Rose, a Local, Trying to Help a Displaced Family in the Devastated Gaza Strip

Rather than attending protests, Rose, a local northern Nevada ELA instructor, has been writing regular letters to the U.S. administration, local officials and to contacts within the Gaza Strip, including one particular family, trying to help as best they can and stop in their own words the “horror.” 

“I think a lot of us are just able to see directly how much damage and pain people are in. It's so visible, especially on social media. And it just felt with us having such a direct connection with the United States providing the military weapons … that you have to do something,” Rose explained to Our Town Reno during a recent interview.

Rose keeps informed about all the ongoing tragic news unfolding in Gaza through local journalists there still active on Instagram, including Mahmoud Al-Awadia, Majdi Fathi, Bisan Owda and Ahmed Maqadema.

The family Rose is trying to help consists of Eman Houssin, 35, who is active on Instagram as well @eman.houssin, her husband Muhammad, 40, her children Tasneem, who goes by Toto, 16, a K-Pop fan with dreams of becoming a lawyer, Taim, 10, who wants to become a pilot, Tia, 4, who loves swimming, her two sisters Sarah, 21, a talented singer, Banan, 17 who was prevented from graduating from high school and her parents Abd, a math afficionado, and Ibtisam, a social butterfly, both in their 60s.

Their family home in north Gaza was obliterated (above before and after) during Israel’s counter attack hostilities, which have killed nearly 40,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven most of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents from their homes. The intensely escalated Israeli attacks immediately followed the Hamas led incursions into southern Israel on October 7th, which resulted in 1,200 people killed and about 250 others abducted.  

“Our house … unfortunately got completely destroyed,” Eman writes. “We lost a very special place that is full of sweet memories of more than 24 years of our lives, everything has vanished, form our favorite books and rooms to our comfy little beds to our favorite clothes and many many special and cherished items, everything has vanished like it never existed."

Rose had been in contact with Eman even before the intensified war, with interests in her food blog.  “After October 7th, the imagery started shifting to what her immediate experience was,” they say, with the family now stuck in a displaced camp in central Gaza. 

Communications have become difficult. “There's not a lot of Internet access,” Rose explains. “They have to go to hubs where there is Internet access. And so it's always certain times of the day that she has it available and can get there. Also, they don't have any consistent way to charge their phones out there. And so they actually have to send it out to places that have like solar powered batteries at the moment.” 

Rose has been updating a flyer they circulate about the family, dropping it off around northern Nevada, from car windshields to mail boxes. It includes a link to the family’s GoFundMe (in screenshot above)  gofund.me/fb65f434

They’ve also been sending it to news organizations, elected officials, both local and national, and once a week since the beginning of July directly to the White House.  

A July update to the GoFundMe indicated: “We are waiting for the Rafah Crossing to be back operational again so I can start to evacuate my family to Egypt where they can start a new life away from danger and the unbearable life that most of the Gazans are living. Your support is critical to reach the target that will secure a safe exit and the essentials for my family to start rebuilding what this war has taken away but it will not take the will of life.”

A YouTube video (above in screenshot and in this link) features Taim standing in a muddy field in front of a large white tent, saying “we are living a very miserable life here, we are living in tents now. The situation here is unbelievable and unbearable. No words can describe what we are living now.”

He describes long lines to use a common bathroom, drinking dirty water, and not having enough food to eat.

Rose says the family’s children have gotten sick repeatedly, including one getting hepatitis and another a bad skin infection.  The youngest ones experience constant panic attacks, fearing every loud noise could be a deadly explosion.  They say the family hasn’t been able to buy propane to run a consistent fire, to be able to boil water.   

Rose said the money sent via the GoFundMe works for some digital and card purchases within the Gaza Strip but that the overall total is meant for the entire family’s departure.   

However, as Rose points out, the Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed since May. Previously, Israel had permitted tens of thousands of Gaza residents to leave through Rafah. Many dual nationals got out, some with assistance from their other country, while others paid expensive fees to cross.  Eman’s brothers left Gaza years ago, one relative is in Greece, and the family would desperately like to reunite with them.  

“I wish if we all could escape this nightmare and to start a new life together away from this traumatic place,” Eman writes.  

Asked why they spend so much time to try and help this family, Rose says “there's something to be said about just giving some people back their humanity by being willing to talk to them and being willing to hear their story and even just to hear them be upset and be sad. Like I've had voicemails from Eman just crying about how hard it's been and how she's trying to be brave for her children.”

If others want to help another individual or family, Rose warns of being careful and avoiding potential scammers. 

“I would say the main thing for me is that if it's very sudden and there is inconsistent information coming out from them, or if they're just repeating or sending the same kind of photoshopped looking image over and over like that, it's going to be a red flag.”

They suggest the Operation Olive Branch (in screenshot above) which can be found on Instagram to contact Palestinians in need.  

“It can feel really hopeless when you see all this information and when you think, well, I'm over here, you know, across the world and I can't do much,” they concluded, “but I don't think that's ever true. I think you can find ways to contribute, even if it's small, you know, even if it's just raising awareness, even if it's creating art or even if it's, you know, reposting things that you see online.”

Our Town Reno reporting, August 2024

County Looks to Fill Hundreds of Poll Worker Positions

Washoe County is looking to hire 800 poll workers, including bilingual ones, to work the upcoming 2024 elections, for two dozen early voting sites and over 50 November 5th Election Day locations.

“This is going to be a historical election. I think we're going to break records here in Washoe County of actually how many people do come out and vote," the Deputy Registrar of Voters for Washoe County, Andrew McDonald said this week, underlining the need.

