Henry Sotelo, from Journalism to Helping Others in Specialty Courts and Teaching at TMCC

When Henry Sotelo was 18, he came to Reno with a friend who wanted to check out the University. His friend never attended the school but when Sotelo set foot on the campus, he fell in love. “I just loved the place and I’ve been here ever since,” he explained. 

From graduating as a journalist from the Reynolds School of Journalism to performing different jobs in the legal industry, Sotelo has called Reno his home for almost 4o years.  His early education he says was useful for what has since come his way.

“With journalism it was so good, it was a great framework for me to learn how to interview people, talk to people, [and] interact with people,” Sotelo said. He said he always had an interest in law and journalism helped establish a solid foundation for him. Eventually he would realize journalism was too passive. 

Sotelo grew up in Oakland, California. The son of a blue collar worker, he remembers moving every few years to a new house. He recalled in our conversation when San Jose, the Silicon Valley of today, was nothing but groves of fruit trees. Despite being raised in the East Bay, Sotelo’s accent reminded me of a character out of New York City. He has heard this before and can not figure out why. But he rolls with it.

His career did start out in journalism.

“I enjoyed it, the connection, I enjoyed city coverage,” he said about his time at the Sparks Tribune, a now online-only news site. As months in journalism churned on though, he says, “I just wanted to find out more information about how I can be more involved directly with the law.” He had a foray into magazine printing and ran a small one out of San Francisco. 

“But I eventually came back and got into law,” he said. “I came and practiced in Reno because I enjoy the Reno area.” He started with criminal law at the district attorney's office, headed then by Mills Lane, a former boxer, also known as a referee (in the famous Mike Tyson / Evander Holyfield bite fight), television personality and well-known lawyer. Sotelo saw this as an interesting era in Reno where he learned a lot. His next move was working for ten years as a prosecuting attorney for the city. 

“Now I’m doing defense work with the same court, the Reno Municipal Court,” he said, explaining the twists and turns. Sotelo enjoys the accessibility he has with folks in this small scale court system. Many of the people he sees are first time offenders who Sotelo sees as people who need a break from whatever they had going and a nudge in the right direction.

A screengrab explains the Specialty Courts in Reno, which now include a Fresh Start DUI Program, Co-Occurring Disorders (COD) Court, a Young Adult Offender (YAR) Court, a Veterans' Treatment Court (CAMO-RNO), and the Community Court (CC).

When Sotelo was at the District Attorney’s office he recalled the mentality was all about getting criminals behind bars, no matter the crime. “There was no talk about any kind of trying to steer folks, to get them help, to prevent the recidivism,” he said. He recalls judges telling offenders to simply not come back. Kind of like slapping a hungry person on the hand for stealing a loaf of bread rather than feeding them a meal. 

“That was basically the way to try and talk people from coming back,” Sotelo explained, something he knows does not work. 

“Folks don’t really understand the structure which I think is a big problem,” said Sotelo. He believes people should have to take a law 101 course in order to learn how courts function in society today, beyond what is portrayed on Netflix. Maybe this is the teacher in him recruiting students. Another Sotelo occupation now involves teaching law at Truckee Meadows Community College. 

The Reno Municipal court where Sotelo spends a lot of his time deals with misdemeanors which are punishable from zero to six months in jail and up to $1,000 fine. These infractions must occur within the city limits of Reno. Sotelo explained the most serious crimes he works with are domestic batteries and DUIs, which are both misdemeanors for the first and second offense. 

There are four departments within the court now as the city has grown. Sotelo says that within the next decade there will have to be another one added, “so many folks are running through, especially now that we’re working with the specialty courts.” 

After many people were coming back into the court system with multiple offenses, former Judge Paul Hickman applied for a grant that would help establish a specialty court which would help address the underlying issues many of these people were contending with, including alcohol and drug abuse and mental health issues. This was modeled after a court in Albuquerque which came out of the methamphetamine crisis. 

“Over a long haul, 12 to 18 months, you’re continually seeing these clients,” explained Sotelo. A team of folks are now able to work with these people to help them sort through the underlying issues that led to the crime in the first place. “Then bringing in resources to deal with those problems.”

Sotelo has seen people return time and time again into the court system if these issues are not treated. He believes it is close to an 80% return rate without treatment. With treatment, he has seen the number drop in half saving the courts, and in turn, the local taxpayer money while helping community members get back on the right track through these specialty courts. Helping one person has a ripple effect through the family and friends of that person and to Sotelo, this ripple continues into the community, and to him, it is the most important by-product of the specialty courts.  He has seen clients re-establish relationships with family members that had fallen by the wayside. 

