Craft Fair Benefitting Grieving Local Prenatal and Neonatal Parents

The Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Organization of the Sierras (PILSOS) is a non-profit organization founded in 2013 focusing on supporting parents through one of the hardest times in their lives. A craft fair for fundraising and awareness will be held at Katie’s Garden at the Bridge Church, one of the Reno urban farm sites run by Farmily. The event is free to attend and includes goods sold by local craftsmen and a raffle. 

“We have an amazing lineup of talented artists that are providing them with the opportunity to buy local, handcrafted, unique items to give as gifts for themselves or their loved ones,” Daniel Fisher, Executive Director of PILSOS, explained. “The admission is free. Katie's Garden is a lovely, peaceful location. There is ample parking. They can enter the raffle for their choice of items at a low cost that in turn benefits a local non-profit.

For Jacque Hibbs, a parent, PILSOS provided a safe space to talk about her family’s loss. Being connected to and in the company of other parents who have experienced similar pain gave Hibbs a sense that she wasn’t alone.  

“Your grandparents, they lived a full life,” Hibbs said. “They had a full life, they did all the things. But when you lose a child, your child hasn't had that chance. I think it's harder for people to connect with that and be able to figure out how to console you as a parent or even converse with you as a parent, because it's not a loss that a lot of people have dealt with.”

In previous years, PILSOS has fundraised through a yard sale. It was becoming difficult to keep up with the huge amount of work needed to sponsor a yard sale, so PILSOS decided to try their hands at a craft fair this year.

Nineteen local vendors will be taking part, with some of the proceeds going toward A Time for Remembrance event hosted by PILSOS later in the year, a special time for parents to remember their lost loved ones. 

“Reno is not a very big place and everyone, at some point, is going to experience a form of loss,” Hibbs said. “We all do, but when it's your child, it hits different. If you go, you're supporting an organization that is helping people get through life. Losing your child is life altering and you would be supporting a cause that helps moms and dads be able to have somewhere to go and talk and be able to remember their child.  Because in our society, sometimes we're expected to move on a lot quicker than we would like to.”

There will also be a raffle during the August event, where every one of the vendors who has signed up for the event have agreed to donate one of the items from their booth, which will be entered as prizes for the raffle. One ticket can be purchased for one dollar, six tickets can be purchased for five dollars and 26 tickets can be purchased for $20. Participants will have their phone number and name written down, meaning they can win the raffle even if they aren’t in attendance for the drawing.

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

UNR Student Helps Organize International Climate Justice Forum

“We're getting to the point where I don't know exactly the amount of time that we have left to try to mitigate the climate crisis, but it is something that has been placed on our generation,” Zane Taylor says. “We've seen that policy makers are not willing to work with it, especially among the older generations. So it's really thrown on our generation specifically.” 

Taylor, a UNR student in international affairs, and summer intern at the Unitarian Universalist Association office at the United Nations, has been busy helping organize an online webinar on climate change scheduled for August 4th.

The event will be free to attend and feature a diverse set of speakers. Participants who register online but don’t attend the webinar will receive a Zoom recording of the event after its conclusion. Titled “More Than We Inherited: Youth-Led Climate Justice Initiatives”, Taylor says the name reflects the responsibility of the younger generation to take action and preserve the Earth’s climate. 

The United Universalist Association office is one of many faith-based organizations operating at the United Nations. The world body is more known for its veto-marred Security Council meetings and different aid organizations, but it also has offices for different religions. “It is a faith that originally started as a denomination of different Abrahamic religions, so Christianity, but we've shifted away from the scope of having a shared deity or a set holy scripture,” Taylor said of Unitarian Universalists. “We go off of seven principles that hope to reconnect us to the interdependent level of life. Those include stuff along the lines recognizing the inherent work and dignity of every person, the right of conscience and the use of democratic processes within our congregations and within society as a whole.”

Taylor said that the upcoming climate event welcomes and hopes to inspire participants from all generations and faiths, whether that be persuading someone to join a local organization, signing a petition, or urging a local politician to vote a certain way. 

“We're trying to get youth involved in the climate fight because the youth and at the domestic level is where the change needs to happen before it can go international,” Taylor said. “A lot of people think that the United Nations has all this power to affect a lot of concrete policies where the United Nations is mainly a system to get international collaboration.”

Anyone interested in registering for this event can visit https://uua.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJErf-uurDIiHtGOrt_tWulCwrhg6mwLmzcA

Meeting Dan, a Steady Presence in Downtown Reno and a Master of Recycling

In a city that seems to rebrand itself daily, the figure of a quiet man, pushing what appears to be a rolling landlocked boat buoyed by full rounded trash bags, has been a steady presence for nearly four decades.

Dan speaks to those who speak to him, but spends much of his day traveling silently and slowly through Downtown and Riverside, sometimes picking up things people have left for him to reuse and recycle, sometimes stopping to rearrange his bags, maybe occasionally having a smoke, tipping his ash into an ashtray he keeps on the top of his carefully balanced cart.

A hello gets a “Huyup” back from Dan and maybe a wave. He appears content in his solitude, walking every day for hours on end.

“The doctor says I’m in good health, so I just keep walking ,” he says quietly.  “ I used to take all kinds of aluminum cans to recycling,  but they quit taking them, so I don’t now.” It worries him. “You shouldn’t waste things,“ he asserts softly. 

Dan continues to sort as he talks about moving here from San Jose those many years ago. “I’m really a Nebraska boy- from Omaha.”

He has found a home in Reno, a home that doesn’t involve doors or a roof. “I have a doorway I sleep in,” he says, pointing toward Downtown. “About a mile over there. Every day of the year,” he smiles.

Dan used to eat more often at St Vincent’s and still uses some of the street outreach food pantries and public meals. But mainly now he says he finds food that people have thrown away, in bins, behind restaurants and stores. “I eat it- there’s plenty of good food wasted. And I feed the birds with it,”  he adds.

The bag he is arranging  has partial loaves of bread, still in the wrapper, and an open bag of carrots. He finds another plastic bag to sort the food. People in the neighborhoods he walks through often give him extra food, a sandwich, something they have cooked, or on a hot day, bottles of water and juice.

When asked how his life in Reno makes him feel he cracks one of his fleeting soft smiles.

He looks up and he says: “I’m good. I’m just happy, happy, happy.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Dina Wood

Reno Tattoo Shops Helping Unhoused School Children for First Day of School

Four tattoo shops in Reno, Aces Tattoo, Evolution Tattoo, Wolf City Tattoo and Lasting Dose Tattoo are running a community shoe drive, accepting donations of new shoes, clothes and underwear until August 6th to help unhoused or poorly sheltered Washoe County students, of which there are several thousand.

For Jake Griffin, a tattoo artist at Aces Tattoo, the effort is a way to help children get back some dignity.

“Your first day of school is the red carpet for kids,” Griffin said. “I remember being in school and seeing the kids that had nothing get ridiculed and mocked. It's not their fault. They’re kids, they can't afford to even buy their own wardrobe. My objective is to help as many kids as possible to avoid that scrutiny that comes with showing up for school on your first day, and everyone's showing off their outfit, and these kids don't have anything.”

The items gathered by the Shoe Drive will benefit the Washoe County School District’s Children in Transition program.  The Children in Transition program is designed to connect homeless students with any of the resources they need to succeed in their academic careers. That’s anything from backpacks and school supplies to musical instruments, and also basic clothes and shoes.  

“Seeing it work, seeing your community actually care and come out of the woodwork to support these kids, I think is amazing,” Children in Transition Program Coordinator Colin Usher said. ”It's twofold. You've got that community part which brings tears to my eyes. Then, at the end of the day, it's the students that get the support they need.”

The Shoe Drive comes after a separate charity event gathering toys for children living in motels last year.

Sitting at a red light, presents for nieces and nephews filling his car, Griffin looked across the street and saw kids playing at a motel with a soccer ball and sticks, still having the time of their lives. Thinking the kids deserved just as much as anyone else, an idea for a charity drive brewed in his mind for a few years until he mentioned the idea to his fiancée and fellow organizer, Grace Tecson. The motel drive gathering presents for children came to a sudden fruition, and the support from the community for this event was overwhelming to the point Griffin was left with leftover toys and backpacks.

This is when the partnership between the Washoe County School District and the tattoo shops was born. Fielding calls from parents looking for help on a daily basis according to Usher, the Children in Transition program could help distribute the presents and goods that the tattoo shops collected.

