Jane Dunn, Reaching Out Nutritiously to Our Neighbors with the Reno Posse

Jane Dunn, 65, has been feeding her unhoused neighbors since she moved to Reno over 30 years ago. She started by taking leftover food to people sitting across the street from her house, but now she and the Reno Posse serve 100 meals every week to those in need.

The Reno Posse, started by Dunn over five years ago, started in her home kitchen, but has moved several times until finding its most recent home in the kitchen of the Reno Buddhist Center. Dinners that include an entree, sides, a home cooked dessert, snacks, juice and water are cooked, packed and sent out to be served downtown.

“Very often you miss the mark and you ask someone if they are hungry or if they want something to eat and they’re totally taken aback by that because they’ve never been in that situation,” Dunn said. “But they’re never offended. That’s the nice thing about this work. You don’t have to ask people if they’re homeless, you just have to ask them if they’re hungry.”

The Reno Posse is funded through donations and runs on volunteers, many who are senior citizens. Dunn says that with the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased sweeps of homeless camps it’s become harder and more expensive to serve meals. But Jane knows that the work is still important. 

“Sometimes problems seem so big, you just don’t know where to start,” she said. “But I know that the simplest thing that people need to do everyday is eat.”

Reno Posse volunteers Rachel and Emily drove to all their regular spots including the Riverwalk, Wingfield Park and the Believe Plaza to hand out meals when I was with them. Photo and reporting by Catherine Schofield.

I was able to go out on a chilly Wednesday evening with two volunteers, Emily and Rebecca, to see what it was like serving with the Reno Posse. 

We drove around downtown Reno looking for people who may want a hot meal. Emily would roll down her window at stoplights and in parks to ask anyone who walked by if they were hungry. Both Rebecca and Emily would give meals to anyone who wanted one and never asked about someone’s specific situation.

But both Emily and Dunn remarked how this work was never enough.

“We have a tremendous opportunity here to help humans, but it seems like we’re doing everything we can do to make people feel unwelcome,” Dunn said. “I think all people are worthy of equal respect and that’s not how people are treated if they’re homeless in this town.”

Dunn likes to think of this work as an exercise of gratitude for all that she has and for all that she can give to others.

Reporting by Catherine Schofield for Our Town Reno

Bill Sims, A Relentless Local Advocate for the Unhoused with Personal Connections

It was a cold, windy, and cloudy fall day. Puddles of water dappled the Believe Plaza in the normal random manner. Yellow and red leaves stuck to the aged concrete. A lone skateboard practiced his ollies and manuals through the puddles. Near the disintegrating Space Whale, a small group of unhoused community members took a rest and shared conversations. Winter was in the air as Bill Sims, a local advocate for the unhoused, met with Our Town Reno Reporter, Richard Bednarski. 

“Having had a homeless father for several years as a kid living in California, I know what it’s like to be homeless,” explained Sims. His father was homeless on and off nearly a dozen years when he was younger and because of this real-life experience Sims believes it is important to give back to the community. 

Before Sims relocated to Reno, he lived in both Fallon and Salt Lake City, Utah. He has lived in Reno for about nine years and has been a Nevada resident for nearly 19. He came to Reno to be closer to his mom and sisters. 

“No matter what people think, people who don’t have a permanent roof over their head deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and given the basic necessities that they need,” said Sims. Sims is a recipient of low-income housing and a firm believer in the efficacy of rent control as a method to curtail exploitive rent increases and profiteering by landlords.

While not employed, Sims makes himself as readily available as possible to help out in the community. He has been a regular over the past year at many of the police sweeps to bear witness and help, the anti-sweeps protests, public comment sessions, and most regularly helping feed the unhoused weekly, if not more, at the CARES campus.  

“Being able to essentially be the helper to the people that are helping and serving,” Sims explained as his preferred way to help. He enjoys being in the background making sure any outreach he is involved with happens smoothly and effectively. Without a car, he is always ready to go and help serve in order to allow the facilitators the time and energy to plan and organize an outreach event. 

He has long helped Jessica Castro serve meals and provisions to the unhoused community, as part of the Puff Puff Pass the Love local initiative, as well as bigger non profits.

“I do help out a lot with Planned Parenthood,” said Sims. “I’ve been a volunteer with them off and on since 2017.” Even though helping the unhoused community is his main focus, Sims said he is willing and able to donate his time and efforts to other organizations and community groups that align with his personal values. 

“Homelessness doesn’t make a person a good person or a bad person,” Sims said as he explained how he came to terms with his own father’s recurrent homelessness. Having grown up with a homeless father, Sims believes it is important to treat people with respect and dignity. It is something, he feels, should be first and foremost. “The reason why that is so important is because we don’t have a set in stone way of seeing things,” he said, knowing everyone has a different perspective. 

As winter is steadily approaching, and the CARES Campus and Our Place are regularly filled to near or at capacity, Sims knows it is important the community steps up and donates warm weather clothing. He usually helps serve breakfast on Saturday mornings around 8:30 am at the CARES Campus and said anyone is able to come down and drop anything off they wish to donate. 

“I think one big thing that the city could do right now is agendize looking into opening the Record Street Homeless Shelter again for couples and women,” said Sims. This comes on the heels of allegations of unsafe living conditions for women in the CARES Campus and ongoing sweeps. In addition, Sims believes the ongoing sweeps are ineffective and inhumane.