This program which also includes clinical treatment for substance abuse helps people who may have lost trust in the court system get back on track. Frequent and random drug tests are also part of the program and through this tough love approach it helps steer people away from the easy button of drugs.

“We’re bringing therapists into the courtroom,” Sotelo said. “Bringing in folks that understand the long term drug use and the harm it has...and how to treat that.” 

Each case is examined on an individual level and helps each person get to a place they can succeed from. Job seeking and help is facilitated in this program and community service is a way to help people build job skills. 

“Showing folks where these resources are because when you're doing your alcohol or drug haze, or whatever you’re into,” explained Sotelo, “you’re not thinking about anything outside that little bubble you’re in.”

The foundation of these specialty courts are mandatory and frequent appearances in court. This establishes accountability. Beyond this Sotelo explained there are small rewards that come with progress and solid behavior. Nothing large but simple things like a gift card to a local coffee shop. Along with support and encouragement, all of these steps help direct single and multiple offenders back towards a healthier life. A branch of this court is held at the county library downtown. This community court is specifically for the unhoused population, which according to some estimates has increased by nearly 900% in the past four years. These courts are also a warm, safe place to get off the streets for a day and have access to services. 

One of the most challenging things the unhoused face is losing important documents that are required to get a job or housing. Often, these are lost in a police sweep where their possessions are treated as trash. 

“Get them in there, give them something to eat, and also talk to them,” explained Sotelo of the new approach. This community court is staffed with social workers who can help address the individual needs of our neighbors in need. The goal is to get people a place to stay that is not on the streets. Sotelo recently talked with a person who was doing well.

“When I first saw him he was not in a good place,” explained Sotelo. Through the community court this person was able to get back on track. Sotelo asked him what led to the success. He said: “they found me a place to live.’”

“If you got a place to live you got a great foundation to get a little stability,” Sotelo said of the long term goal of some of the most difficult cases he works on. “It really hits home..and I believe that [housing] is the key issue for these folks.”

Our Town Reno Reporting and Photo by Richard Bednarski

Compassion and Empathy Drive Local Reverend to Help the Unhoused

“I just have a passion for making the world a better place and I think that we do that out of our deepening spirituality,” said Karen Foster, the reverend at south Reno’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada. She has been the reverend there for almost four years. She believes that as humans deepen their spirituality it causes us to become more caring towards other people. 

She has a knack for leadership and through her teachings, hopes to encourage all people to come together and help one another out, particularly when it comes to the unhoused crisis.

She said it is great that there are efforts being made to look at the issues surrounding homelessness, such as the establishment of the CARES Campus, located downtown on east Fourth Street. “But warehousing folks is not the answer,” Foster said.

“While we hope to see more progress on this issue, it’s hard to say whether that’s really a step in the right direction or not,” explained Foster as her shoes squeaked on the polished floor of her church, echoing in the large room. As winter approaches many are concerned the CARES Campus and safe camp are not adequately prepared for the bitter cold and stormy season. 

“I mean we have to get folks off the streets, it’s a life threatening issue to have folks on the streets,” said Foster. She believes having overflow and emergency shelters as was the case previously were better during the colder months. When the pandemic first locked down society, the City of Reno opened up the Reno Events Center for the unhoused community as an emergency shelter to help maintain social distance and increase capacity, but that program was then disbanded. 

Reverend Karen Foster advocates for more programs such as HopeSprings run by Northern Nevada Hopes.

“Really what we need to be doing more of is something like the model of Northern Nevada Hopes has developed with the tiny house neighborhood,” said Foster. These transitional homes (previous Our Town Reno article here: http://www.ourtownreno.com/our-stories-1/2020/10/15/hopesprings-a-new-bridge-housing-project-still-faces-financial-hurdles-to-open) allow people to take the initial step from living on the streets to secure housing and build a renting history. In turn, this history will enable people to get stable housing down the road. “Folks are allowed their own private spaces, they also have a way to be community and they have just an incredible amount of resources,” explained Foster, who recently toured the facility, which is a stones throw away from the CARES Campus.  

People who want to stay there have to make a commitment to improving their situation. Social workers and medical care is provided through the program to help with addressing the issues that affect the unhoused, such as mental health, addiction, and poor nutrition. 

“If we can expand on that model in a dramatic kind of way, that is a much, much better solution than warehousing,” said Foster.  

Affordable housing is another part of the equation that Foster believes needs to be addressed. As more and more developers build tracts of luxury housing, and lower end housing is destroyed, the lower income communities of Reno become one step closer to becoming homeless. 

“Reno has for too long allowed developers to have complete free reign,” Foster said. She has seen developers come in from out of town, develop a tract of luxury housing and “the money flows outward from the community in many, many cases.”