“Community partnerships are really important and each one contributes something different,” Usher said. “For them to come up with an idea for shoes and socks is great because a lot of organizations don't think about that sort of specific thing. You're gonna set them up first day of school looking good, feeling good, not so much standing out, but just blending in which a lot of these kids need.”

According to Usher, the Washoe County School District identified over two thousand Washoe County students as in transition last year. Factors involving the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for children in transition to remain unidentified mean that the real number is likely even higher. 

“Oftentimes it's just inadequate housing,” Usher said. “It could be that they're doubled up with their aunt or uncle or grandmother or grandfather or another family. Some of them are unaccompanied youth, so they don't have a guardian or that adult in their life and they're living with another family, couch surfing essentially.”

Working at a tattoo shop, Griffin said he sees people from all walks of life, from bikers to lawyers, come through his doors.  Aces Tattoo has good relationships with other nearby shops, who agreed quickly to the idea of the Shoe Drive. The main goal is always the children, but the Shoe Drive is also an opportunity to show people that the stigma around tattoo shops doesn’t match up with reality. 

“Our shop has been open 27 years,” Griffin said.  “Before all this gentrification and before this neighborhood was Midtown, we were here. We've never left. We try to give back as much as we can, and we just want to show people that we care about our community, just as much as anybody else, if not more.”

Only new items will be accepted as donations.  Shoe sizes from 5T to 14Y are being accepted, and the shops are taking donations until August 6th.  Anyone who donates will be entered into a raffle, with first place earning a $500 gift certificate, second place a $250 gift certificate and third place eligible to earn merchandise from the shops. Raffle tickets can also be purchased at a price of $20. 

“We need as much help from the community as possible,” Griffin said. “Whether it be a simple pair of socks, underwear, five bucks from your pocket, 10 bucks or a $20 pair of shoes. People spend that in an iced tea at Starbucks, you know what I mean? Six bucks can make a difference in the kid's life, not just that day.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

Feemster Name Honored at New Hug High Location

As the new Hug High School prepares to open its doors at its location in Sparks, it now includes the Feemster Family Resource Center.

Adrienne Feemster, 46, the granddaughter of the late Dolores Feemster, has been fighting to have the grounds of the old Hug High School, scheduled to become a Career and Technology Education Academy, named to honor the civil rights community activist. That effort was dealt a blow when two years ago the Washoe County School District instead chose to honor Debbie Smith, a former Nevada State Senator.

“I feel like there’s no compromise and one doesn’t negate the other,” Feemster said, when asked if the naming of the center was enough. “I feel like they were separate occurrences, separate issues.”

While she restated the importance of listening to the the community when renaming schools, she said she is keeping a positive outlook, and moving forward. 

The new Feemster center will provide families with guidance and referrals to local resources to improve their wellbeing. “It reminds me to focus on celebrating the honor to be able to see the Feemster name be connected with the school that my grandmother loved and cared for,” Feemster said.

She is currently gathering mementos and old yearbooks from her grandmother’s 30 plus years at Hug for a display case in the new center.  Among her many pursuits, she had advocated for the First Nations and Heritage clubs at Hug, “so students of all backgrounds could celebrate who they are and be proud of their roots and their heritage and make common ground.” 

Dolores Feemster died in 2018, at the age of 89, after a full life of helping others, including her persistent efforts to have local affordable housing built for abused women, senior citizens and families in need.

Our Town Reno reporting by Ariel Smith

Last Motels Standing: The Reno Royal Motor Lodge

july goes quick 

this motel appeared out of corner of my eye as i was driving around

a woman was smoking a cigarette on her porch as i began walking up

no one at the office

no one else around 

there were plenty of cars parked for at least someone to come around, i thought

this motel seems to be so tucked away as it is towered over by the Silver Legacy and the Eldorado 

sometimes, one of my favorite things about photographing these old motels is seeing the different sort of cars that are parked outside in the lots

like the lincoln for example

the deep grill on the front of it

the worn down paint job 

it just all seems so fitting 

they put an imaginary person into my mind of who might be the one driving it around, staying at the motel

one man emerged from his back corner room 

cargo shorts

collared blue, striped golf shirt 

except he didn’t get in a car, he made a quick turn behind the motel and disappeared 

a couple began staring at me as I was walking around taking my last few photos

and not just noticing me, but staring at me, following my every move, and didn’t stop looking at me until i rounded the corner and left 

heads on a well-oiled swivel, locked onto my every move

strange  

Photos and Essay by Jake Lorge for Our Town Reno

Washoe County's Bethany Drysdale Answers (Some of) Your Questions about the Cares Campus

We recently got to go on our first tour of the Cares Campus, and asked the community if there were any questions they would like asked.

Television crews got priority for questions as the tour ended, and time was running short, so we emailed a list of your questions which Washoe County officials said they preferred to respond to by email. This often leads to answers with careful, administrative language, as you’ll see in this report. 

We prefer in person interviews during which we can read body language and also ask follow up questions if we want to dig deeper, but we will take the information we can.

Several of the questions we asked by email concerning details of current and future finances, and where money is coming from, were not answered, even after several follow ups.

We did get indication that Volunteers of America and Karma Box Project will remain as operators of the shelter and the ModPod camp. 

“Washoe County Housing and Homeless Services (WCHHS) follows all local, state and federal regulations governing procurement as applicable. For both the Safe Camp and Emergency Shelter operator, an RFP was released as part of a competitive procurement,” Bethany Drysdale,  the Media and Communications Manager, wrote as to that process. 

We haven’t been able to find financial disclosures or salaries yet concerning Karma Box Project, but we will keep looking.

“For the Safe Camp, only one proposal was submitted by Karma Box Project.  It was a responsive and responsible proposal and we engaged contract negotiations,” she said. The Karma Box Project will be paid a little over half a million dollars per year, in a contract to operate the camp which could run until the end of June 2026. We have yet to be able to find salaries within Karma Box (see above).

“For the Emergency Shelter, two proposals were received, one from Volunteers of America and one from Adams and Associates,” Drysdale said. 

A May Washoe County staff report recommended to go with VOA until the end of June 2024, for $6.5 million annually, with the option to renew for three one-year periods thereafter.  Several employees of VOA Northern California and Northern Nevada make over $200,000 which local advocates for the unhoused have indicated feels excessive.  

The inside of the Cares Campus remains bare with staff working at open desks, right by rows of crammed metal beds.

Amid reports of women feeling threatened, Drysdale said this has been taken into consideration. 

“We have added security measures such as the bag scanner and metal detector at the entrance, and added more security personnel,” she wrote. “We try to get women into Our Place or other areas of assistance, but we will not turn women away, so it’s important to separate the men’s and women’s sleeping areas.”

Concerning requests for law enforcement and emergency services, Drysdale said “staff utilize the new REMSA Nurse Helpline for triage and 911 for emergencies. For medical emergencies REMSA and City of Reno Fire Department are dispatched. Additionally, Mobile One Docs are on site several days a week and soon will be present five days a week offering medical care to participants. Staff calls 911 for emergencies, as the Nevada Cares Campus is a Washoe County facility the Washoe County Sheriff's Office responds when dispatched.”

The tour took place during a cleaning day.

We also got some answers and promises to address the problem of the persistent lack of running water on the compound. 

 “Is there now safe running water for the compound's water supply, and/or drinking fountains rather than buckets being filled as was the case initially?” we asked.

Drysdale wrote back:  “Drinking water (including bottled water and water dispensers) is currently available on site. Construction starting at the Campus has allowed for a temporary refillable water station with plumbed water to be installed – we anticipate this to be ready the beginning of August. The new buildings will include several different refillable water stations.”

We will check back in August to find out if this water improvement is in effect.  

Drysdale said there is already guest Wi-Fi available that people can access. She also wrote the campus is ADA compliant for all services available, including for people in wheelchairs and walkers. “Both Case Management and Behavioral Health services are available to all participants,” she wrote.

“Are there available clothes at campus for people to change into if they have accidents?” was another question from the community we relayed to her. “The Campus has spare clothing on site,” Drysdale wrote. “However, if clothing is not available for any reason such as size, staff will coordinate with Catholic Charities to assist.

As far as questions on success rates for people going from the campus to housing in the past year, Drysdale sent the above graphics.

Amid concerns for those who are temporarily excluded or “86’d”, Drysdale said they can still access their mail.  “Does the County find that expelling people for a few days or longer is effective?” we also asked?

“Sit-outs are designed around best practices and are established for the safety and wellbeing of everyone on Campus,” Drysdale wrote back. “Participants are able to appeal the decision and provide input as to why they should be allowed back earlier than their sit-out time.”