“There is of course a major housing crisis going on and that anyone that does not have a permanent roof over their head should not be looked down upon,” believes Sims. “For the greater Reno community, reach out to CARES Campus, reach out to Our Place, reach out to Jessica Castro, reach out to your friends whom you know work with homeless people and see what you can do to help them out,” he said as a concluding thought.

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

Kenneth Stover, a Lawyer Defending the 1st Amendment, the Unhoused and Advocates

For Kenneth Stover, his work is about maintaining the integrity of the Constitution. Recently, the City of Reno abruptly dropped charges against a group of individuals who had protested on a patch of grass at Believe plaza for one week during the summer 24/7 against ongoing sweeps.

“My motivation to go to law school was based on the Yucca Mountain project,” Kenneth Stover said from his second floor office overlooking Arlington Ave. He did not want high level waste to be stored in that region spurring his career into action. The site about 100 miles from Las Vegas had been proposed as a geological repository storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in the United States, but challenges reversed those goals.

In the beginning of his career, Stover, who got a B.S. at UNR at the start of his college journey in the early 1990s, focused on environmental remediation but then became a defense lawyer. More recently, he has represented protesters, including those arrested or cited during and after last year’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations. 

The anti-sweeps community members, Stover said, were only exercising their 1st amendment rights, concerning freedom of expression, assembly, and the right to petition.

“Fortunately, these four individuals are very strong with their voice,” Stover said. In the last two years, Stover has represented 14 protesters. “I’ve won every one with dismissals,” he said. “So these four were special to me because I thought we were actually going to have to go to trial and at the last minute the city folded.”

Stover was curious as to who ordered the “sweep” of the protesters themselves “and if any of them would have testified that they themselves were responsible, they certainly would have been on the hook,” he explained. 

But the city prevented that by dropping the case and making the defendants promise they would not sue the city. 

Stover does not believe the sweeps are ethical in the way they are done. He expressed disgust at how local police sometimes throw away the belongings of the unhoused community. 

Martin vs Boise was a pivotal 2018 case that went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The ruling that came out of this appeal made it illegal for cities across the country to enforce anti-camping ordinances when area homeless shelters are full. But, whatever the legal justification, Stover believes the way the unhoused community has been swept “has been somewhat inhumane.”

“Even the CARES Campus people themselves, [they] want the sweeps to stop until they are adequately staffed to take more people in,” Stover said. “We can’t treat people inhumanely nor could we sweep them under the rug.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Richard Bednarski

Bryce, Left Cold at the Safe Camp with Others, Amid Petition, Pending Changes

Too Cold in the Karma Box Tents

While complaints are growing about conditions on cold nights at the Washoe County run, Karma Box Project operated safe camp, where personal heat sources are not allowed, county officials say they will be moving away from tents to small individual shelters at that location by the end of November. But a new petition warns people could die before then, if it gets too cold under current conditions.

Bryce, who we met recently at the site of the old Wells Ave. tent city, says not being allowed to have your own source of heat at the pilot safe camp, as is currently the case, makes it colder than being on your own at night. Many unhoused living in tents will have their own propane tent heaters when sleeping along the Truckee River or hidden in parks. “They’re just overwhelmed,” Bryce said of operations at the camp, even though he’s grateful for the program.

He says he also understands why people still avoid the compound.

On its website, the County says it will be transitioning away from tents at the safe camp. “Currently, Safe Camp participants are provided with a tent, sleeping bag and a cot to sleep on in a specific location within the Safe Camp. As the team has been assessing this pilot program, the decision to order individual shelters has been made. These shelters will replace the tents moving forward. These are individual units that will be heated/ cooled as needed and also provide an electrical outlet for charging small personal electronics. As the camp is still in the development phase, these shelters will be set up in the current temporary site, above the bowl (Governor’s Bowl), while construction efforts continue in the permanent site,” a statement says.

An occupant at the safe camp confirmed to us they’ve heard these plans are being talked about by staff. He said he’s heard the new small structures might be made of plastic and carbon fiber compound, strong, but lightweight, movable and with their own electricity and heat.

One occupant has suggested the County buy sleeping bags like the one above for the Safe Camp and run them off a power bank.

A Petition Makes the Rounds and Other Complaints

A Change.Org recent petition is making the rounds which demands, “that Washoe County hold themselves true to their word and provide the residents of the Safe Camp, an extension of the CARES Campus, with adequate, sustainable shelter.”

It goes on to say: “When temperatures of 50 degrees or lower  persist, residents of this camp will likely suffer from frostbite, hypothermia and could possibly die when not fortified with a source of heat or way to stay adequately warm through both the day and night. Efforts to shield residents from these conditions by providing tarps, heaters and other structures have been largely denied by officials.  Residents are not allowed to heat their own tents with propane units or fire and there is no access to electricity on site. The Safe Camp does not provide any additional heating sources. These conditions cannot be allowed to continue. “

In its own winter plan statement, Washoe County says that on cold nights tent occupants would be moved to the Cares Campus: “In the interim, prior to individual shelters being installed and, in the event, it is anticipated to be below 50º F, with wind chill factored in, or if any precipitation is anticipated, the Washoe County Homeless Services Program Specialist will arrange transportation to the Cares Campus sprung structure for participants, where overflow of cots are accessible for emergency use. This will be provided beginning 12 hours prior to the anticipated cold weather. If a large number of participants decide to access shelter, Karma Box Project staff (KBP), the current operator of the Safe Camp, may be requested to go to the Cares Campus site to assist with staffing. The Homeless Services Program Specialist and the KBP Executive Director will provide staff with direction on when this will be needed.” The occupant says he hasn’t seen this happen yet, but that he has a zero degree sleeping bag so he says he feels ok, but that it is cold at night.