Foster believes this city council and county commissioners need to be much more forward thinking and look to successful examples around the country. “When a development proposal is made, it has to include either funding for low income housing or low income housing as a part of the project,” explained Foster. She firmly believes this has to happen with every new development and that if a stipulation like this was in place ten or fifteen years ago, there would not be an extreme shortage of affordable housing. 

Foster’s work goes beyond her fellowship. She is also part of the group The Reno Posse. This group serves well over a hundred meals every week. The food they prepare is high quality, nutrient dense meals that often become more than one meal per person. “The city used to provide locations for us to do meal service,” said Foster. “That’s been taken away.” This wrench in the plan has not stopped the Posse from getting food to our neighbors in need. “They know how to be visible and how to help us find them”

“It’s very important to us, with our spiritual values, that we’re part of creating sustenance for people who are on the streets,” said Foster. Whether these people are on the streets because of choice, situations with poverty, Foster does not judge and remains compassionate and empathetic towards the unhoused. She stays involved with the community and has a regular habit of attending city council and school board meetings. 

“Our folks in general are very visible in the community, trying to make a difference, trying to lift our voices, trying to live our values to make our community a better place for everybody, not just the one percent who are privileged and virtually untouched by many of the issues that are impacting our community,” explained Foster. Her focus is to remain engaged and push for corrections in the system that keep people poor and in the streets. 

Foster knows this work is exhausting and challenging. She remains vigilant and uses burnout as a guide post to keep her efforts focused. She tries to get out hiking to reset herself and get enough rest. She views these little steps as part of a daily process that helps maintain her mental health. “To be able to do it in the long haul, part of our call is to take care of ourselves,” she explained. 

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada is a unique church in that it does not cater to a single denomination. Foster said there are Atheists, Buddhists, and Jews who all attend, seeking to enhance their individual spirituality. This individualized focus allows everyone “to live together in community and learn from each other,” Foster explained. This deepens and expands the individual's spiritual journey, something Foster believes is paramount to building a stronger and less divisive community. 

“I think the real care for spiritual people is to be engaged,” said Foster. “To be engaged with the community and make a difference in every way we can. We’re at a crisis point...we need everybody stepping up and trying to make a difference.” 

Our Town Reporting by Richard Bednarski

Susan Chandler, Taking Part in a Third Act for the Next Generations

Susan Chandler, 78, a former UNR professor at the School of Social Work, who took part in protests against the war in Vietnam and the civil rights movement, is back at it again, speaking out against corporations such as JPMorgan Chase funding coal, oil and gas firms. With hundreds of billions of dollars invested, the bank has been the world’s top funder of the fossil fuel industry for each of the past five years, and its Reno branch was the site of a recent intergenerational climate change protest. 

“Chase bank and banks like Chase, they just keep feeding resources into fossil fuel industries. We want to draw a clear line about the banks. And so stop it, stop it. We don't want to support a bank that is killing the world,” Chandler said.

“If we come together, we can help,” Chandler told Our Town Reno after making a speech to those gathered outside the downtown Reno Chase location. “I mean the youth have been doing so much and Indigenous people have been doing so much. We can stand behind them. And we also can make, as [former civil rights activist and U.S Representative] John Lewis would say good trouble of our own too.”

Chandler recently wrote an op-ed with her grandson Liam Chandler-Isacksen, 15, called “A grandson and grandmother talk climate action.” She is also part of a new organization called Third Act, for people over the age of 60, launched by environmentalist Bill McKibben.

“I mean, our earth is in serious, serious danger for me personally,” Chandler said of her involvement and the importance of fighting for the next generations as well. “I have five grandchildren. During the fire season this year, it was like looking out on the apocalypse. I couldn't stand what was going to be there for my grandchildren. I mean, you know, will they have children? I mean, will the earth be here in a livable way?”

What about our elected officials, we asked?  “They do things, but they're not anywhere near enough,” Chandler responded.  “We need a Marshall plan, a bigger than a Marshall plan. Now you might not remember the Marshall plan. The Marshall plan is what went into effect after World War Two, to help Germany [and Europe] get back on its feet and see huge input resources. And the idea that if you really pour resources into this, into a situation that you can change things and we could change things.” 

She believes more people could and should join the movement to save our planet.

“I believe that people really love their children and love this land. We live on this incredibly rich and beautiful piece of land here and want it to be there for the future generations. I just know that people believe that,” she said concluding our interview.