 Concerning food being served at the campus, which has often been criticized in our interviews with people staying at the compound as unhealthy, Drysdale said: “Catholic Charities, a nonprofit organization, through its St. Vincent’s Dining Room, continues to provide both a hot lunch and a hot dinner meal to the Nevada Cares Campus emergency shelter. Since initial concerns of the meals, staff has not heard additional concerns from participants. Additionally, through process improvement measures, Catholic Charities now identifies each meal before serving.”

Would-be volunteers also asked how they could help, or if they can go into the compound and meet with a person.

“We have invited and continue to invite volunteer groups to sign up for volunteer opportunities on our Community Engagement page, on the Washoe County Housing and Homeless services site, under Nevada Cares Campus. If volunteer groups would like to organize a special event on Campus, they are welcomed to select “Other”. Our volunteer coordinator reaches out to plan and organize special events. To sign up, please visit this page, here,” she wrote. 

Do you feel some of your questions were answered? Do you have any more? As always, let us know. We are trying to foster more transparency, empathy and progress in how this community helps the unhoused, including at the still very much work in progress Cares Campus.

Our Town Reno report, July 2022

Zoe Bray, Fostering Eco-Art, Reuse and Reaching Back to Her Basque Heritage in Reno

On a recent summer day in the oasis of Katie’s Community garden on the Bridge Church compound, a group of kids and their moms worked on the finishing touches of their “eco-art,” blending different nature parts they collected into plate-sized collages.

Zoe Bray, an established portrait artist, anthropologist and journalist, and soon to be published children’s book author, gently guided along the process. She showed participants how to make glue from a flower, water and a bit of sugar.  If she had more time, she said, she could have collected resin from trees to skip the sugar and go “completely natural.” 

“You don't need all this artificial stuff, but you have the most amazing nature around you and get yourself familiarized with that, and learn to care about your environment in the process. And so I think that's empowering to both children and adults and very freeing too,” Bray said of the eco-art experience.

A few days earlier, Bray had a similar calm demeanor, coordinating free drawing and painting lessons at the Riverside Farmers’ Market, while her own two kids played nearby.

“I think it’s exciting and empowering to be involved in what's going on around you,” she told Our Town Reno this week from her tree-filled backyard, not far from the Truckee River.  “Art is a wonderful way of getting people to connect with each other and their environment, and also to provide a kind of relaxing and meditative moment. And I think this is particularly important, in the kind of fast-paced, media saturated world we live in just to have this opportunity to work in peace and to be able to share this experience with others.”

Bray, a Franco-British artist, currently enjoying her second stay in Reno, says she’s looking for more grants to hold similar workshops.  In June, she used a Creative Aging grant from the Nevada Arts Council to teach drawing and painting still-lives at Revel Rancharrah. 

Previously, she’s held workshops in museums, to break the intimidation factor of such settings. 

“If you haven't been immersed in that growing up, you don't quite know how to engage with it or look at it, or, you know, it might sound like a very elitist thing, art, but no, just make it approachable, accessible and get people involved and engaged,” she says of her engagement method.

Bray first came to Reno over ten years ago as an Assistant Professor at UNR with the Center for Basque Studies, linking the arts and anthropology departments. She then became a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, before returning to the Biggest Little City. 

“Reno really does provide an extraordinary quality of life,” Bray said of her return. “For me, this easy access to nature, to the wilderness is just so important, really valuable. And we are so fortunate to be able to have that here. I can just take my bike and in 10 minutes I can be further up the river, swim in the Truckee River. I can go for a hike and just, you know, completely disconnect from the stresses of urban life and just refuel myself and my soul. And that's just incomparable. It's just something that's just invaluable.” 

 She also appreciates local Basque connections, which she is herself on her mother’s side, and which has guided part of her artistic work with a series of portraits on Basque-Americans and her research in anthropology on Basque identity.

 “My mother's grandfather was one of these immigrants from the French side of the Basque country. So this was in the early 19 hundreds, when the Basque country in France was one of these pretty poor regions, he had the opportunity to come to the American west,” Bray said of her heritage. “And at the time, the opportunity for Basque people then was to find employment as a sheepherder. So he was one of these that came to Nevada. He was somewhere between Eureka and Ely. And then he actually came back to the Basque country and settled back home. So he kind of paved the way for me to then come here in a very different and more privileged situation.” 

“As a portrait painter, I paint in this kind of traditional way using oil paints that I make myself if possible in my own canvas. And I, I look for a long time at nature. So I ask people to pose for me for several, several hours, several days, so that I really can get to know them properly and also really observe them. And it's really on the basis of light, how light falls on your face,” Bray said, when asked about her series of portraits of Basque-Americans.

Bray also writes about local Basques for different media publications, including the French Basque newspaper Mediabask which recently ran her article about how the Great Basin Community Food Coop was founded by two grand-daughters of a sheepherder emigrated from a village close to hers.

A new children’s book she illustrated and wrote called Amatxi is about a girl who discovers strange sounds by the Truckee River with her Basque grandmother. Bray will be doing an artist’s residency in the Basque County in the fall and working on a second part to the book.  She’s also been working on a  series of illustrations of children interacting with the world around them, from making their own compost to climbing trees, and running free, much like her own kids often do here, where Bray will return. 

Another project she’s pursuing is trying to get eco-art incorporated into local school curriculums.

“It’s even more urgent in really urban settings where some children just have never been anywhere, but a small city park. Every school should be able to have some kind of garden, some natural setting where they can just hang out, that's not always just tarmac and metal and cement,” Bray said. 

Bray cofounded Reusable Reno with Lakshmi Albright to get local businesses “to make the shift from single-use foodware to reusable foodware, in order to address the serious problem of trash and microplastics increasingly present in our watershed and environment in general. My work giving lessons in eco-art is connected to my activism with Reusable Reno, showing people how you can easily make this beneficial transition from a single-use and disposable lifestyle to a more sustainable - and economical - one by going 'reuse' with so many simple acts (like making glue from organic things rather than buying glue in a plastic bottle!),” Bray wrote to us in an email after our interview.

In Reno, in addition to trying to help limit trash (see above), she’s also worried about expanding sprawl and the lack of accessible housing.  “If you don't have a certain income level, just to be able to go anywhere, to be able to, to live with basic standards is really challenging. So he city has come to this point where it really needs to work this out and give [opportunities] to people of lower income without having to cover huge distances to go to work or to do anything. And this for the sake of equity, but also for the sake of the amazing nature that we have around us. We're lucky to have so much public land and this needs to be preserved. We can't be solely crawling up the mountains and now to the desert, just so that we can have our comfortable house with a front yard and a backyard. We need to rethink that for the good of everybody.”

Being an artist here can be challenging, though, whatever its rewards. “It’s not going to make you comfortable or rich,” she concluded. “So that's why it's important to have something else going on the side.” 

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2022

The NNLC, Breaking the Cycle of Poverty with Reading and High School Diplomas

The Northern Nevada Literacy Council is a non-profit organization aiming to help raise literacy rates in Nevada, which also offers free access to a program that helps adults get their high-school equivalency, regardless of how much education they already have.

“I say it's never too late,” Adrienne Santiago, Executive Director of the NNLC, said.  “I say come on in to come talk to us, let us get your assessments done. You may only be here for a month and have a high school equivalency. You could be that close, and it might take a little bit longer, but even if it does, we'll work around your schedule. We will help you with all the barriers that are preventing you from doing this.”

The NNLC offers this class and a few other different types of courses to their 500 students. These programs range from an eight-week course giving students a rundown to get their United States citizenship, classes helping adults receive their high school equivalency, a family reading program and a career development program for young professionals. 

The professional development program represents an option for young students who, for one reason or another, can’t finish their high school programming.

NNLC works with other organizations like the Eddy House, another non-profit working with unhoused youth, to reach out to students. To help students get into the long-term career they want, NNLC helps students create a long-term career plan. They assist the student in reaching those goals on the education front by reimbursing them for equipment or tuition. In some cases, NNLC will even reimburse a student’s employer for wages to help the program’s participants land a first job.

Just like the program for getting adults their high school equivalency, it’s free of charge, and students are given a pretest to determine their education level before they enter the program.

“Even if a youth has a high school equivalency or high school diploma, we still do that assessment,” Santiago said.  “We don't want to put them into a training program at TMCC or anywhere if we know that their reading level is not to where it needs to be, because then it'll just be one more knock on them to say I can't do this.”

Since the NNLC doesn’t charge for their services, the only requirement to enroll in any class is to be over 16 years of age. Santiago said she believes that higher literacy is better for everyone in the community, from better career outcomes for students and potential employers. Even something as simple as handing out a manual to an employee becomes easier with a more literate community.