A follow up email from Bethany Drysdale, a communications manager with Washoe County indicated: “The winter plan is currently in effect. The projected date for delivery of the individual shelters is late November.”

The site of the old tent city near Wells Ave which has been swept several times since the Cares Campus opened.

Sweeps are Ongoing

Even though hundreds of people are being currently emergency sheltered at the Cares Campus, with several dozen at the safe camp, Bryce says there are hundreds and hundreds more of our neighbors still living in tents, still being swept. He says he tries to keep tabs on people both inside and outside the compound.

“Don't put down on the homeless because they have so much garbage and everything, helping them with dumpsters, help them with bathrooms,” Bryce told us during our recent interview as far as his own suggestions. “You want them to go away, give him something to use so that they have a momentum to gain some kind of force to get back into the employment world. That's really hard to do when they're being told to move every day.”

Bryce has had four children, some who’ve left the state and one who has been adopted. He has deep roots in the area but he says he got sick, stopped working and lost his apartment, putting his own life in a tailspin.

“Then it just been one day after another, because I can't get enough momentum going to get my feet back up underneath me,” he said. When we interviewed him, he had just gone for a long bike ride to get food stamps.

He said surviving in Reno has been difficult for him and others. “It's hard to watch. I mean, I remember watching this place 10, 15 years ago,” he said. “It wasn't this bad, but it's just progressively getting worse because of the pandemic and the unemployment and people getting sick. . . . . Everyone doesn't seem to realize they're one step away from this. Yeah. I had money . . .”

 After the repeated sweeps, Bryce lost a number of his belongings and a sense of where he belongs. “Watching everything you own get bulldozed because they don't really give a shit and they think they're higher and mightier than everybody out here. And they're just one step away from being here. That's the whole thing, right? I mean, I didn't expect to be out here. None of us did, but once you get out here, it's hard to get back up into housing.”  

Reporting and Photos by Gracie Gordon for Our Town Reno

Wild West Access Fund Establishing a New Frontier for Abortions

The Wild West Access Fund of Nevada, founded in June of 2021 by Carla Ramazan and Maureen Scott, is the only established abortion fund in the state. Primarily located in Reno and Las Vegas, the mutual aid turned 501(c)(3) group provides funding and resources to people seeking an abortion. So far, they’ve helped over 70 callers with access and aftercare. The group is entirely volunteer-run, and nobody is paid for their involvement.

Founders Scott and Ramazan were both present at the recent Reno rally, along with other volunteers. Ramazan gave a five minute speech sharing some of their anonymous callers’ backgrounds and stories. One caller was facing eviction, but needed an abortion. Another was too young to have their own bank account.

“When we first started, we got some feedback on the name,” Scott said. “They were like, ‘Why are you making Wild West Fund for abortion, like it shouldn’t be wild, you guys should make it very clear it’s about abortion and it’s about care,’ and all this stuff. And I think, like the more that we’ve grown, it really like encapsulates abortion funding as a whole in Nevada, because we are like brand new. There's no framework for how to fund abortion in Nevada, because there hasn’t been a long, large, well established fund here. So we're learning as we go, which is like the wild west.”

The group focuses on using gender neutral language regarding abortion. One of the contributors to their success so far has been their social media and internet presence. Their Instagram, @wildwestfundnevada, is how many of their current volunteers first learned about the group.

“Education is key,” one Las Vegas-based volunteer, McKenna, said. “We’re able to reach a lot of people, who might not necessarily seek out the information, through social media by sharing posts, by retweeting, stuff like that. And I think that we can offer them a different perspective.”

Reno and Las Vegas differ on expenses when it comes to abortions. The first option is the abortion pill, which can be taken up to 10 weeks after the first day of a person's last period, according to Planned Parenthood. This typically runs for $500-600 in Reno, and $450 in Las Vegas.

The cost of surgical abortions usually starts at $800, and increases per week. Between travel expenses, complications, and complex care needs, an abortion could cost up to $10,000. In Nevada, there is rarely insurance or Medicaid coverage for abortion. Abortion isn’t federally funded either. 

“One of the safest medical procedures that you can get… It’s like safer than getting your tonsils removed. Abortion is safe,” another person at the rally, Jakki said.

In Reno, only two locations offer abortion pills: Planned Parenthood and West End Women’s Medical Group. Of the two, West End is the only office to offer surgical abortions. 

Jakki brought up that not all people who get abortions are women, and nearly one in four people who are able to get pregnant will have an abortion. “Not only cis women get abortions, right. Trans men, nonbinary people, queer families, everybody… Somebody you love has had an abortion” Photo by Catherine Schofield.