McDonald is confident the positions will be filled.  "We've got a lot of excitement around becoming a poll worker. Unfortunately, our nation is divided. So people are very into wanting to help and just be part of the historical process," the County official said, while also wanting to reassure those feeling the job could come with high tensions.

"Poll workers are protected. I want to make sure that people understand that we take safety very seriously here. Here in the building, we have sheriffs, we have guards," McDonald said.

To apply for the paid positions, you need to be a United States citizen registered to vote in Nevada.  There are also positions for 16 and above high school students to be election worker trainees. 

Early voting will be over 14 days, with poll work from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. paid in the 16 to 18 dollars an hour range, with a paid one day training session. 

For Election Day workers, there is an additional election eve pre setup training sessions and stipends for their work ranging from $235 to $275.  The County is trying to have one bilingual worker at each polling location. 

On its website, Washoe County lists different positions, from managers to assistant managers, intake specialists, ballot clerks, greeters, ballot runners, supply runners, roving troubleshooters and manning the poll worker help line.  

Details and link to applications here: https://www.washoecounty.gov/voters/get-involved/election_workers/electionworker_positions.php

Our Town Reno reporting, August 2024

Hot August Nights Makes U-Turn to Keep Final Reno Parade

After several news reports including ours indicated the parade had been cancelled, Hot August Nights said they were deciding to have it after all.

In an email Wednesday night, Landon Miller from the communications team at the City of Reno wrote that “upon further review of the adopted fee schedule, it was determined that meter bag fees do not apply to special events. This fee will be removed from current special event permits and refunded to those events who have already paid it.  In regards to Hot August Nights, this adjustment will reduce their permit fees by $19,152.”  

“Hot August Nights is giving big props to Mayor [Hillary] Schieve and the City of Reno for proactively reaching out and helping to develop a solution that truly demonstrates to our 6,000 registered car participants, we want you here,” said Deny Dotson, executive director for Hot August Nights. “Our participants felt that they were going to miss out and thanks to the Mayor and the city, they won’t. We are now calling on our registered car participants to demonstrate how much this means to you by joining in on the cruise on the final day of our event. And to the public we say, come on out. We look forward to seeing you there.”

Festivities will kick off Friday in Virginia City, followed by the Bonanza Casino Cruising for the Cure event Sunday, with week long showcases and competitions across northern Nevada, and concluding with the August 11th finale back to being a parade down Virginia Street.

A previous statement released to media indicated: “We plan to work with the City of Reno to safely produce the nation’s largest 10-day nostalgic car show. The decision to change the format from a parade to a rules of the road cruise ensures we continue to celebrate our classic car culture without any additional costs.”

According to previously announced City requirements, this event would need over 150 meters bagged, costing about $20,000, which had not previously been imposed on the Hot August Nights drive through parade.  

Even though the organization applied and received a sponsorship grant from the city which would have essentially waived this particular fee, organizers initially decided to go in a different direction to save some money, before reversing course.

“Hot August Nights was originally charged $19,152 dollars for bagging parking meters during its event. There are 152 meters that will be bagged at a cost of $18.00 per day. The costs include the meter bags themselves and the staff time to bag the meters.  Even though people may think this is a new fee, it's actually not. The City recently did a review and is focused on equal enforcement of the fees for all promoters in order to create equity,” Landon Miller from the city’s communications team wrote back to Our Town Reno earlier in the day.

“However, HAN applied for and received a $20,000 in-kind/sponsorship grant from the City for this year's event. This in-kind grant covers things like staff time, equipment, park rental fees, and sometimes RPD staff.  So yes, they were charged a $19,152 fee, but it was essentially waived,” he explained by email in more detail.

According to initial figures, holding the road cruise would have still cost organizers but about $7,000 less without the parade, with $88,147.01 for street closure equipment and staffing, $69,309.16 for Reno police staffing and $5,180.00 for the rental of ReTRac & City Plaza, minus the $20,000 grant.  

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024  

Reno City Council Moves Toward Banning Being Near Railroad Tracks

In photo from today, a man walks by his possessions right above the Union Pacific railroad tracks which run along Fourth Street, as Reno moves toward prohibiting encroachment, such as camping or littering, within 100 feet of the tracks.  

Agenda Item E1 at the City Council meeting tomorrow will introduce an “ordinance to amend Title 18, Chapter 8.10, of the Reno Municipal Code entitled “Offenses Against Property”, prohibiting trespassing upon railroad tracks; and other matters properly relating thereto.” 

“A person would be considered trespassing if they enter or remain within 100 feet of a railroad track without the permission of the owner of the land,” a city staff report indicates.

This includes city owned property where there are storm drains, signage, and fencing.

"I am afraid that if we don't start to really look at ways that we can protect people around that whole area - it is very, very dangerous,” Mayor Hillary Schieve said at a meeting last week when the new ordinance was requested.

If approved Wednesday as expected, Council will need to vote on its adoption at another future meeting

Advocates for the unhoused say this is another method to criminalize poverty, creating even more difficult holes to get out of for those without stable shelter.

Several activists are planning to speak up against this new proposed ordinance during public comment. 

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Sweeping New Regulation Codes Are on the Near Horizon for Reno Businesses

A local worker in a bar wrote us a message recently worried about new code enforcements being currently rewritten not just for street vendors as we posted about in a recent story, but for a wide range of businesses including bars, restaurants and city event planners. 

They pointed us to a City of Reno page called Business License Code Revision, with a planned update to City Council in August, more work on the draft proposal in September, and a presentation to the Council in October.

The city’s website indicates City Council directed staff to pursue a comprehensive rewrite of Reno Municipal Code Title 4 “Business License Code” and Title 5 “Privileged Licenses, Permits and Franchises.”