“There's so many people lacking high school equivalency, and it's not something that a community can be proud of,” Santiago said.  “ I believe really strongly that as communities work together, we need to work together to address these issues. I really think that it affects so many people. ”

In Nevada, a state that was recently ranked 49th in education, NNLC sees literacy and all of their community members as a way for community members to move into new career paths and get a better life for themselves and their children. Even if an adult isn’t interested in getting a high school equivalency, the non-profit’s reading program offers an opportunity for parents to get their kids involved in reading. 

“Why do we always have to be last?” Santiago said. “Why is literacy not at the top of the most important things? It is the foundation for everything. It is a foundation to break the cycle of poverty. It's the foundation of entering into training, furthering your education. It's a foundation for their children.”

NNLC is currently looking for more instructors for their adult learners. Santiago said their current team was dedicated to the job, and good instructors will find joy in helping an adult, young or old, reach their dreams. 

“We’re always looking for teachers and if anyone is interested in working with adult learners, we'd love to talk to them,” Santiago said. “I just think that everyone needs to just know that NNLC is here as an option, especially for our youth and helping our youth break that cycle and have options.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

James and Jennifer- Living Rough Together in Reno

Smiling, Jennifer gets off her bike that is pulling an overpacked trailer filled with the necessities of her life. She goes over to the bench along the Reno Riverwalk where her partner, James, is sitting next to his own overloaded bike and trailer. She hands him a cup filled with soda she has gotten from a nearby fast-food restaurant for free after asking a manager.

James and Jennifer have been together on the streets in Reno for 14 months, or, as Jennifer laughs, “in street time that’s like 300 years. When you live inside you go to your jobs, you might see each other an hour or two a day. We’re with each other 24 hours a day.”

James got out of prison two years ago and met Jennifer, who moved here from California, fourteen months ago. They have been inseparable ever since, preferring to live in the rough outside rather than in a tent or shelter.

“I worked with the Red Cross in New York after 9/11, driving workers around, helping feed first responders. I’ve had hard jobs, I’m a good worker, " James says emphatically.

“Then I went to prison. And I will never contribute to America again. I think of my life out here on the streets as a living protest. I was kept as a slave in prison. I worked all sorts of jobs, got paid next to nothing. I even worked out there on the wild horse ranch, since I had experience in ranch work. I saw a lot of abuse there- of prisoners and horses. And think of all those prisoners who work on the fire crews, they get paid so little guarding our lives. When I left prison after all those years they gave me 38 dollars.”

He continues, obviously impassioned. “You know the Thirteenth Amendment? It bans slavery, except for prisoners. Maybe if you have an amendment against slavery there shouldn’t be a caveat to enslave prisoners.”

Jennifer opens her bright daisy printed bag to show the blister packs of Narcan that they always carry with them for emergencies. James tells of the time he used CPR for five minutes on someone who had overdosed on Fentanyl. “I learned it in the Red Cross. We’ve brought more than one person back to life with this,” he says, pointing into the bag of nasal sprays.

Jennifer gives him a hug as he continues. “Theoretically, the homeless shelter is a good idea, but you have to remember that a lot of the people on the streets have been to the penitentiary or jail. So, they get out and maybe were in a gang- I wasn’t, I was just an old guy, and you go in the shelter and it looks the same. Putting all the people in one place will never work. It’s violence waiting to happen.”

When asked about the possibility of living in one of the pods that Washoe County also has for the unhoused at the Cares Campus, he says he likes living outside and that small spaces and dormitories bring back too many memories of prison.

Jennifer, who, like James, is 43, says she tries to take care of “her guy” and others on the street, too. She is a mother figure to many of those who she checks on daily. Both of them identify themselves as “bad alcoholics” and the only other drug they use now is a little marijuana.

“We could die from withdrawal, “says James. Jennifer often finds herself alone in the middle of the night going to find alcohol. “I was chased by a guy outside of the liquor store at two the other morning,” she says with a small quaver. “The guys are gross out here when you are by yourself. Men all think I’m a prostitute and I am not.”

James says he would really like to go to medical detox to try and get off alcohol, but he worries about leaving his bike and his trailer with just Jennifer watching them. He has used drugs in the past, but both say the big drug on the street in Reno now is Fentanyl, which they both hate.

Living without a tent is not easy, but they both prefer it. “As soon as you have a tent up the cops can get you for camping,” James explains. This was Jennifer’s first winter sleeping rough and she has grown to like it. She does wish there was a place to take a shower and misses some of the razed motels where friends who could offer her one used to live.

There are local businesses where they can wash up and use toilets, and when they can’t find one, they both insist they would never use the sidewalk as they have sometimes seen others do. “The outside is our home,” Jennifer says. “Honestly, we save pizza boxes and bags to poop in if we have to, then throw it in the trash.”

They have a routine for food and there is a constant search to find money for the alcohol they need. "Tuesdays and Saturdays the hippies feed us. Thursdays it’s the church. Sundays we sometimes find the burrito people. We can get our EBT [Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits] refilled at the welfare office.”

James says that the best outreach in Reno is the VA. “I’m not a vet, but say there’s just one vet in a group- they help everyone. Those guys get it.”

Jennifer again leans into James’s neck. “We try to take care of each other and love each other. That’s all we can really do, right? “

Reporting and photos by Dina Wood shared with Our Town Reno

The Last Motels Standing in Reno: Sutro Motel

Sweltering heat and fried leaves aren't new to Reno. But I can't help but notice it's getting worse. 

I tried to take a quick walk to the motel. Take some photos, talk to people. But the heat was too much for me. I had to turn around. 

Equipped with water bottles and my camera I stepped out into the heat once more. I thought about taking pictures of people who managed to stand the heat. 

But no one was there. My only company solitary pigeons whizzing by in the non-refreshing breeze. Occasionally a head would pop out a door as I took photos in the nearly empty lots facing one another. No hellos. 

Weekly welcome, senior citizens, local motels’ bread and butter. The motels are disappearing though.

I can't help but wonder. Maybe the absence of people says as much as their presence does. 

Photos and Essay by Ariel Smith for Our Town Reno

The Last Motels Standing in Reno: Swan Inn

This is part of a series of essays with photos on the last motels still standing in Reno. We previously had a series on the last motel residents of Reno. Motels, initially conceived for tourists, increasingly became a last housing option for many, due to bad credit, not enough money for deposits, or not wanting to deal with a multitude of bills and complications, or a first housing option for residents coming out of homelessness. Many motels are now being torn down, after being bought out and razed by slow to act developers, with many vacant lots now dotting the downtown landscape.

i took myself out this time 

i said too much when i shouldn’t have 

you make it easier for me to experience things 

i met the housekeeper, Donna, when i was taking these pictures

she was a nice woman

she gave me a hard time for having a camera, but not in a hostile way 

saying “you look a little too old to be at UNR” and “your wallet looks a little too clean to be keeping it in your front pocket,” then followed that up with a laugh and explaining she was kidding

i offered to show my student id, but she didn’t seem to mind me there

i love the swan logo of this place

i can wait it out

it felt nice to go out and shoot photos again, especially in a new environment like this motel 

it has been awhile since i have 

the metal flowers below the front stairwell gave me a smile

they were cute in their own endearing sort of way

i don’t know how much longer this motel will last

online it said it was closed, but as i arrived there were a few guests i could hear 

a man muttering to himself and smoking a cigarette on the second floor, eyeballing me as i walked around 

a younger kid blasting music from his room with the door wide open towards the back 

it was a good song 

donna told me to be careful around the area

i appreciated that 

i hope good things come her way 

Photos and Essay by Jake Lorge for Our Town Reno

ACCEPT Reno Has a Long History in Helping HIV+ Community Members

The Access for Community and Cultural Education Programs & Trainings (ACCEPT) is a non-profit organization in Northern Nevada providing health education and services for clients with HIV.

Founded after the tragic death of two men due to AIDS, the group has been serving the Northern Nevada area for nearly thirty years.

“In the early nineties, there were two young men that died from HIV and AIDS that were going to our church,” Executive Director of ACCEPT Gwen Taylor explained. “No one wanted to tell my husband that they died. Those two guys died. Young men died of AIDS without their pastor going to visit them. My husband just became very aggravated with the ignorance.”

After the men passed away, Taylor and her husband started visiting barber shops, beauty shops and churches to provide health education on HIV. Four years later, in 1999, the group officially formed a non-profit, creating the organization that still exists to this day.