Reporting by Gracie Gordon for Our Town Reno

Staffing Shortages, Lack of Safety, Blankets and Flooded Safe Camp at Cares Campus Dominate Homelessness Advisory Board

Lack of staff at the Cares Campus, repeated calls to 911 from the compound and flooded tents during the recent “atmospheric river” at the safe camp were some of the issues the Community Homelessness Advisory Board heard about this morning under new Washoe County leadership, after several months of the meeting being skipped over.

“I think it would be generous to say there’s half of the staff that’s currently needed,” John DeCarmine said of the Cares Campus. The executive director of the Grace compound in Florida has repeatedly been brought on as an outside consultant, praised by both advocates and local leaders. DeCarmine said they were so short staffed at the compound they were simply “putting out fires.” He called for better pay, training and leadership sessions.

Neoma Jardon, a Reno councilwoman, and formerly the chair of the board, called his latest analysis “candid information.” She asked about recently allocated $400,000 to attract or retain staff, but at that point of the meeting no one from operator Volunteers of America was present, to which Jardon said “that’s a problem.”

Regional Director Pat Cashell showed up later to also address a lack of blankets at the compound, saying these were being sent from Sacramento and also blamed “theft” and people inside the compound being given multiple blankets. “The shelter is so big that I’m not accustomed to,” he said of logistical challenges, also calling for community donations. Washoe County Commissioner Bob Lucey used the excuse of the compound still “being brand new” and warned of not getting “bogged down” in current problems. Devon Reese bemoaned that “governments are very slow.”

But DeCarmine warned: “At some point the way some of the services are provided now can become the way services are provided from here on out.” The compound has been open over six months with millions and millions of dollars already spent. Advocates have warned of potential problems since its opening, ranging from unhealthy food being served, to a lack of safety more recently.

Dana Searcy, the Special Projects Manager for the Washoe County Manager's Office, said the county is “working to address staffing.” Our Town Reno has been promised a renewed tour of the compound, but it hasn’t happened yet. We also asked to document the day in the life of staff but have not been given an opportunity to do so.

Searcy said the lack of staffing prevents employees from “collecting data and de-escalation,” regretting there have been increased calls to 911 and REMSA from within the compound.

When the head of Karma Box, the safe camp operator, Grant Denton took the podium, he said he had slept in one of the tents during the recent bad weather and that coolers and bikes blocking the flow of water into the safe camp space caused flooding and blankets inside tents to get wet. He said people sleeping at the tents were given new blankets, beanies and socks as well as new tarps. He also said the tents had bad zippers.

Searcy said 50 new $13,725 8ftx8ftx8ft Modpod heated and cooled structures will be arriving by late November, as well as two of these to be experimented with at the main part of the campus. She said Burner tents and even ice fishing tents had been considered.

The meeting concluded with Reese, Jardon and Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson calling for better coordination between volunteer groups and compound operators. That type of system, including having healthy community meals right by the former emergency shelter, which prevailed for years at Record street, were abandoned several years ago due to security issues.

Advocates are also seeking for the old Record Street location to be used to shelter women, with Our Place, run by RISE, often at capacity, and many women not feeling safe at the Cares Campus. Lily Baran called the lack of bad weather preparation a “public health crisis.” Jake Maynard said advocates “are not taken seriously,” and have warned of all the problems now happening. Ilya Arbatman said advocates sometimes felt like they were “screaming into the air.” Several advocates also called for a better process for people at the Cares Campus to address their grievances and for a lived experience committee to sit with CHAB.

Monica DuPea, the founder and director of the Nevada Youth Empowerment Project, pointed to current trends at the at-risk youth non profit the Eddy House and asked whether “it was really operating as an emergency youth shelter? What is the intake criteria? What is the ban and suspension policy? Who is served and who is not served?” Other advocates have also expressed concerns the Eddy House has turned into a “workforce program” rather than an emergency shelter for at-risk youth. Our Town Reno emailed the Eddy House for comment but did not hear back.

Our Town Reno Reporting, November 1, 2021

Amber Torres, Grateful for UNR's New Effort To Return Remains and Cultural Items to Tribal Nations

In late October, the University of Nevada, Reno’s President Brian Sandoval sent out an email with a questionnaire asking deans, chairs and unit heads to “locate any previously unreported Native American Human Remains or Cultural Items” covered by the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, “to initiate the repatriation process.”

In a subsequent interview with Our Town Reno, Amber Torres, the Walker River Paiute Tribe Chairman, reacted positively to this latest breakthrough.

“It is of the utmost importance that we get the ancestral remains returned back to the rightful tribe in which the tribal citizen belonged,” Torres said, adding it is crucial that the remains get returned back to where they came from out of respect and with all the belongings they were exhumed with.