Funding isn’t the only support WWAF provides. If a caller is only short a few hundred dollars, they can direct them towards a larger, national fund to cover the cost. They also provide aftercare kits, help finding transportation, and Plan B pills.

Aside from funding, the group emphasizes destigmatizing abortion, especially for Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. 

“For our organziation, we say we’re ‘pro-abortion’.” Scott said. “And to some people that may be shocking if ... they haven’t heard that term before, but the reason we say were pro-abortion is because we want people to know that abortion is safe, legal, it’s normal, it happens to so many people, and it’s not anything to have shame about and it’s not something that we want to distance ourselves from by saying, ‘Oh we support your choice, whatever that is’. Like, we support people seeking abortion, we support them having multiple abortions, abortion for any reason that they need it. It’s not something that we want to put qualifiers on, and so I think we’re already kind of moving away from the ‘pro-choice’ idea.”

Jakki, the Reno-based volunteer, pointed out that moving away from “pro-choice” rhetoric could better engage communities of color. “It’s not a message that connects with communities of color specifically. We’re much more community centric than I think, than when you think of white America, being very individualistic, what is your individual achievement, verses for many communities of color, who do live in multi generational households, who, um do like, rely on community care and have done that pre COVID, when we’ve really seen an uptake in mutual aid, which is really great.” 

Jakki continued about the importance of raising a child in a healthy environment.

“What that means is beyond just access to abortion. It also means like whether or not you have a child… is that child raised in a place where they’re not going to be separated from their families? We’re thinking immigration, right. Where they’re not going to be murdered, right… For Indigenous women who are missing and murdered, to young Black folks who are terrorized by state violence, so it’s a message that has never resonated with us.”

“Reproductive justice, when it comes to it, is also economic justice and racial justice at the same time,” Ramazan added. There’s a very specific demographic that it’s easier for, like affluent, white women, etcetera, and we exist to break those barriers.”

At the Las Vegas march on Saturday, Jameelah was one of the few Black activists present. “When we’re talking about reproductive justice, who are we involving in this movement? Who’re we bringing into this space?” She pointed out that there is an unengaged community that needs choices to become options. “Black women, first, can get abortions.” 

She then asked, “How do we engage communities of color into doing this work with us?... Not saying that everyone has to get an abortion, but if that’s your choice, if you need to get one… what does that look like? To have these honest conversations so that people know that they have options.”

The group credits the women of color-led group SisterSong with coining the term “reproductive justice”. 

The team’s graphic designer, Claire, joined the group after the recent Texas abortion ban. “I think it was a really important moment for me to just realize, like, there’s so much work to be done on the ground. And I think it's an important moment because I've seen a lot of other people realizing that and I think if we’re able to mobilize as many people as possible… I mean events like the one on Saturday, that was huge. I mean to be able to fundraise over $9,000 in one weekend is incredible, and I think it speaks to how pissed people are right now and I think it's just so important to continue that work, because it's not going to all happen over one weekend, at a march.”

Ramazan pointed out that the group relies on financial donations to continue their work.

“If we don’t have the money, we can’t do this work. I repeated it so many times in my speech on Saturday,” Carla said. “But, it’s really the backbone of what we do, like clearly we’re not profiting at all off of this. We do it because we love it and the one thing we ask from the community is that if you can spare five dollars, if they can spare a coffee a week, send it our way. Just know that it’s going to good use and funding someone’s abortion care.”

Reporting by Rachel Jackson for Our Town Reno

Heather Carpenter, Improving Ways for Neighbors in Need to Access Resources

Unifying Community Organizations

After joining the Washoe Food Not Bombs team nearly seven months ago, local activist Heather Carpenter, 35, decided to launch her own initiative, Washoe Basics, in hopes of helping her unhoused neighbors in other ways as well, from mutual aid group collaborations to spreadsheets and maps listing available resources.

Some of the reasons Carpenter got involved she says were both her need for community interaction during the pandemic as well as a search for like-minded people who wanted to help others.

“While I was doing Washoe Food Not Bombs I was like, okay … I'm not a chef, right? Yeah, I can cook up a few little things here and there, but cooking has never been my passion,” she told Our Town Reno during a recent interview. “But I do love participating, so one of the things I started doing was making these little, like, med kits, like hygiene kits … Because like I wanted to do more, you know? I love Washoe Food Not Bombs, but there were other areas in which I wanted to expand my work and do more.”

One issue Carpenter saw with the different mutual aid groups within the Reno-Sparks area was the lack of communication between each other, and the general public.

“So that was kind of where starting this whole documenting of all the different services I could find came about, was just again, kind of a frustration of you know, where can I do more? Where can I help, what needs need to be met? And how can I advocate for that?”

Since she lacked the experience needed to create an entire website for this information, Carpenter took to mapping out the different resources she found on Google Maps.

“As far as what I do for Washoe Basics, I’m still figuring it out essentially. But, you know like I said, Washoe Basics is just what I’m calling my work. I’m not necessarily married to this name or this organization or whatever it is, it’s more about doing the work, meeting the need, and finding different ways to collaborate with others to bridge those gaps and facilitate communication, because I think that’s a key thing here … Whether it’s because they need a resource, whether it’s because they want to volunteer for a different provider, or if it’s because they really want to donate, but they need to know which organizations they can trust.”