After a few years as the African American Cultural Education Programs & Trainings, the nonprofit’s name was changed slightly to become Access for Community and Cultural Education Programs & Trainings. The name was altered to reflect that the group’s services are available to anyone who falls underneath a certain maximum income, that income being about four hundred percent of the federal poverty level, or about $50,000 for a single person.

“We started with the African American community because we were the most severely infected and we still are the most severely infected,” Taylor said. “We do target African Americans. We target minorities, we target low-income people, but as long as they meet those poverty guidelines, we will help any race.”

ACCEPT provides its clients with health education and acts as a provider of non-medical case management. This means that the help ACCEPT provides their clients has to fall outside of medical care, but has a wide variety, from providing housing referrals to transportation credits, or helping older clients navigate technology.

Another key distinction of non-medical case management for ACCEPT is that appointments aren’t limited to a certain time. For agencies or hospitals which are supplying medical care, this isn’t always the case. The willingness to provide clients with customized care, and to spend time with them based on their needs means clients form a close relationship with the agency. Taylor said she feels like a mother to some of her clients.

 “They feel like they are a human being,” Taylor said. “They don't feel like they're just being shipped in and shipped out. They feel like we care. And, sometimes, we're the only family those clients have.”

Throughout the decades, stigma against people diagnosed with HIV and misconceptions surrounding the disease has persisted. Many of ACCEPT’s clients don’t want their families to know they have been diagnosed with the disease.

When a client puts down an emergency number, ACCEPT asks if the contact is aware of the client’s HIV status. There are no signs outside the building ACCEPT is housed in, and there is little indication whatsoever that there is an agency inside focusing on providing services for people diagnosed with HIV until you’ve already walked into the office and encountered the many brochures in English and Spanish lining the walls.

“We have a lot of work to do within our community, especially with the churches and especially with family members,” Taylor said.

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

A Powerful Trio Leading the Charge of Nightly Reno Summer Protests

Hecklers or no hecklers, drivers trying to be intimidating or honking in support, new protesters not sure what to do, and others immediately emboldened to speak up, regulars with the same signs or revolving ones, Evann, Cecilia and Kaydi, three twentysomethings who have been organizing nightly protests at the Federal Courthouse building in downtown Reno, have experienced a wide range of experiences and emotions since Roe v Wade was overturned. 

“We need to be a presence every single day,” Cecilia explained of their nightly 7 p.m. protest tactic. “We need to be out there showing people we're not going anywhere. This is a problem. This needs to be addressed. This is an issue. And if we're not out there every single day, looking these people in the eye and reminding them that something is wrong, they forget the fact that just because Nevada is protected for now does not mean that we always will be. It does not mean that everybody else is. I want people to finally show some empathy for other people, be a human being for once, band with fellow human beings. Stand together on this. This is our freedom. This is not about abortion. This is about freedom. This is about human rights. This is about your children's future and you are failing us. You are failing your children.”

All three have been ramping up their social media presence, activity and output to make more people aware. They also spend hours online responding to comments, educating others and inspiring more people to join them.   

“Even if there's only three of us or two of us, you know, people drive by and they see that we're there, that we care and that we're real,” Evann said of her dual role of posting pictures on Instagram and also going to as many of the nightly protests as she can. “And that they'll remember that next time and hopefully they remember next time when they vote or when they decide to make a decision that affects not only them, but women and LGBTQ+ people and people of color and immigrants, everyone in this country.” 

A new Facebook group the trio just started after a request from older would be protesters.

In Person and Online

Dealing with toxic people online and in real life does not faze her. “Honestly, it kind of just fuels my fire more,” Evann said. “The more I get yelled at, the more people flip me off and tell me that I'm stupid or I don't know what I'm talking about or that I shouldn't have this freedom, you know, it just, it makes me more mad and it gives me more fuel to keep pushing, to keep fighting this fight because that means that nothing's going to change. I need to physically be a part of it. And that just motivates me way more in order to keep pushing, keep fighting because I'm angry. And I know a lot of young people are angry and they don't know what to do with that anger. And I think we need to start pushing it out.”

Kaydi says she’s relieved Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak declared the state a so-called “sanctuary state.”

In a tweet sent out June 28th, the governor wrote: “Today, I signed an Executive Order to strengthen protections for reproductive freedom in Nevada. Reproductive health care is a basic human right -- We are committed to ensuring safe access to abortions for women seeking refuge from the restrictive laws in their state.”

“That was absolutely amazing,” Kaydi said. “I feel like it's super important to remind people that that's very much temporary, depending on what happens in November. And so we need to keep going out there telling people who to support and also reminding people that there's going to be an influx of people coming from out of state into Nevada because we are a sanctuary state and we do have abortion protections. And so we need to keep this awareness up so that we make sure that the state and every municipality in the state makes reproductive health a priority so that both people in the state and out of the state can get care because there are a very limited amount of resources available for reproductive health, such as abortion clinics, contraception …” 

Finding Time after Work

All three work, and still find time for their now nightly ritual.  

Evann, the youngest of the group at 20, is a receptionist for a dermatologist. Kaydi, soon to be 23, is a general warehouse worker, with studies in political science in her background and a paralegal certificate.  

“I wouldn't miss a night for the world even though, yeah, I am somebody who works 10 hours basically every single day of the week, but this is so important to me,” Kaydi said. 

Cecilia, 27, works for a biomedical research facility, which has been involved in vaccine rollouts.  “I would like to note that I absolutely do not believe that people should be forced to take a vaccine,” she said. “We have been compared a lot to people who force people to take vaccines. Again, it is your body, it is your choice. That is what we are chanting. So I do not believe in forcing anybody to do anything that they do not want to do.”

Cecilia takes the responsibility of being the oldest in the organizing group seriously. “I kind of mom everybody, make sure everybody gets home safe. The most amazing thing about coming out here is watching the people who come out for their very first time, their very first protest and they're shy and they're scared and they don't know what to do and they're nervous about it. And we welcome them and we open our arms to them and we give them that megaphone and we tell them to scream about it and let it out and to watch them open up and let these emotions out and feel … like they're humans and like they're being listened to is the most amazing part of what we do.” 

She says people keep asking the group why they protest while abortions are still legal in Nevada.  “Just because it's legal here doesn't mean it will stay legal here,” she reiterated.  “And just because it's legal here does not mean people in other states are safe. People in other states are dying because of this.”

Encouraging Voting and Donations

Cecilia says based on her own experience many men think being on contraceptives is a cakewalk.  “If I had a dollar for every time a man drove by and told me why not just use the pill, I'd be rich. It's not that easy,” she explained. “There are lots of different complications that can come with the different birth controls that women have to take. And it's something that men don't know because they don't have to deal with it. They don't have to deal with getting cancer. They don't have to deal with an IUD ripping through their uterus. They don't have to deal with infertility because of this stuff… It should be everybody's responsibility to preventing pregnancy. It should not fall on the woman.”

Cecilia is dismayed that in some states abortion isn’t allowed for medical exemptions anymore. 

“That would be ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and other types of pregnancies which actually risk the life of the mother. That’s the thing with pro-life is they seem to forget the life of the person carrying the baby, who is also at risk. Every time we are trying to carry a child, they seem to forget that pregnancy is dangerous, that women have died. So many women have died just going through the process of being pregnant, giving birth, having a child, let alone the women that are murdered because their boyfriends didn't want them to get pregnant.”

Preventing abortions in the case of rape and incest also leaves her gasping for air. “They want to force us to have the rapist’s baby? In what country does that sound right to people? In what country does it sound okay to force children who have been raped to have a child?”

The three pointed out their support for all the work Planned Parenthood has been doing nationally and locally as well as the efforts of the Wild West Access Fund (WWAF) of Nevada giving financial assistance to those seeking abortion care in the state, coming from within as well as from outside.  

The group encourage donations to these organizations, and registering to vote in November.  In the meantime, they are asking more people to join them 7 p.m. every night at the courthouse between downtown and Midtown.

“I am so proud of all of these kids that come out here every night and I hope that they're all listening and I hope every single one of you knows. I don't care if you are out there for one day 30 minutes, three hours every single day. I am so proud of you. And I love you,” Cecilia said in closing. 

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2022

FARMily, Bringing Educational Urban Gardening to the Center of Reno

Reno is home to many different things. Depending on who you ask, some will point to the downtown casinos, the majestic courthouse, the up and down Truckee River or its many murals. It’s also becoming known for urban gardening, which includes multiplying initiatives by different groups, including Farmily, a local non-profit empowering children with green know how.

The organization operates four urban gardens, with three located right next to Boys and Girls Clubs, where kids at the program are invited to grow plants and food.