“They are trying to enforce these new codes which would require employees to have to apply and get a background check and a work permit if you work in those types of industries,” they wrote.

“Also there’s a red line in there that says any bar to be open would require you to have a paying employee scanning IDs every single day of the week you are open. Another clause says that any employee with a misdemeanor or felony within the last five years is unable to apply for this so called work permit… Another clause that says brewers or any sort of distiller is not allowed more then four one ounce samples of alcohol during their shift… The city has pretty much grabbed a bunch of stuff from all these other cities,” they added, not sounding pleased. 

Different chapters concern adult cabarets, alcoholic beverages, cannabis establishments, gaming, massage parlors and therapists, non-motorized vehicles for hire, pawnbrokers, lodging, secondhand dealers, sidewalk vendors, solicitors, canvassers, special events, tobacco and vehicle towing among others. 

Residents can still send emails to BLCode@reno.gov about this.  

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

The Curious Case of the Washoe County Manager's Olympic Themed Video

A rereleased County video on Instagram about County Manager Eric Brown’s past as a top level UCLA sprinter was brought to our attention by local social media commenter Phil Tenneson, as it indicates Brown made the Olympics team in 1980 and also broke a world record, none of which we could confirm with extensive researching on the internet. 

The rereleased Instagram video is a shorter version of what was first posted three years ago, and then trimmed a little and posted again two years ago on the Washoe County YouTube. All of the videos seem to have slightly delayed audio.  

In these, Brown says “he had the benefit of representing our country back in 1980 as a member of the US Olympic team 4x100 meter relay,”  which Tenneson rightly points out there was no representation since the United States boycotted those Games held in Moscow.  

A History and Tradition of UCLA Men’s Track and Field document has him as among the world’s best in the 100 meters in 1979, and in the United States in 1979 and 1981, a year in which he clocked 10.37 to be a conference champion.

It has several pages about Bruins in the Olympics, including two for 1980 in Moscow with the asterisks **U.S. did not compete**.  However, the two are Willie Banks for triple jump and Mike Tully for pole vault and the list does not include Eric Brown.  

At what was still called the Olympic trials in June 1980, Brown did not make it to the 100 meters final, finishing fifth in a semifinal heat, after finishing third in a first round heat.  The athletes competing in the trials already knew they wouldn’t be going to the Olympics as the boycott was announced in March.  

The video then goes on with his narration, saying one of the first times he participated in a relay he said “we were running against the Russian national team,” in a “full stadium at Boston University.”

He said he was getting ready to run as the second leg, when a Russian athlete sabotaged his preparations and took the tape he had put down for his markings.  It’s a curious choice of wording as well as at the time of his sprinting career Russians usually identified as Soviets when competing.  

In the video, Brown says his determination led him to run one of the best relays of his life, and that his team “ended up actually breaking the world record that day for our age group in the 4x100 meter relay.”

On the internet, we were unable to find details of that meet or confirmation of that world record. The Washoe County Instagram post indicates he set “the world record while at UCLA.” 

Addressing Tenneson’s concerns, Bethany Drysdale wrote back to an Our Town Reno query on Facebook indicating: “Yes, he qualified for the Olympic team and had the honor to be on the team, which eventually did not compete in the Olympics because the U.S. boycotted that year. That does not take away from the accomplishment, and I think this is a very shallow, irrelevant attempt to undermine someone's accomplishment with semantics.”

Drysdale did not address the stated world record, even though Tenneson has repeatedly asked about that too. 

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

GoFundMe Nears $90,000 for Children of Sparks Couple Found Dead in Mexico

A gofundme for the 12-year-old, 19-year-old and 21-year-old children of a Sparks couple found dead on July 14th in their hotel room in Cabo San Lucas is nearing its $100,000 goal, but the cause of their sudden death remains in dispute. 

As of Monday evening the donation total was at nearly $89,000.  

Nick and Lindsey Jordan were celebrating her 46th birthday with friends and work colleagues, but after not meeting with them one morning, police and staff steered the rest of the group away from their room.

Mexican medical records and a police report indicate the deaths were drug-related, according to their eldest son who has been trying to figure out what exactly happened. He says he’s been looking through these documents but that he believes there are many discrepancies. He says a U.S. independent autopsy isn’t being pursued as the fatalities are not being treated as suspicious.  

His mom, who listed herself as a former employee at Kimball Equipment Company, where her husband still worked, had posted photos publicly on Facebook during the trip including on July 12th with photos of a resort with pools hugging the ocean and tagged at the Sea of Cortez.  Someone commented “Don’t drink the water!!!” 

Others on social media are pointing to how in recent years several Americans were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning at hotels, resorts and Airbnbs.

“We are deeply moved by the incredible outpouring of love and support for Deven, Haley, and Sammy during this challenging time. Your generosity has been ove,whelming, and we cannot thank you enough for standing by the Jordan family,” Sheila Oliver last wrote in a GoFundMe update. 

“Thanks to your donations, we have made significant progress toward our goal. Your contributions have covered the funeral expenses, and the additional support is helping to provide stability for the children as they adjust to life without their parents. Deven, Haley, and Sammy are incredibly grateful for the love and support from each of you. Your kindness gives them strength and hope during this unimaginable time.”

The death has not been followed up by Cabo-based media, with just promotional pieces of late, such as the Cabo Sun reporting the area is among the safest tourist destinations in Mexico. 

The couple were known around local wrestling circles as their youngest was an avid wrestler, with Nevada Elite writing: “Nevada Elite has suffered a tremendous loss to our wrestling family. Nick and Lindsay Jordan’s spunk always brought such a light into any room they entered. They were the most genuine people and if you got a chance to be around them, you’d know how special they were. The Jordans supported EVERYTHING for our club, always donating their time, talents and treasure.”