A Plethora of Resources

The map above created by Heather shows a documented collection of the different types of available food resources in the Reno-Sparks area. The interactive map also includes other areas of Northern Nevada. Carpenter hopes to one day expand beyond Northern Nevada, and include information for other areas as well. 

Carpenter’s main goal is to connect those with resources to those who need them. 

“There are a plethora of resources, you know, we are conditioned to have a scarcity mindset that is kind of one of the basis of capitalism, right, is this idea of scarcity. I don’t think it’s accurate. I don’t think it reflects the true conditions. We have so many resources. We have, you know, so many things available to us and it's just artificially being kept away from fair distribution … It’s a matter of communication, drawing people’s attention to the fact that there’s more than enough food to go around here.”

Carpenter also voiced concerns over the distribution of PPP loans to businesses during the pandemic, and how many potential housing units sat dormant during this time. The Santa Fe Hotel, which closed during the pandemic, had received a PPP loan, she says. While many lost their homes during this time, the hotel sat empty.

“There’s no reason why anyone should be sleeping on the streets,” Carpenter said. “There’s no reason why anyone should be hungry or suffering in these ways. We have the resources. There are plenty of people who are so ready and willing to do the work, they don’t even ask for all that much in return. All they want is to have a roof over their head and food in their belly at the end of the day … There is so much there, ready to create a beautiful community, and we’re just not doing it. Yet.”

Carpenter volunteers for Washoe Food Not Bombs every Saturday from 10AM to 2PM at Bennett Park. The menu on this day included tortellini, vegetables, hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, greens, and more. 

Helping Hands

According to Carpenter, Washoe Food Not Bombs supplies many people with what will be their only serving of fresh vegetables for the week. People can also receive donations including masks, medicine, and backpacks filled with supplies, like those donated by Revolution Coalition in Las Vegas. 

Carpenter pointed out that when she arrives at the park in the morning, many of those who benefit from the services help out with unloading her car and setting up the table for serving. She stressed that it is very much a group effort.

When it comes to helping out Washoe Basics or Washoe Food Not Bombs, Carpenter said that donations are always welcome and can be accessed through a Linktree. She is also looking for help regarding collecting donations on Fridays, which would include driving around town to pick up food and supplies from others. 

Reporting and Photos for Our Town Reno by Rachel Jackson

The Lonely Voices of Families of Relatives Killed by Local Police

Signs and chants at the recent protest were met with mixed reactions from onlookers, ranging from honks and waves of support, averted gazes, and even yells of criticism.

The group has a list of demands they wish to be fulfilled: reopen and investigate all officer involved deaths, drug test all officers, reprimand all abusive and killer officers, and end qualified immunity.

Event organizer and activist Annemarie Grant , whose brother Thomas Purdy was killed in October 2015, after struggling against four Washoe County Sheriff's Office deputies who had hog tied him, wants all cases of past police brutality and murder reopened. “I also want the community to ask themselves, ‘when police kill … a community member, should they judge themselves? Because right now, police investigate themselves when they kill a community member and that’s not okay, that’s not transparent, that’s not accountability.’”

Two protestors hold up signs for Georgianna Jackson, as a hand waves in support from their car. The hashtag #MMIW can be seen on their shirts, which stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This movement seeks awareness and justice for the disproportionate violence against Indigenous women. The 22-year-old woman died in March after a police chase on I-80.

The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has repeatedly ruled that these “police involved” deaths were justified under Nevada Law.

Grant also misses the early days of the renewed Black Lives Matter movement.

“When George Floyd died, this community was out in the street, and here today we have tons of families personally impacted in the community and the community is not out here supporting. People need to not jump on what’s the next big thing, bandwagon on the news, the cool thing to follow, they need to get behind us families, support us, and demand change. Because it could be their loved one next. We’re not out here for ourselves, we’re never gonna have our loved ones back. We’re out here because we don’t want a single person, including you or your family member, to end up in this nightmare. We need change and we need it now.”

Grant has also taken to voicing her concerns and agenda to the Nevada legislation, even though she lives across the country in Quincy, Massachusetts. She also wants to make the community aware that Reno PD, Sparks PD, and Washoe County Sheriff’s Office do not require drug testing.

“There’s a lot of people in this community that have had a loved one killed by police and there’s a stigma that comes along with it. We don’t get the support from the community so that’s why you see us all here together, united as one, because we are stronger together. We are the frontline for change in this battle, and my heart breaks for every family here and I want justice for them just as much as I want justice for my family.” 

Many of the families present had a loved one who was killed during a mental health crisis after calling the police for help. They want both accountability for the officers, along with better training when it comes to these crises.

Michelle Tripp attended the event for support and awareness of her brother, Phillip Ernesto Serrano, who was killed by Reno PD in September of 2018. Tripp stated that her brother was dealing with a mental health crisis, and was killed in his vehicle. She expressed her pain over her loss and how it affected her family, and how it was avoidable. 

“I just pray that they are accountable and that it’s unnecessary to use deadly force on people that are in crisis or in any situation. There are so many other alternatives to, you know, dealing with a person … you don’t have to kill somebody to get them to stop ... There were so many alternatives.”