“We're teaching kids things like mindfulness and breath work and really how to reconnect with nature,” Rebekah Stetson, founder and CEO of Farmily, said. “The reason why that's our focus is because a lot of the health disparities that we're seeing, whether those are mental health or physical health, directly relate to people not being as in tune with what they're doing to their bodies, with their community. It's just a lack of attachment. We really aim to teach kids those skills because we know, based on research, that those serve us for a lifetime.”

Our Town Reno visited two of the four farm sites, and both were only a few miles from some of the biggest casinos in town. The Reno skyline is clearly visible, and the clutter of tall buildings is at odds with the flowers and recently planted produce at both sites. The Flint Street site is less than a mile from Wingfield Park, surrounded by tall banks and office buildings. It’s not located as close to a Boys and Girls Club as the other sites, but children will still visit on occasional field trips. Volunteers are welcome, and office workers will walk through the small farming space on their lunch breaks. 

“Sharing your experience with people and then also having people share their experience with you is exactly such a cool thing about gardening and agriculture in general,” Philip Nasvik, Assistant Garden Manager and Director of Soil Health at FARMily, said. “People have their strengths and weaknesses in agriculture, just like they have in any other aspect of life . When you can share your knowledge, through the community and the network, that's when you really start to feel that it's something special and meaningful.”

After harvesting the crops and distributing the food to families, FARMily sends excess produce to a few different outreach groups who help distribute food to neighbors in need.

“They love that sense of purpose of planting something, watching it grow and then being able to eat it and share it with their family,” Stetson said of children who take part in the program. “It is really magical. I truly believe that we’re all creators, what we're meant to do is create things. It's such a satisfying experience to tend the land, grow something and then be able to share it with other people. A lot of volunteers come because they love the mission of what we do. They love helping other people, but they also love the zen nature of being in the garden.”

The sites grow more than vegetables and produce. Both sites that Our Town Reno visited grew flowers, to sustain a more complete ecosystem and protect insects and other pollinators. Stetson said the growing process at each site is entirely organic. No herbicides or pesticides are used. No artificial fertilizer is used, and FARMily makes its own compost for growing plants. 

“All of our gardens are organic, but we also use permaculture principles,” Stetson said. “Permaculture is a way of looking at the world as a very interconnected ecosystem. It's important for us to have all sorts of different plants, fruits, vegetables, flowers, annual flowers, perennial flowers because then you have a more diverse ecosystem.”

Setting up a farm in the middle of the city brings with it a few changes compared to a farm on the outside of town. The nearby concrete raises the temperature, and FARMily has to manage its water to align with city guidelines. Nasvik said FARMily chooses plants and crops based on the conditions of Northern Nevada and the urban environment. But the urban farm’s convenient location means that students and other distributors are far closer than usual.

“Some urban farms are fortuitous because they're closer to where a market would be,” Stetson said.  “If you were attending farmer's markets, then you don't have as many miles to logistically [to] get your food, which I guess is also beneficial for us. When we harvest, everyone that we distribute to is within a five mile radius of all of our sites.”

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

Susan, Trying to Avoid Police and Snuggling with Her Dog in her Van Home

On a recent downtown Reno night, Susan was sleeping in her bed, tucked into the back of the converted shuttle bus she has called home for four months. Her small chihuahua, Abigail, was next to her under the covers.

It was around 6:30 AM when her home began to shake as she felt what sounded like sticks hitting the outside of her van and yells of “Wake up. Reno Police. Get the hell out of there.” 

Susan had been staying in an unmarked area near the river for about four days, where fishermen often park, near Idlewild Park. Abigail was barking as Susan shakily grabbed a robe and went to her door. There she says she remembers seeing five to six uniformed Reno police. 

She had taped a note to the window of the van indicating: “This is my house. Please do not tow my house”. One of the cops she says yelled at her to take down the sign. “That’s bullshit,” she recalls him saying. Another one, she alleges, kicked over the coffee can she had left outside nearby, spreading cigarette butts around the graveled area. “You have a mess to clean up out here, lady,” she remembers him telling her, turning to the other officers and laughing.

“So many, I couldn’t believe it,” Susan said, her eyes tearing at the memory. “They all kept pounding the sticks on the bus, laughing. They told me I had to leave right away.” Susan, a tiny woman in her late fifties, continued with the memory. “Honestly, it made me feel like I was almost naked when I was out there surrounded by all of them. I felt like I should cover up and they ganged up around me."

After they told her she had to leave, Susan told them no problem and went inside her van, more than a little afraid. She says could hear them describe her in derogatory terms, laughing when one said “I wonder where she shits”.

Ryan Connelly from the RPD responded to a request for comment about Susan’s account saying, “the alleged behavior, if true, is not acceptable. If true, it is below our standards of service and what is expected of Reno Police.“

Connelly said police would need a specific date or address to investigate but that Susan could report what happened anonymously through internal affairs. Susan, like many others living in precarious situations, are fearful of retribution and tend to avoid contacting police. Asked if she was interested in filing a report, Susan said she wasn’t, preferring the least amount of contact as possible with police.

Six months ago, Susan would never have seen herself in this situation. Home was previously a small house on Vine St. where she had lived for 14 years. Her daughter, son-in-law and five-year-old grandson lived in adjoining cottages, all on the same property. When one of the cottages was found to be out of code her landlord warned her that there might be changes. She had already fought a rent increase from the property manager who told her that Midtown was “hot”.

“You can’t just decide to call an area something and raise the rent,” Susan said, unconvinced with all the changes going on in Reno. Her landlord died soon after and then his daughters immediately put the property on the market.

Two weeks later, right after Christmas, she and her family were looking for a new place to live. It was hard to find something that would take her and her two dogs. Her daughter, who is pregnant, found a one bedroom, but it does not allow pets. Susan ended up giving her larger dog to her ex-husband and still feels sad about that.

She walks with a limp from bad knees, but continues to do small jobs when she can including garden for people who have trusted her work for years.  “One lady, she only wants me, because I’m nice and neat and tidy,” she said.  She talks wistfully of the yard full of flowers and fruit trees she had tended before losing her home.

“I loved my house and garden. There were cherry trees, established plants, but they tore it all out," she said. She has worked in the nursery business her whole life and was let go from Home Depot after 17 years during the pandemic.

Inside her bus Susan has kept plants she managed to save from her home, but she worries that she can’t get them enough light.

There are brightly colored tapestries on the seating area and she keeps a picture of her grandson on the inside of the van, along with drawings he makes for her. A jar holds flowers she has cut in the alleys of Reno. She offers a bottle of water to visitors and makes sure they are comfortable.

Susan tries to find parking places close enough to her daughter’s apartment so she can see her grandson often. One day they peeked into the large glass doors of an apartment complex where she had parked for a few days.

There is a swimming pool at that location and she wonders if she could perhaps get a place there, close to family. Neighbors bring her food, talk with her and admire her dog. She sweeps the gutters clean and picks up trash in the neighborhood. The next day though the manager of the complex told her she had to move and accused her of entering the locked building and using “facilities”. It doesn’t matter that Susan denies it-the manager tells her she was seen and so she needs to move or they will call the police.

Susan resumes the now routine job of packing up and moving the bus again. She will look for spots nearby, because she feels it is a safe neighborhood and not everyone treats her with disdain. She can walk to the local Maverik in the morning to use the bathroom and wash. They don’t mind Abigail. When she showers at her daughter's apartment, she has to hide Abigail in a big tote bag.

“I’m not going to just use someone’s yard or next to the river,” she says emphatically. I’m not going to pollute the Earth.”

Susan is always mindful of being a good neighbor. She describes a woman a few streets over who doesn’t mind if she parks next to her law office as long as the city allows her to. “She told me that once she meets the human and knows their name they can stay as long as they like. There has to be respect.”

One of Susan’s concerns is her bus. She did a non-permanent trade for her truck with a friend.

“There are people who when they see the bus," which is painted a very flat black with some taped areas, "they think it’s scary! Honestly, I want to paint it another color so people don’t think I’m going to lure children and eat them", she said.     

Susan has a hard time focusing on her future. “I’ve been so consumed with being like this I don’t even know how to find help.” 

Public transit in Reno is so irregular that even getting to a place like St.Vincent’s for food becomes a trial. Should she leave Abigail alone in the bus? What if it gets towed with Abigail inside? If she drives to an appointment, she risks losing her parking space. She plans her day around finding bathrooms, going to work for short periods of time so Abigail isn’t left alone for eight hours … Susan says it all begins to seem too much to think about.