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Drag Queen Story Hour Off the Books at Washoe County Libraries

Our Center is asking Washoe County to reconsider the cancellation of future drag queen story hours at local libraries after Washoe County manager Eric Brown wrote to library staff that “risks posed to county employees have reached an unacceptable level” at such events.

The Washoe County Library System will no longer be holding the colorful story times which have become a target of some angry locals who would disrupt the events with shouting, displaying signs such as “Stop Sexualizing Our Children” and other intimidation tactics.

In an email sent out on Tuesday, Manager Brown indicated  that “on July 11th the Workplace Violence Committee (WVC) unanimously voted to recommend that Washoe County libraries cease hosting Pride events due to employee safety concerns.  Although there has been work by library staff and volunteers to make changes to the event plans over the past few years, including increasing the presence of security officers and de-escalation training for library employees, despite these efforts, the WVC believes the risk to County employees has become too great.  Library Director Scott has been advised of this recommendation and is expected to take the matter up with his Board of Trustees at the next Washoe County Library Board meeting.”

Our Center was organizing the events at different local libraries, with the next one planned for Sept. 8th at South Valleys already off the official calendar.

A June 15th edition at North Valleys allegedly included a librarian being injured by a protester trying to force himself inside the library where only adults accompanied by attendant kids were allowed. Some protesters started going inside with kids, and then held up signs to disrupt the story time itself.

The library system says it will continue working with Our Center and other LGBTQ+ groups despite this setback.

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Cold Cases of Northern Nevada: The Lemon Valley Disappearances

One of the cold cases older locals remember the most is of Jennifer Lee Martin, 37 years ago. 

In the summer of 1987, at 11 years old, she left her home on Surge Street barefoot, wearing a grayish-purple sweatshirt dress, at around 3 p.m. to go to a 7-11 a few minutes away on Lemmon Drive, bought candy and a soda, and disappeared.

Her family have kept their same phone numbers, hoping one day she might call.  Authorities treated the disappearance as a possible abduction, but there were no solid leads, with just a suspicious driver in a Toyota at the time, which was never located afterwards.

Jennifer was described as not being someone who would go into a stranger’s car though.  Her family had recently moved to Reno from Florida, and they said she seemed to be doing well, was cautious and had no history of running away from home.

“We first moved to Reno in the 80s and lived in the trailer park that Jennifer Martin did,” Crystal Flippo-Roberts wrote Our Town Reno. 

“I remember my mom was so scared when she went missing. I was in grade school and I remember kids talking about her. Although I never met her, I think about her and pray she’s found alive one day. What is being done, if anything, to find missing kids?”

“I also lived in Lemmon Valley in the late 80s, in the little trailer park across from the 7/11 she went missing from,” O.M Dawson wrote.

Dawson pointed out that another child Anthony Franko, who was 10, had also disappeared from Lemmon Valley, several years prior on the morning of May 9, 1983, when he usually walked himself to Lemmon Valley Elementary school. Witnesses say they saw him in the morning walking along Fremont Way, apparently going in the opposite direction, wearing a red 49ers t-shirt, blue jeans, a hooded jacket and hiking boots, when he was seen leaning over and talking with someone in a small rusted out sports car. 

“The police treated most missing kids cases as runaways back then and they didn't really start looking for Anthony until a couple of days after he disappeared,” Dawson wrote us.

“Both of these cases have bothered me for decades. People don't just vanish into thin air.”

In the Franko case, children who knew him said they had seen him weeks after his disappearance, but they say he ran away when he saw them.  A month before his disappearance, he had run away from home and left a goodbye note after he was punished for bad grades, before returning several hours later. 

Last year, his mother Liza wrote him this letter: “Dear Tony, I have faith that you are still alive, but only God knows. I miss you dearly and my heart still aches after all of these years of not knowing where you are. I am trying my best and I am trying to find you. As long as I breathe, you will always be remembered & loved. I love you so much Tony.”

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released a new age progression photo to help. 

Both his mother and stepfather were ruled out as suspects after taking polygraph tests.  

Dawson has suspicions against the now dead Steven Smith, a former poker dealer at a local casino, who in 2001, after new DNA evidence, confessed to killing 6-year-old Lisa Marie Bonham in 1977. She had disappeared while walking to Idlewild Park.

Smith had been paroled just a year before killing Bonham after initially being sentenced to life in prison for molesting and assaulting multiple young girls in the Reno-Sparks area in 1969.   

At the time, his father said he held “the parole board as responsible for what he did as I hold him. They don't need to parole predators so they can destroy another family like they did ours.''

A defrocked priest, Stephen Kiesle, was a suspect in Martin’s case in the early 2000s. He had been previously arrested and charged in 1978 with the molestation of three young girls at the Santa Paula Catholic Church in Fremont.

According to the crimewire website his yard was searched in June 2002 as authorities searched for evidence in several missing persons cases involving young children, including Martin, Franko and others.

Kiesle’s vacation home in Truckee, Nevada, was excavated the same month as part of these investigations, He was found to be living very close from another young girl that went missing in 1988, Amber Swartz, who was only seven years old at the time. Another man confessed in 2007, a month before dying in prison, that he kidnapped and killed Swartz.

Last year, Kiesle was sentenced to six years and eight months in state prison after he killed a man while driving drunk in Walnut Creek, while being named in dozens of new child sex abuse lawsuits.

Our Town Reno reporting, Summer 2024

Kingkini Sengupta, Finding New Opportunities and Helping Others Adapt to Reno

Kingkini Sengupta, 33, grew up in Calcutta, India, and over time developed a desire to move away, for new opportunities, with storytelling at the heart of her journey.

