out of his apartment due to what he said were minor lease violations. 

Recently kicked out from his last apartment, Robert Barbor is an example of someone sleeping at the compound and being helped by Castro.

While he has been placed on a waiting list he fears this could be a long predicament. The average rent in Reno recently went up to about $1600 a month. And under the general rule of spending a third of your income on housing, a person would have to make about $30 an hour to afford that. It’s also out of reach for those on senior or disability social security, or those working for much lower wages.

Barbor recently started working at the Silver Legacy and is grateful to have a place to shower.  “The biggest struggle I think is the food and being able to sleep at night,” Barbor said about staying at the CARES Campus. He also talked about people getting personal belongings stolen and that more security would help. 

“People that come and drop food off are definitely awesome,” he said. 

Jessica Castro, a local auditor at a call center, who was previously unhoused herself, got her start helping out with the unhoused community when she joined a local group, Puff Puff Pass the Love. She credits them for getting her to take her experience as being unhoused herself, and paying it forward now that she is rebounding from past trauma.

“Every single person turned away from me,” Castro said about her own homeless experience, and going through traumatic events she has detailed bravely at recent City Council meetings and on her own social media posts. “Not one person looked at me and said ‘are you okay, what can I do for you?’”

“I am not going to judge somebody if they are actively doing drugs,” Castro said, pointing back to her own experiences. She has lived on the streets and understands why people resort to drugs and sex work to survive. She explained how some unhoused people will also purposely place garbage around their camp to make it look less valuable in order to protect themselves and belongings. 

“When your whole existence is basically just surviving, you understand a lot more,” she said.

In the short time Castro has been working with the unhoused community, she has become friends with many of them. She knows their first names and seems to know something about everyone. When passing out water she makes sure to have a conversation with each person, to make the transaction human and compassionate.

Castro says those staying at the CARES campus are constantly surrounded by a hostile environment and most of the workers make people feel uncomfortable. “I could go on and on, there is so much they’re facing and they are being swept to a place that is not taking care of them,” Castro said. She has brought forward these complaints at many city council meetings and on her own social media, working on different projects to try as best she can to make conditions inside the campus more comfortable, such as having simple entertainment such as books and board games.

“Unfortunately, most of the city doesn’t see the things that I see,” Castro said. 

Our Town Reporting and Photo Series by Richard Bednarski

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