One dream she has, while trying to be as inconspicuous as possible in her van, and not being caught, is finishing the children’s book she is writing for her grandson called “Keeping Abigail Warm”. It’s based on Abigail who is often chilly and refuses to wear clothes.

“You know there’s no place for us,” said Susan. “I cry about it every time I’m told I have to move. I’ve never actually felt this way. I feel unwanted.” She hugs Abigail, who slips in perfectly next to her and offers her a kiss. “I’m hoping for the best," she says- her eyes focused on her dog.

“I’m hoping something good will happen.”               

Reporting by Dina Wood shared with Our Town Reno

Elvira Diaz, Urging Northern Nevadans to Use their Voices and Vote

If there’s one thing Elvira Diaz, currently the Civil Engagement Community Organizer at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, has learned, it’s the power of using her voice, from tv and radio programs to campaign rallies and legislative sessions.

She now wants to see more people participate in our democracy. One person Diaz recently helped was over eighty years old and registering to vote for the very first time.

“It doesn't matter what party you are or what you believe,” Diaz said. “If we have a hundred percent participation, then we will have people who represent us, and they will listen to us. And if we abstain, then our voices are not going to be heard. The people can analyze after the election if that person they voted for really delivers what they say they're going to do, or it's really good for them.”

As part of her work with PLAN, Diaz hosts weekly “Democracy Dinners”. Anywhere from six to fifteen people gather each week to learn more about the political process.

“Even if you vote against something that I want, like the other candidate, that's fine because it's a democracy,” Diaz said. “That way, we can make people accountable. If you vote wrong, don't worry,” she said. “Next time, you’ll fix it and vote right. That happened to me the first time I voted, I didn't even know about party lines. I like this name, this name is beautiful. Now, we have Google. We have the internet. We can check each one. Do your homework.”

An issue she sees as crucial as do many others is the lack of accessible housing and the insecurity caused by skyrocketing living costs.

Diaz recently helped two individuals who were suddenly evicted from a rented house after over twenty years of residency. After the house they had rented and lived in was sold to another owner, the new owner didn’t renew the lease.

Diaz helped them find housing, soliciting friends, family and other community members to help during their difficult transition. Diaz said that evictions weren’t her specialty, and this work was unrelated to her PLAN efforts.

“I did this in my spare time, in the morning before I go to work,” Diaz said. “Go to work, come back, check on them. When this lady cooked food for them, I was like the Uber driver for the food. So I just dropped the food off after my work.”

Diaz ran for office in Sparks for City Council Ward 3 during the last election cycle but failed to win despite a strong campaign both in person and online. Not discouraged and always bolstered, she pursues her good deeds at her current job and during her spare time.

Right now, Diaz believes in the value of voting, even if there are skeptics, young people turned off by aggressive tactics and many faults to the process. Election day for Nevada’s primaries is today.

Our Town Reno reporting by Jesse Stone

Racheo, A Van Life Survivor in a Used Ambulance

Racheo Blais is a 25-year-old who has lived in Northern Nevada all her life. For a portion of that time, her home was a 1985 hollowed-out ambulance which carried her through the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Prior to purchasing the ambulance, she was living in her car, a Geo Metro, after her housing situation completely fell apart. She cashed her checks when she got them and saved all she could in order to afford the dilapidated ambulance, which at the time, she thought was a steal. 

At first, the idea of having an autonomous housing unit that could travel seemed like an optimal decision considering the difficulty of renting with a single income in Reno.

She bought it in February 2020 and lived in it until she was able to find stable housing in January 2021. She describes those eleven months as incredibly despondent, filled with anxiety and paranoia stemming from a break-in and theft, food insecurity, difficulties with everyday life as well as an incredibly isolating time. 

Racheo’s ambulance was broken into almost five months after she moved into it. The intruder made off with the title to the ambulance, her keys, her medications, her prescription glasses and left her with a shaken constitution, scared and paranoid. 

“[I] didn’t really feel unsafe in the van until that happened, because I felt it was really inconspicuous, nobody’s really breaking into an old decrepit ambulance in some parking lot in the middle of town. When you went into the ambulance you could tell a single woman lived there, all of my stuff was super girly, flowers plushies everywhere, I didn’t really own anything of value so I wasn’t worried about it in the first place,” she said. 

With the situation leaving her rattled, she purchased a gun which she said ultimately was not a great idea, installed outside locks on the doors because it was too expensive to change the door-locks, put up warning signs on the windows as well as fitted them with razorblades to deter people from getting in if there was another attempt to break-in. 

Knowing she didn’t want to continue living in the ambulance, she repeatedly tried to find more stable housing. She applied to various apartments around town which cost her close to a thousand dollars collectively over a period of months, just on the application fees. She didn’t hear back from any of the leasing offices. 

“The break in made me realized I wanted to leave, then looking for an apartment made me realize I couldn’t. That’s kind of when I wanted to make it more livable in the van to what I could do living there,” she said.

Blais would wake up, use the five-gallon plastic bottle with a spigot she had as a sink to wash her face and brush her teeth, tend to her cat and then went off to work for the day. She would come back after getting off work and return to what she called an incredibly isolating environment. 

"I think people need to be more aware of the blessings they have, and I think the city needs to realize even having a place to do laundry, to shower, to use the restroom, providing electricity, are things that save people’s lives. It’s basic human needs, it's a human right to have those things.” 

Once she got back from work, her night would include her sometimes making meals on her bed with an electric stove she had; however most days she didn’t have the energy to do so and as she put it would have “either an uncrustable or sleep for dinner”. 

“I never slept well either, every single bump in the night would have me on guard, there were times when people would knock on my van at night, the fire department came one time because the alarm of the building that I was parked in front of went off during the night so they were harassing me about why I was in a van, someone broke into the dumpster of that building, plus I was in there with my cat so if she was freaking out I never really slept well,” she said. 

Without her keys, she never felt safe being away from the ambulance for too long. The time she spent away from it was while at work and the one day a week she would leave for a few hours to go shower. 

“My dream while I was living in the van was just to have a safe parking lot, that was illuminated where I could get power, use the restroom and that’s pretty much it. Where it was just a safe place to be where I wouldn’t have to be so scared,” she said. 

At one point, she and a friend of hers who was also living out of her vehicle were staying in the parking lot next to what used to be Fort Ryland. For a few weeks it was just the two of them but as time went on more and more people in vans, trucks and RVs started living there. However, due to the amount of times they were ticketed, they were forced to move elsewhere. 

“I was less scared having other people living in their vehicles around me because I’m not just one single woman in a van living in a random parking lot. I was a single woman in a van in a parking lot with multiple people living around me, and it made it feel more like a community,” she said.

All along the west coast, the issue of disappearing affordable and low-income housing has made the issue of houselessness and housing instability flare. With higher rates to secure housing and low wages, people who are experiencing an unstable housing situation find their only option is to sleep in their vehicle, if they even have one. 

A bandaid to the situation is to offer designated parking spaces where people can go who are living in their vehicles. Santa Barbara was the first city on the west coast to offer this type of help, having started their program in 2004 with the direction of a counseling center called New Beginnings. 

The way it works is by offering those who are living in their vehicles space to park overnight with guaranteed safety. The lot locations aren’t publicized as to not invite those who would discriminate or try to take advantage of the people sleeping there. While it is not a stable housing unit, the program allows some respite from people trying to break into the vehicles as well as from tickets from the police. 

The Santa Barbara program is a blueprint for the initiative and other major cities like Eugene, East Palo Alto and Los Angeles have already started their own parking lot programs. 

It wouldn’t be so difficult to have the same kind of program here in Reno, where empty plots of land are all too easy to find.

“It’s funny because a lot of these areas that are empty lots now are where people used to have affordable housing, so instead of living in a van and being scared for my life every night, I could have lived in a hotel room and been more comfortable and had access to these basic human rights that I didn’t have for so long because I lived in a vehicle,” Blais said. 

Living in the ambulance was difficult for Racheo, but she was always reassured that her situation, even with the difficulties she faced, was and is a privileged one. 

“You know, holy shit I think I felt unsafe in a van, how do you think people in a tent or no tent feel?… If I were on the street, I couldn’t have a wardrobe or multiple pairs of shoes or things like that, it made me grateful for those things that I had and that they were safe.”

It’s lead her to being grateful for the things in life that she didn’t have access to while she was living in a vehicle. She said it's important to have an understanding of gratitude towards things like hot running water, the ability to do laundry, the opportunity to practice good hygiene, even the ability to store food items in a fridge.