She’s been living in Reno for three years, where she’s earned a master’s in journalism, worked for Our Town Reno and learned to drive, while helping others on similar journeys through patient guidance or cooking flavorful meals.

She’s now working as a program associate for the Northern Nevada International Center, which is a nonprofit that helps relocate refugees, provides language access to international community members and facilitates exchange programs. 

Sengupta is looking to build up their in-house media team. 

“We’re trying to tell stories and get [the community] to be more involved. We are focusing on telling stories of our participants who come here, of our people in the community, like our home hosts,” she said. 

Telling and learning other peoples’ stories has always been important to her. 

“Every person has their own story, and I just feel like it’s important to share those, because sharing stories just inspires people and gets them to talk about stuff that they don’t generally,” she said. 

To expand her passion, she’s considered starting her own YouTube channel. During her three years in Reno, she has also been a graduate teaching assistant, worked with NPR’s NextGenRadio, reported with the Nevada Current and freelanced with the Reno News & Review.

“The thing about storytelling is, you learn from people that, even if you go through your worst time, you will have ways of bouncing back. I do not use the word resilience, but I use the words ‘bouncing back,’ because you come back full-force. That is something that I’ve learned from storytelling is, like, people go through things all the time, but they always find ways of getting better,” she said.

Sengupta recounted how she still runs into one of the unhoused community members that she first interviewed for Our Town Reno.  

This passion for storytelling began long before her move to Reno. She recounted how, as a child in Calcutta, she used to watch the news with her father. Sometimes, she said, she would pretend to be a news anchor.  

“My mom was an English major, too. And it was the path I liked. I always wanted to get into journalism and communications. I used to watch TV with my dad and then I used to pretend [I was] the newsreader on television,” she said. 

Photo by Md Abu Sayed, used with permission

Sengupta originally got interested in studying for her master’s in the United States while she was working as a news producer for New Delhi Television.

“I saw the presidential elections and I got interested in news in the United States, which is why I started applying there,” she said. 

She heard about UNR from a friend who had already been studying here. Starting off in Reno was a good choice, Sengupta said, even though costlier than she expected. 

“I feel that now that I’ve traveled a bit more within the United States, I feel like the West is more welcoming and more sweet and nice to you. And Reno, being a smaller community, I feel like everybody helps everyone. I had help from the international community here,” she said. 

She recounted how, at the time, the majority of her income would go to her rent. Then, she had to pay for books and supplies. But, she found help through the community around her.

“I did have friends who would come give me food, if [I was] sick, they would take care of me. There’s this couple that still helps international students, I could reach out to them and ask if I need anything. So that’s kind of how I survived school years,” she said. 

What also helped her was the student communities she was a part of during that time. 

“There's a community of Indian students who help Indian students coming in, and there's like, the Bangladeshi communities who have the people from Bangladesh coming in. And that is quite helpful,” she said.

In the beginning of her move to Reno, she didn’t have a car. Now, she tries to help her housemates who are in similar positions. 

“I covered the city on foot almost every day, and it would be very, very tiring,” she said. “So now that I have managed to get myself a car temporarily, I try to take people grocery shopping or stuff like that. Some of my friends, whenever they need driving lessons, I take them along just because somebody else taught me driving and it helps so much to know your routes here. I just try and help as much as they can.”

And Sengupta did experience culture shock. “It was difficult just leaving home. So it helps, when you come to a different city, to have better mental health resources,” she said. 

At the same time, she had to understand and continue with her visa process, which still costs her several hundred dollars a year. 

“You had to have your papers ready, submit them on time, and you had to have the money, which, as an international student, you never had the money,” she said. 

Something that also surprised her was how common financial instability and other struggles affected the local community. 

“Back home, I never saw the fact that homelessness is a thing in the United States, but it is. [They] only show stuff about the American dream, about millionaires and billionaires making all of that money in New York and other big cities, but nobody shows the reality in-depth,” she said. 

She was able to report on these issues during her time studying at UNR. Then, in 2023, she graduated with her master’s in digital communications and multimedia. 

Someday, she wants to focus on mental health stories, and the stigma that surrounds that topic. 

With a 9-5 job and other responsibilities, she tries as often as she can to spend time with her friends and do activities that she enjoys, including visiting nearby national parks. 

“I have a set of friends, like, we always cook together and eat together or maybe go somewhere together. I love hiking. So, I leave the city a lot and just travel and go hike a lot,” she said, adding that this sense of community is essential.

“But I feel like right now, people are trying to do as much as they can to help each other, figure out how life is here in Reno, and how you would want to adjust and get ready for changes culturally, physically, emotionally and all of that,” she said.

Sengupta doesn’t know for certain how long she’ll stay in Reno.

“It depends on how my visa situation plan pans out,” she said. Her current job gave her sponsorship and some breathing room.

Her advice to incoming international students and foreigners: Have an open mind. 

“I feel like staying in the moment and experiencing it firsthand would be what I suggest,” she concluded.

Reporting by Ember Braun shared with Our Town Reno

As Clock Ticks on Demolition, Yet to Be Relocated Reno Housing Authority Tenants Stress

The cozy upstairs cat-filled apartment of Judith Williams, one of 100 two-bedroom units at the Hawk View Apartments, has become a meeting place for stressed out and frustrated tenants, yet to be relocated ahead of Reno Housing Authority plans to demolish all this housing soon.

The plan is to have new and improved, safer and double the number of units within two years with a silent partner financing the onsite overhaul under RHA management.

In the meantime, current residents, including Williams (left in photo), a neighbor on disability benefits and two single moms, shared their yet to be completed relocation ordeals with Our Town Reno.