Tripp pointed out that the police could have shot her brother’s tires to stop the car rather than at him. After they had shot him, Tripp says she remembers hearing officers laugh in her driveway.

A man pulls over his bicycle to talk to protestors. He asked about the circumstances of their loved ones deaths, including questions about whether they were abusing substances.

During the protest, one man parked his bike next to the protestors and began speaking with them. He said they were “anti-America”, as he donned American flags on his bike. Later, he tried to justify their loved ones deaths through questioning their sobriety, furthering the protestors point that there is a stigma surrounding their situation. Protestors responded that it didn’t matter, and that they didn’t deserve to die.

Our Town Reno reporter Gracie Gordon tried to de-escalate the situation by asking the man to continue his bike ride and leave. By then, one of the protestors had begun crying.

Many families gave their story to Our Town Reno, including Tonja Brown, who has been fighting to prove her brother’s innocence since his conviction in 1989. After Nolan Klein died in prison in 2009, she filed a wrongful death suit. She had a book released titled, “To Prove His Innocence”, detailing his case and her struggle to fight for his freedom.

Emotions ran high throughout the day, as families chanted, told their stories, and held each other close. The protest concluded with a prayer circle.

Reporting and Photos for Our Town Reno by Rachel Jackson

Jake Maynard, Seeking a Place at the Table for Advocates and the Unhoused on Future Decisions

As sweeps of smaller and smaller unhoused encampments persist, local advocates such as Jake Maynard are not giving up, even if they have concerns the battle is longer than they hoped for to stop the sweeps.

With the CARES Campus now under Washoe County control, advocates are also frustrated with how the $17 million dollars was spent on the campus so far. Questions linger as to how much money certain employees make and how financial decisions were made to spend so much money, with results which have left some volunteers and people sleeping at the compound unimpressed.

Since it opened earlier this year, there have been reports of moldy food, a lack of laundry services, no water available at times during the record breaking heat this summer, and a shortage of blankets and towels. As the cold season approaches, they are left to wonder how the campus will serve the vulnerable unhoused community and whether preparations will be adequate when winter storms descend upon us. 

With another $38 million dollars slated to be injected into the campus in the near future, according to County Commissioner Alexis Hill, who is also the head of the Community Homelessness Advisory Board, advocates says they want a place at the table along with the unhoused community to help inform how future decisions are made.  

“I first kind of got involved when I saw on social media about a sweep going on,” Jake Maynard said during a recent interview at Dick Taylor Park, on how his own advocacy began. There was a call to the community to help collect and save unhoused people’s personal belongings as sweeps were ramping up. Maynard, a photographer and local community member, then began helping the unhoused on a regular basis as well as taking part in protests.

Maynard said he was concerned at the trauma the unhoused faced during the repeated sweeps. He says he tries to spend at least one day a week helping the unhoused community. A lot of the time he also helps the Laundry to the People initiative or just volunteers at a local community meal.

Different authorities use different methods and warning mechanisms when sweeps take place.

“First and foremost, we’ve keep saying it again and again, the sweeps need to stop,” said Maynad. “That’s first and foremost because the amount of destruction these things do is just awful.” 

Any progress made with social work is at risk when a sweep forces someone to relocate, Maynard said. Important documents needed to obtain identification are often misplaced or lost, slowing down the process and chances for an unhoused person to regain housing and work. 

Maynard said alleged reports of thefts and assaults at the compound are making some people fearful to go either to the mega shelter or to apply to get accepted into the small tent Karma Box Project operated safe camp. Some have had traumatic shelter experiences in the past, and simply don’t want to revisit the trauma.

There have been efforts to set up another safe camp run by volunteers or another non profit. Advocates including Maynard have drafted up a budget and a plan to create an alternative safe camp that they believe is viable and doable. 

“At the end of the day, [the unhoused] are people just like you, just like me, period. And they should be treated just like anyone else,” Maynard said. He wants the community to know that homelessness is often one event away for anyone. “We should treat them with compassion and empathy just like anyone else.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Richard Bednarski

Local Bus Drivers Explain Their Reasons for Returning to Picket Line

For Armand Martinez not driving a bus right now is challenging. He used to love his job but is frustrated with Keolis, the Washoe County Regional Transportation Commission's bus contractor. For the second time this year, Martinez has traded the wheel of the bus for a picket sign. 

Martinez first drove a large vehicle when he was in the Army as a younger man. After four years, he found work as a bus driver. The benefits and pay, back then, he says, were a good trade-off for his time. 

“Now we’re trying to get what we need, it’s not what we want, it’s what we really need to make this a job that we can actually live and be happy with,” Martinez said. A comfortable retirement, a livable wage, and sufficient health insurance are components Martinez believes a job should provide. Without these, Martinez said, it makes it difficult to enjoy the job.

“If we get a contract and we get everything we need in that contract, then we’re happy,” he said. 

Martinez said the pandemic has been a struggle for bus drivers like himself. Despite no traffic and less passengers, when the pandemic first shut down society, he was worried for the health and safety of his coworkers and himself.  Martinez estimates that at least 40 drivers have had COVID since the start of the pandemic.

“We do care what we’re able to gain from this so that way we can live and be happy at our current position,” Martinez said. “Then we can get back to the community and get back to doing what we love to do.”