“We have all of this land, all this empty land that we might as well use before it becomes luxury apartments that no one here can afford; because a lot of people are moving because they can’t live here, we’re all one check away from being homeless,” she concluded.

Our Town Reno reporting by Matthew Berrey

Tattoo Artist says Local Scene Rife with Male Domination, Harassment and Belittlement

The tattoo scene in Reno is brimming with artists who have either solidified their artistry with a large clientele and large following on social media, or are just starting out as apprentices in the many shops present all around Northern Nevada. Between them there are also independent artists who, either with or without prior experience in a shop-type setting, have made their services available at home. 

This is the case with an artist I recently sat down and talked with whose instagram handle is @stabsnpokes. She chose to keep her name out of the article. 

The local tattoo scene is competitive and can be cut throat. As a woman, it can also feel toxic.

She grew up in this scene and was always interested in art and drawing, saying she wanted to be a comic book artist. She got into the scene at age 15 through an ex-partner of hers who was an apprentice at the time. 

Through a combination of apprenticing herself at multiple shops both in and out of Reno, having worked as an independent artist on and off over the years and knowing an array of artists in the scene, her experience was rife with male domination, harassment and belittlement of women artists. 

“Every time I go to a tattoo shop, and show my work, they’re always trying to figure out how I should perfect my work,” she said of being treated unfairly compared to men.

Usually what happens with tattoo artists is that for some amount of time, before they are able to work full-time in a shop, they do apprenticeships under an artist who has been working in the scene for a good amount of time and are deemed professional by others in the field. 

Depending on the shop-owner or mentor, apprenticeships can come with no guaranteed pay, often working part or full-time for the mentor and can take up to a year to fully complete. There are some artists, depending on who they work with who pay to be an apprentice. 

For theartist who uses @stabsnpokes on Instagram this was a situation that came with a lot of friction. During her apprenticeship, she worked for an artist who owned a shop in Reno and one in Oklahoma. She worked with this artist up until his death which abruptly ended her apprenticeship.  She then found it hard to find another shop to continue her work. 

“…When you go to other shops, you have to have a resume, they want to know who you were mentored by, and the circumstances of his death wasn’t a good idea for people because he was dealing with substance abuse… he couldn’t vouch for me or anything like that, and a lot of artists wanted me to do an apprenticeship again. I just don’t have the time for that or the patience for that, because apprenticing is a soul crushing time of your life if you can deal with it,” she said. 

How money is shared is also something that is extremely difficult she says of being a woman in the tattoo scene. 

“My mentors and coworkers would talk about tips and I would hardly ever get tips, I’d get maybe a twenty like every other week, and I was living out of his shop at one time,” she said. 

With that, there are levels of classicism as well. Remarks made about equipment that is considered cheap when according to her, she’s “seen lots of videos of people debunking that. Like pro tattoo artists testing out cheap Amazon equipment and they’re busting out like really nice tattoos, so it's all about skill.

Along with the financial instability, apprenticing can come with being treated poorly. She recounted that her shop experience consisted of being picked on and being taken advantage of by the other artists.

“They kind of haze you, and I was able to deal with it because I had a shitty childhood or whatever, so a lot of it wasn’t new to me. But they tried really hard to like get me to crack…,” she said. 

It was often that some of the artists working out of the shop would take her things or use her equipment without asking. On top of it all, was the harassment that she experienced for being a woman. 

She told me a story about a time she was late for work and her mentor suggested that as a repercussion, she’d have to give him oral sex. According to her, women in the space have those experiences all the time. She told me of another worker in the local tattoo industry who was sent pornographic videos with the implication to “re-make” it with the person sending it. 

On talking about female artists she said, “They get all the grunt work they still get treated like apprentices, they get treated like they aren’t as good as the male workers that are there.” 

Among these reasons and more, she said this is why she feels more comfortable working out of her home. She has a better handle on the clientele she works with and it comes with not having to deal with the issues of being a woman in a male dominated space. 

“As long as I know what I’m doing and I’m not harming people, I’m good. I have my blood borne pathogens certification, I took the classes for that. I’m CPR certified in case something like that happens,” she said. 

However, those in the tattoo scene often look down on individuals working out of their homes, deeming them as “scratchers”. People with no prior experience of tattooing, unaware of standard hygiene protocols, who typically buy the equipment and start giving out tattoos. 

“The thing with scratchers is that they tend to take on shit that they don’t know what they’re doing, I won't do that. I’m not going to tattoo somebody and think that I can do it. If I really don’t feel comfortable doing it, I will recommend them to someone or to a shop, we’re still helping them get business,” she said.

With the shop mentality, there comes a lot of gatekeeping within the scene. Because it’s the artist giving out their work, the expectation is that the ultimate decision making lies with the person using the tattoo gun. 

However, the issues arising from that include deeming what work is worthy and what isn’t. She said a lot of flack is given towards independent and small artists because if their work is outside of traditional or new-style tattooing, it’s looked at as “trash”. 

“Art is subjective, people are getting tired of seeing the same old traditional artists, people want to break out of the box and get different shit. It’s really just not that deep. I don’t like how American tattoo[ing] is like ordering other people around and [dictating] things you can or can’t do, like it’s some big sacred thing,” she said. 

She’s been working towards tattooing often because it’s something that she has a passion for and wants to create a more inclusive space where more people feel comfortable. She’d like to go to South Korea in the future and start making connections for tattooing there as well, and perhaps finally be able to escape the male toxicity of Reno’s scene behind her.

Our Town Reno reporting by Matthew Berrey

Bruce Hahn, a Justice Candidate Ready to Fill a Void in Reno

Bruce Hahn,  a candidate for Reno Justice Court, Justice of the Peace Department 2, is currently Assistant Bar Counsel for the State Bar of Nevada, with over twenty five years of legal experience, including a decade with the Washoe County  District Attorney’s Office.

Now responsible for cases across the Silver State, Hahn spends a lot of time on cases originating from Las Vegas over platforms like Zoom. He says part of the reason he’s running to fill the empty seat in the Reno Justice Court is to find some cases closer to home.  

“I really know the courts,” Hahn told us during a recent interview in our podcast studios. “I served in our justice courts, Sparks Justice Court, Reno Justice Court, Incline Justice Court, for 26 and a half years, as a plaintiff’s lawyer, so to speak. I worked for the District Attorney’s office, and I have litigated about every kind of criminal matter you can imagine through those courts. Whether that’s filing motions, bringing arguments, whether it’s escorting witnesses, working with opposing counsel, I did that as an active trial lawyer for fourteen years.”

Hahn moved to Reno in 1996, at the same time as he left insurance law. A father of four grown children, he has sent his children to Truckee Meadows Community College and other local schools, and spent five years as the head coach for  the University of Nevada, Reno Mock Trial Competition Team. He says experiences like these help ground him as a person. 

“To connect with people, whether they’re adolescents, whether they’re in their early adulthood, as you get through mock trial experiences, I think that’s not only grounding as a person, but you’re investing,” Hahn said. “You have more invested in the people that you’re ultimately going to be serving as the role of a judge as a neutral, independent, finder of fact.”

Hahn in our podcast studios. You can listen to his full interview with Jesse Stone below.

The primary for the election pits him against Cotter C. Conway and Kendra Bertschy. For the past two years, after Justice Pete Sferrazza retired in October 2021, the Reno Justice Court has operated with five seats, rather than its typical six.

“I believe that the court is under an enormous strain because they are operating under a population that would support seven Justices of the Peace…” Hahn said. “They only have currently the seats for six, and they have been operating on five. There’s a tremendous amount of work, and, frankly, I’m interested if I were elected in collaborating with the people who have been there the longest. The people who know what needs to be done, and are wiser with regards to their environment.”

Hahn said he focuses on building a connection on a personal level when campaigning, and that he and his wife have spent hours in the middle of the night putting up signs. Hahn says he likes starting conversations and receiving constructive feedback from the people he hopes to serve.

His website lists his supporters as coming from law enforcement, the establishment and the DA’s office: including according to his website “Darin Balaam, Washoe County Sheriff, Chuck Allen, Former Washoe County Sheriff, Michael Haley, Former Washoe County Sheriff, Christopher Hicks, Washoe County District Attorney, Richard Gammick, Former Washoe County District Attorney, Marc Picker, Washoe County Alternate Public Defender and Karl Hall, Reno City Attorney.”

“I’m interested in sharing with people who I am as a human being,” Hahn said. “Who I am as a professional, as a husband, as a father. I simply offer that people take a careful look at what the candidates propose, make an informed judgment and reach out to them.”

Jesse Stone reporting for Our Town Reno