They all had an arduous journey to get into subsidized housing in the first place, and now feel they have to redo everything in even more difficult conditions, with even fewer options in the area.  They all liked living here, citing the convenience of a bus stop within short walking distance, nearby schools, grocery options, restaurants, shaded areas, and a community atmosphere of helpful neighbors and occasional group barbecues. 

On a hot middle of the month July morning, they trade tips, paperwork, calculations, news from recent meetings, text messages they are receiving and gossip, not knowing where they will be living in August.

The July 31st deadline to move has been set by RHA, which contracted the Boston-based HousingtoHome company to help relocate all residents.

These residents say they were told the process would be “breezy” and that they would be helped entirely with this big change but instead they are at wits’ end, fearing what comes next.

One single mom, previously homeless, who didn’t want to be named for fear of reprisals says she’s been living at Hawk View on Steelwood Lane for nearly three years.  She finds it convenient with its nearby bus line and schools. 

“I thought I had found my forever home,” she sighs.  “This is the first apartment I ever had.  There was a close community.  We did things together, like paint a mural, and worked on a garden with kids.” 

Now, instead, she says the RHA gave her a list from 2023 with places to call which would accept her voucher but despite countless calls, she says she hasn’t gotten anywhere yet.  Like others, she alleges communications with the RHA and HousingtoHome have been unproductive.

“They’re sitting in their office drinking cappuccinos, and they’re always running out,” she said.

She has four kids, ranging in age from less than one to eight, and no car.  “I cannot go looking all over the place with babies,” she says. “That was supposed to be their job. I'm trying my hardest to keep myself from having panic attacks because I'm not good with change.”

She went through rehab at Crossroads, then the family shelter at Record street, and the Nevada Cares Campus, before finally getting into this housing.  She was about to get into a beautician school with an objective of owning her own hair salon, but the planned demolition of the Hawk View Apartments has thrown all that for a curve. One of her kids is supposed to start kindergarten in just a few weeks, but she has no idea where her family will be living then. 

The onsite HousingtoHome office has changed locations several times, and on a Wednesday morning three women were answering phone calls in a space with blasting AC.  They didn’t want to be interviewed but gave emails of their higher ups with emails ending with housingtohome.  Those higher ups didn’t initially respond to our email for an interview, as did officials at the RHA.

After initial publication of this story, Hannagh Jacobsen the Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder of HousingToHome wrote back: “HousingToHome is pleased to be working with the Reno Housing Authority to ensure that residents of Hawk View Apartments go through a seamless relocation process while the Authority undertakes a much-needed redevelopment of the property. We know that resident relocation is stressful, and we are ensuring that the Authority is in compliance with the process laid out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and providing support and services to the residents during this process. We are providing additional support to residents experiencing challenges and appreciate everyone's collaboration.”

A previous story we published about this urgent situation included portions of a 20-minute long interview with JD Klippenstein, the RHA Director of Development.

One HousingtoHome employee printed out a spreadsheet which had in highlighted yellow a figure in the Remaining to Place category as 32, which they amended by writing with a pen “19 residents remaining.”

Two were in the category of pending eviction, with a 30 Day notice to vacate on an apartment right by Judith’s, indicating over $1200 was due.

Outside, another woman, Valerie, 60, who has been living here 17 years, currently paying $200 a month, is having a rough morning.  Her motorized wheelchair just stopped working and she says her application for another unit at the Austin Crest Apartments on Grand Summit Drive where she would have to pay $280 is being stalled due to confusion over her daughter’s status.

“We filled out the applications and everything looked good until they said something about her because they wrote she was disabled, but she's not. She's just under a doctor's care for her feet,” she explains. 

Two of the apartments the relocation company previously showed her, she says, didn’t have the necessary wheelchair access, so those were a no go.  Another fell through because she has a pending credit issue with Walmart. 

“They know that, you know, a lot of people here don’t have good credit.  And that's why we live in [subsidized] housing, because we're poor. It's just one thing after another,” she said.

The reason given for the demolition is that current units were built dangerously on unstable soil, and Valerie agrees her apartment was passing its expiration date, with a big dip in the middle of her unit’s hallway. 

She first arrived here after fleeing a bad relationship and staying first at a domestic violence shelter, when she also got onto disability payments.

“I don't think they thought about it enough,” she says about RHA and the relocation.  “If I can’t find anything myself, I don't want to be kicked out. I'll be homeless, straight and simple, because I can't afford anything else,” she concluded.

Back upstairs in Judith’s apartment, Trista, a single mom of two has brought her case folder with her, confused at to what she might have to pay at an apartment close by she’d like to move to, Springview by Vintage on Clear Acre Lane.

Rather than the all-paid expenses relocation being offered to residents, she is choosing the $1300 payment which according to paperwork handed out was also an option.

Trista who has been living here for a half dozen years, now paying just $27 a month, is also frustrated with the process, and stressed with the looming deadline.

“We've had to go look for the apartments ourselves. We've had to see who can accept our housing vouchers, besides the list they gave us. And they're supposed to give me updates on like how things are going. And when they see me, they're like, ‘do you have any updates for us?’ I'm like, ‘You're supposed to tell me what's going on,’” she says. 

She’s been looking for new work for the past few months, and is supposed to soon start part time employment with a cleaning service, but is worried as to how that might affect how much she’ll need to pay at a new location, which figures in income.

Because she has no credit at all, she says she also needs cosigners, hoping it will be her ex and her brother combined, but isn’t sure if that will work out.  

Trista, who went through the local Step2 recovery program, says she has been trying to turn her life around, and recently bought a used car (in blue in photo above), giving her more mobility to be able to pursue work.

She says the RHA opening up waiting lists recently also put a crunch on heightened competition for the few available places.