Dozens of protesters are not driving or maintaining busses and holding signs for the second time in two months as a new collective bargaining agreement is still in the works.

“This is the second day [Tuesday] of the unfair labor practice strike against RTC’s Washoe contractor Keolis Transit,” said Gary Watson, the President of the Teamsters Local 533 of this renewed action. “We are out here because of Keolis’ unfair behavior during the bargaining process,” he alleged.

Since the last strike, the union has met with Keolis four times with a federal mediator and last week negotiations stalled. According to Watson, Keolis wants to force many drivers to work a split shift, while some drivers would even be forced to split their weekend with a work day in the middle. 

“The outlook’s not very good and that’s based on Keolis’ bargaining tactics at the table,” Watson said. When Keolis took the contract, there were about 190 drivers. Watson said that today there are about 110 reflecting the labor shortage issue currently facing the nation. Watson believes this attrition in drivers is a bad sign and is urging the county and city to drop the contract with Keolis.  

“The best case scenario right now is Keolis needs to get back to the table with us,” said Watson. 

Brenda Hill says she has been driving a bus for 35 years and is a few years away from retirement. The last two years have been some of the most difficult years in her career. 

Brenda Hill began driving a bus in southern California in 1986. She moved to Reno and began driving for RTC in 1990. 

“Overall it’s the people,” said Hill about what she enjoys most about driving a bus. “They depend on a safe ride to their destination.” She knows that many passengers get to know and trust their drivers. She misses being behind the wheel of a bus and knows that if her work is done correctly, no one will bother her. 

Since Keolis was awarded the contract to operate the city bus system by the City of Reno in 2019, Hill says she has lost faith in the company. She parked her bus and joined the strike. “Maintenance has decreased and loving the job has decreased,” she explained. When Hill talked about the pandemic, she talked about challenges. She talked about drivers who were sick with few protections put in place by Keolis. 

As we spoke, a city bus pulled out of the station followed by yelling and frustration. “That person crossed over the line and is driving instead of walking with his brothers and sisters,” Hill said as the emotion caught up to her. She choked back tears. She does not understand how all of the drivers are not walking with them today. 

“We haul and transfer up to 800 and a 1000 people a day each, '' Hill said. A lot of people come onto her bus unmasked, she said. As she is a few years away from retiring, this remains a large concern for her. 

Hill told me about one of her longtime passengers, an elderly Filipino woman who has been taking her route for over 20 years. “One winter she crawled over a snow berm at my bus stop to bring me a plate of food,” she explained. Hill holds onto moments like this as a bus driver. She understands the work she does is pivotal to making the community function. 

“These people, for the most part, they need us and they need this system,” she said.

Keolis officials have expressed disappointment the strike was renewed, and that negotiations did not continue with buses running.

On its website, RTC wrote on Tuesday: “As the Teamsters Union drivers’ strike continues, the RTC is committed to helping transit passengers get where they need to go. The RTC cannot call or end a strike, but anticipates there could be additional future strikes as negotiations continue for the Collective Bargaining Agreement with RTC’s transit contractor, Keolis.”

Reporting by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

Can We Afford the "Reno Experience District" ?

While bringing an estimated 1000 housing units to the area and redeveloping the old Park Lane Mall area I remember visiting when I was kid, let’s make it clear: the Reno Experience District orchestrated by California-based developer Lyon Living will not alleviate the affordable housing crisis. In fact, the “luxury housing” and “luxury leasing” could make it worse, raising prices in surrounding areas and creating more gentrification.

According to their website, studio apartments will cost between $1400 and $1800 a month. A two bedroom apartment starts at an unattainable for many, $2200 and is less than 1,000 square feet. 

I have long known this area and lived in the neighborhood just to the north for over a decade. New shops will soon flood the area, as seen across Plumb Lane with the Casazza Reno Public Market redevelopment already bringing in the Sprouts grocery store, where gum drop grapes will cost you four dollars a pound.

It’s highly unlikely staff will be able to afford a place here.

On a recent late afternoon, I walked around the complex to get a feel for what it would be like to live where a parking lot and town mall once stood. Traffic ebbed and flowed as rush hour began and the sun was nearing mountains in the west. Behind a cloth draped chain link fence, cinder block walls and wooden frames crawled towards the clouds. Building vertically is often a great way for developers to maximize profit as it allows more units to be tightly packed onto the land. 

The northern portion is planned to begin after the completion of phase one which includes the luxury apartments known as Emory and Basecamp, both located closer to the Century movie theater. There will also be a fitness club, climbing wall, and a small park in the future. 

But who is going to purchase these apartments? According to the 2020 census, the average income for residents in the Truckee Meadows is barely $58,000, which would make living here for most eat up more than half their income on rent alone. 

As traffic whirled by, I noticed a woman pushing a shopping cart with her belongings behind one of the recently redeveloped bus stops. It made me pause and think about how the unhoused community is struggling to find a place here in town even as more development takes place of luxury apartments that only the upper class can afford. It brought another question to mind, what is Reno becoming and who are we leaving behind?