“When they’re unearthed like that,” said Torres “they can’t rest until they’re put back to where they belong.”

She is grateful that the feedback from all the Tribal Nations is not just being listened to right now, but honored and respected. Torres explained over the phone that the process has finally been moving, after years of silence. She also explained many local tribal stakeholders have been involved in the current process to help develop a plan of action that not only upholds respect, but is done in a timely manner. 

The momentum shifted this past summer when UNR President Sandoval met for several hours with tribal leaders, historic preservation officers and representatives from the anthropology department.

“The most disheartening thing is whenever it has something to do with our people or our Nations, it is not being at the table,” said Torres who was present at the summer meeting. “Having respected Tribal Nations at the table has been tremendous.”

The company in charge of the transfer, California-based Cogstone Resource Management, has worked with local tribes in the past and this is something that Torres feels is important as well. When contacted for this report, the company did not immediately provide a comment on their process. 

But in an email to Our Town Reno, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Debra Moddelmog, who has been tasked to coordinate the effort, explained the process goes beyond the survey and repatriation.

 “In addition, the University has recently posted two job announcements for positions that will advance our efforts in regard to consultation and repatriation as well as assist us in developing collaborative partnerships with local Tribes and Tribal organizations. We are searching for a Director of  Community Indigenous Relations and a NAGPRA Liaison and Project Manager,” she wrote. Torres believes this is also a step in the right direction.

Moving further forward, Torres wants the community to learn as much as they can about how her ancestors were possibly dug up on a project for the gain of scientific knowledge. “Those individuals that are placed in the earth at that time are there for a purpose,” she explained. “They were buried in that spot because of a meaning with the family.” She likened it to thinking about having your grandmother or distant relatives dug up and removed from their final resting place and urges everyone to think about the impact this has on everyone involved. 

“You want to make sure you have the same respect and the same ceremony that you would for anybody who expires in today’s age,” Torres said. “It’s a ritual..it’s a showing of respect.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Richard Bednarski

Dale Slingland, Finding a Passion for Art After Growing Up With Cerebral Palsy

Dale Slingland is native born Reno artist who has faced challenges throughout his life. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy before he was even one year old. Growing up, he realized he wanted to find a way to be independent in a judgement free setting where he could focus on his own things.

“I enjoy having the ability to communicate and connect to people and the greater world  through a visual language that will last far into the future,” Dale said of how he got into oil paintings during a recent interview with Our Town Reno.

Dale’s dream project is to work on a mural in the city of Seattle, Washington, where his brother lives. He’s also being featured in an upcoming art show called the Devil Made Me Do It which is happening at Pitch Black Printing Co. on October 29 at 6 p.m. Soon Dale will also be on the board of the Sierra Arts Foundation.

He’s also passed on his creative genes to his eleven year old son Wyatt. Wyatt sketched out a design for a mural creation contest at a local Coral Academy school and won. So Wyatt’s idea will come to life within the school's walls. 

“The theme for his mural is kindness. He chose a heart and the words equality that arches across it. Along with colorful shapes and delicious treats to share is the way he chose to depict the theme,” Dale said. 

Dale says he is inspired in his own work by nature and places like Lake Tahoe and Lake Pyramid. With his artwork Dale likes to challenge himself. He once received a critique on a piece he created involving a painting of hands. After the critique he decided to create a whole series based on hands to not only challenge himself but to also improve his skills. He wants his art to be unique and wants to be both mentally and physically involved in the process. 

Dale thinks the Reno art community has a solid foundation but believes there is always room for improvement. Dale appreciates Reno’s new emerging art scene, believing that the major event Burning Man, that happens every summer in Black Rock Desert, contributes to the local art scene. He believes the event brings its influences to the city and gives artists more creative opportunities. Dale himself has been to Burning Man three times in the past and got inspired to create fun costumes for the event. His father was also a costume photographer at Burning Man as well. 

“I love being a part of Reno's art community. It has given me many opportunities to show my art and a chance to have my artistic voice heard and valued. I hope the community will continue to grow more vibrant and even more diverse in every way,” Dale said.

Dale’s advice to upcoming artists is to keep going, to be reliable and to develop a large body of work.

“Having a lot of work is advantageous in three ways, the first is that it gives you a good knowledge base on your chosen medium. The second is that creating lots of work helps you find your artistic voice and gives you freedom to find the genre of art you like. The third is that you will be ready for a variety of opportunities and art shows. Reliability is equal to or even more important than the quality of your work. Having your art framed and ready to hang by a deadline of the event will open up more opportunities, just because you showed up on time,” Dale said as we concluded our interview.

Reporting by Carley Olson for Our Town Reno

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