“Like help us,” she pleaded. “They were supposed to talk to us, figure out what kind of apartments we want and what area and go over it with us and then help us apply. And they didn't do any of that.”

There’s also confusion as to how long the rebuild of the new apartments at this location will take exactly, and whether previous residents will be first in line to get back in, with the complication of having new leases elsewhere. 

Judith, who has been living here since 2016, says she’s become an advocate for those struggling to find new adequate housing, while she faces the same predicament.  Her mom recently rejoined her in Reno, adding another complexity to finding a replacement unit.

“My panic is going through the roof,” she said of her current state of mind. “I’ve actually lost a chunk of my hair. I'm freaked out.” 

The one apartment she was suggested to look at turned into a waste of time, she says, as a manager never showed up to their appointment, leaving her baking in the sun.  

“I’m a ginger. I hate sitting in that heat,” she says of why she stopped waiting after half an hour, even though it was the only option the relocation company had suggested.  

“This is scandalous to say the least,” she wrote Our Town Reno before meeting up in person this week, as to the ordeal of trying to remain in subsidized housing to her liking.

She shows a letter stating she’s been an excellent tenant.  She’s also been a $75 a month employee here, helping clean up the community room and becoming an integral part of the friendly neighborly vibe. 

All that is ending now, and Judith is uncertain as to what will happen to herself, her family, and friends, but she says will keep fighting for herself and all of them, whatever happens over the next few weeks.  

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Washoe County Certification Redo Passes 4-1

The Washoe County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to certify all primary election results, after refusing to do so at their last meeting, with two recounts under consideration, with Republican Commissioners Clara Andriola and Mike Clark changing their votes.

The lone no was the soft spoken fellow Republican Jeanne Herman who said “there are hills to climb on and there are hills to die on and this might be one of those.”

Clark said he voted to certify with a “heavy heart,” and knew some of his supporters might be disappointed in him. He explained he was voting to certify under extreme duress of possible criminal prosecution and forfeiture of office if he didn't.

Andriola said she previously had several concerns which gave her pause, but that the action to certify had been clarified as being “ministerial only and required.”

“Our responsibility is to follow the law,” she said.

The previous non certification brought national attention and a petition to the Nevada Supreme Court by state officials for the commissioners to certify the election results.

Commissioner Alexis Hill, a Democrat, started out the long meeting calling for decorum and quoting former First Lady Melania Trump about treating each other as humans with families.

“We will treat others with respect. You will not raise your voice. You will not scream or yell. There will be no personal attacks,” she said, and several times asked commenters not to single out Commissioner Andriola by name, after the Republican had called for this certification redo.

The first public commenter to speak, Gaia Brown, a previous contributor to former Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak, wearing a yellow Certify! strap, spoke in favor of supporting “the democratic process.”

Many others spoke against certification, coming to the podium multiple times, wearing a different array of Stars and Stripes and We the People hats. One woman had a red cap which read Make Elections Fair Again. Since former President Donald Trump lost the presidential election in 2020, there have been calls from the right here and elsewhere for abolishing mail-in ballots, going to hand recounts, and changing ID requirements.

Our Town Reno, July 2024

Sahara and GSR Casinos Shower Reno City Council Incumbents with New Contributions

April to end of June contribution and expense reports are in and incumbents running to stay on the Reno City Council, all three of them initially selected to the body as replacements, are being showered with casino cash from Alex Meruelo, the Cuban-American businessman who owns both the Grand Sierra Resort and the Las Vegas-based Sahara, giving $15,000 to each of them.

Frank Perez who squeaked by in second place for the Reno City Council Ward 1 runoff received over $17,000 in the April to June period, including $1,000 from charter school pushing Academica Nevada, and $2,500 from Robert Goldberg and $2,000 from Kenneth Duda.

His November opponent, already a council member following a replacement selection, Kathleen Taylor raked in over $52,000, including $10,000 from Sahara Las Vegas, $5,000 from Grand Sierra Resort, $5,000 from Hamilton Properties, $3,000 from Western NV Supply, $2,500 from Winter Street LLC, $2,5000 from Keystone MF LLC, and $1,000 from outgoing Republican Nevada Senate Minority Leader Heidi Gansert.

In the Ward 5 race, initially selected at-large council member Devon Reese received nearly $38,000, including $5,000 from GSR Holdings, $10,000 from Sahara, $1,000 from Friends of Steve Sisolak, $1,500 from the Reno Fire Fighters Association and $1,000 from the Reno Police Protective Association. His opponent Brian Cassidy received nearly $6,000 including $1,000 from Answerwest and multiple individual donations.

In the Ward 3 race, the also initially selected Miguel Martinez received nearly $58,000, including $10,000 from Sahara, $5,000 from GSR Holdings, $5,000 from Western Nevada Supply Co, $1,500 from Lewis Roca, $1,000 from Friends of Alexis Hill, and other large donations from realtors and developers.

His opponent, Denise Myer, received just $1,300, from four individual donors, including $600 from Peter Neumann.

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Locals Thinking of Going Solar Face Minefields and Confusion

For those pondering going solar for residential energy purposes, what is the best advice? What are the pitfalls to avoid and local companies to recommend or stay away from? 

These questions are recurring on local social media.

It’s important as in this sector there have been numerous complaints involving fraud, theft, misleading sales tactics with unfulfilled promises, difficulties in getting permissions to connect to NV Energy, unlicensed contracting, longer than expected loan terms and projects being abandoned even after payments were made.

Some companies outsource their installation and warranty repairs to third party companies, creating additional headaches.   

Add to that a bewildering evolution of related technology, making it feel very much like a new Wild Wild West.