1st Person Essay and Photos by reporter Richard Bednarski

Kathleen, Losing Her Partner Doug in the Chaos of Sweeps

Kathleen Lang had recently moved back to Reno after visiting family in Florida last year. As the pandemic worsened, she could not find affordable housing with Doug, her partner of 24 years. Instead they moved to the growing tent city and soon had a makeshift home there with hundreds of others by the Wells Ave. overpass. 

“It felt safe, it felt like everyone was getting along,” said Lang during a recent interview with Our Town Reno. “Everyone was working together and I wasn’t afraid.” This was until a group of young kids moved into the area and started harassing people, according to Lang. 

“They were attacking people and doing stuff that wasn’t happening down there before, everyone was afraid of them,” she said. 

Lang had lived in the area for about a year before the sweeps resumed this past summer. Her partner Doug was recently retired and the two of them were hoping to find affordable housing, but it never arrived. 

Then precipitating events took place, and before she could fully understand what exactly was going on, Doug was dead.

“Doug went next door to retrieve a bike pump that these kids had borrowed,” explained Lang on the start of the tragic chain of events. “Out of nowhere he came running back to me.” His face was bloody and was hurting all over, she explained. Lang believes the kids refused to return the bike pump and beat Doug up, which would eventually land him in the hospital. 

When the attack first happened, Lang said she immediately went to the police station for help. She said nearly two hours passed before a cop would arrive on the scene. Our Town Reno contacted both Reno police and Reno Direct to get information about this situation but they did not respond.

“We didn’t realize the damage that was done to Doug at the time,” Lang said, the memory bringing tears to her eyes. “But we were in such a rush, the U-Haul was there and I had to move everything myself because Doug was too hurt to help.”

This was when sweeps started taking place at the main tent city and then at other smaller tent cities. Within two weeks, Lang learned that Doug has passed away. She was not at the hospital because she says she was trying to protect her possessions. Lang believes Doug’s injuries from the attack, coupled with a broken hip, led to a blood infection that ultimately took his life. He was 67 years old. 

“He was nice to everybody,” said Lang, choked up from emotion. “I was trying to run between the hospital and places to stay but I kept getting kicked out,” she said. Still unable to afford any housing Lang was running out of options. She was working with a social worker but there was no housing available that would accommodate Doug’s recovery so Lang focused on protecting her belongings, which at this point, had been whittled down by theft and while constantly moving on the streets.

Community member Ilya Arbatman, who has been helping the unhoused community for several months, watched trauma unfold all summer. He had helped Lang and Doug move belongings from the first tent city location when the sweeps began. 

Once Doug was in the hospital, Arbatman offered to put Lang in a motel for a couple weeks and help her sort out all that was happening. Initially she refused. 

“I’ve been off the street ever since,” she said. The motel led to stable, dorm style housing inside a container at the Village on Sage Street. Her Social Security income covers her bills. However, she says she recently learned she has cancer.  To this day she feels guilty for not being at the hospital when Doug died, and for asking him to retrieve the bike pump. The thing that still upsets her the most she says is why the cops have not made any arrests with the young crowd of kids who allegedly assaulted her late partner. She says she sees them downtown and has heard of similar assaults. 

“Just to make this change. These people can’t get away with this stuff because it’s people's lives,” said Lang. “Doug loved life, he had no plans on dying.”

Reporting and photo by Richard Bednarski for Our Town Reno

Elizabeth, Benefiting from Enhanced Telehealth for Her Mental Health

An Our Town Reno reader, Elizabeth, who asked for her last name to be kept anonymous, has battled with mental health her entire life. But now new possibilities with telehealth and quickly sending off medical information from at home equipment are making her feel her “quality of life is holding strong.”

A rough home life as a kid, she says, forced her to leave her family at age 16. She quickly found work, got married and started a family. But her mental health continued to be mis-diagnosed and affect her day to day life. 

“Meanwhile, I am going from one job to the next,” Elizabeth said. She knew she had an issue but doctors struggled with diagnosing her.

It wasn’t until she was in her 30s, she says, when her disease was properly diagnosed as bipolar disorder. Now she has been working with Dr. Philip Malinas to find a balance in medication that helps even the keel between her manic states and depression.

“All the medicine a bipolar person takes creates some side effects, [including] some deadly side effects,” explained Elizabeth. She said this oftentimes can become life threatening without much notice, which is why having vitals checked constantly is so essential.

Elizabeth has not visited her doctor in person since the pandemic moved everything online. Telehealth has been her way of checking in with Dr. Malinas. The Athelas at-home equipment she recently received is covered by Medicaid and Elizabeth believes this could be a boon not just for her but for others in the community. The equipment is shipped to the patient's house and includes a blood pressure cuff, glucose monitor, and scale. The equipment sends real time data to a physician who can better monitor a patient with this constant information. 

According to the Athelas program’s website (screengrab above), the metabolic conditions of people living with mental illness is severely undertreated. Elizabeth believes this to be true from her experience with mental illness. 

”I am hopeful that [Dr. Malinas] can recognize signs that might better inform medications,” Elizabeth said. And these medications are not cheap. Tier four medicine, or brand name, can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars each month, even with Medicaid. Elizabeth was taking Saphris, a dissolvable bipolar medication for a while but “had to live off samples “because it costs over $3,000 a month,” she said.  

Our Town Reno reporting by Richard Bednarski

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