Statewide, the Nevada State Contractors Board has even launched a new specialized Solar Investigations Unit to prevent malpractice in solar installation and related scams, often targeting seniors and those who speak little English. 

Last month, a solar company operating in Reno and Las Vegas, Solarize LLC, was fined $460,000 and had its license revoked.  Three of its contractors were barred from ever working in Nevada as contractors.

One of the customers said the contractors had caused over $20,000 in damages to her home, while placing the wrong inverters on solar panels.

Nevada is ranked as the second-best state for solar energy with an average of 158 clear days per year, and ongoing federal, state and local incentives and rebate programs keep trying to make it enticing for homeowners to go that route.

Reno, a so-called SolSmart Silver community, has been provided no-cost technical assistance to follow best practices to expand solar energy.  

More than 800-thousand homes in Nevada are estimated to be already powered by the sun.  

For many though who haven’t gone solar yet, the upfront expenses and necessary space are prohibitive, and the recent scandals make it feel like mined territory. Even with all the breaks, any break even point on home solar energy investments is many years away, factoring in repairs and high cost of batteries.  

If a homeowner is still tempted, the Nevada State Contractors Board recommends to make sure a salesperson is a licensed contractor.  As of late 2023, there were only 19 contractors which had received a c-2g classification strictly for solar. 

Consumers can verify a contractor's license by visiting NSCB's website at www.nscb.nv.gov or call 775-688-1141 

A solar public watch list is also being worked on.  

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Views from Above Reno's University Area and Downtown Development Projects

Downtown construction projects and the University of Reno, Nevada’s ongoing expansion into surrounding neighborhoods have left little room for lower income residents and small businesses, who feel increasingly pushed out by soaring costs.

For the past 15 years, three streets east of UNR’s campus on the corner of Denslowe Dr. and Valley Rd. Valley Market & Liquor has served the local and student populations in the area, but its time might be ticking. Store clerk, Manny, who prefers to withhold his last name, says the neighborhood has changed dramatically in recent years.

As the university expands, the need for student housing intensifies. Down Enterprise, a street north of campus, there are four student housing apartments, one of which was built within the last year. This area is generally perceived as more affordable than the so-called luxury apartments that were recently built up northwest of UNR’s campus. However, the Enterprise apartments are not immune from Reno’s soaring housing costs.

Since 2009 Valley Market & Liquor has been serving the community near UNR’s campus and downtown Reno residents.

“I have seen a lot of regulars come and go since housing costs started rising near campus and the area here is college students and city locals,” Manny said.

During the interview, Manny spoke to a store regular about rising rental prices in the neighborhood. The Valley Market regular told him he was moving to Texas with his girlfriend for cheaper rent after being temporarily homeless due to a lack of affordable living options here in Reno.

“There are a lot more homeless people up here now. If there is one thing you should know its crackheads, homeless, and thugs,” Manny said.

The migration of Reno’s working class and disenfranchised communities to neighborhoods and apartments northeast of UNR’s campus is an observable phenomenon for UNR graduate student Sam Sheridan, who lives in an apartment on Enterprise Rd.

“These apartments are not being developed by locals. These chain, big brand apartment complexes owned by companies in Texas, like my apartment, is kinda annoying because it doesn’t cater to students in this specific area. There’s a lot fewer students living here than there were before,” Sheridan said.

Evans Ave. divides campus and the surrounding neighborhood construction is re-routing traffic to pave campus roads

Down Enterprise, a street north of campus, there are four student housing apartments with one built within the last year.

Further south downtown, the years-long pre-pandemic redevelopment project spearheaded by Jacobs Entertainment, now known as Reno Neon Line is promising a vibrant, entertainment-centric corridor. The Reno-Sparks Tenant Union opposes the project saying it has already removed 582 motel rooms, previously a last resort for many locals in and out of homelessness. Currently, many of the bought out and bulldozed lots remain empty or have been redone as parking lots.

In response to these concerns, Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill emphasized the area’s ongoing efforts to address the affordable housing crisis.

“We are updating our housing zoning codes to ensure that more affordable housing can be developed,” Hill wrote back in an email. Jacobs Entertainment did not respond to a request to comment.

An image from above shows the empty lots sitting in the Jacobs Entertainment project.

Upscale housing located behind Enterprise Rd. over ooking Evans Ave.

When Sheridan was asked about all the new student housing apartments and development projects, his voice choked with frustration as he described the affordability in the area.

“The luxury apartments are all new since I’ve been here, and even though you would think it would drive prices of apartments where I live down, it seems they’ve all just decided to go up in price,” Sheridan said.

Reporting and aerial drone photos and video by Jagg Brian and Zoe Cruz shared with Our Town Reno

Mark Hebert, Keeping Half Sane Cultivating a Thriving Midtown Urban Garden

Mark Hebert is hard at work under a morning Reno summer sun at the front of the Stump Tree Urban Farm making compost with donated coffee grounds and chaff in the middle of Midtown.

“It's like clay, but it's not clay, it's worm poop. And this is like the best nutrient in the world for your plants,” he says of his composting results.  “Great place to get rid of kitchen scraps and a lot of other organic matter. And then I got some old sleeping bags and put them in free plastic bags I get. And I use that as an insulating layer to keep it from getting too hot. And then when I'm done, I cover the whole thing with burlap. That's it.”

Hebert, 75, now prefers to keep his face out of photos, wanting the focus to be on the 40-foot-by-80-foot teeming frontyard ecosystem of tomatoes, pumpkins, garlic, arugula, sweet white onions, potatoes, strawberries, sunflowers, peppers, Japanese lettuce, basil, cilantro, carrots, bees, a crimson clover meadow, creeping thyme, cucumbers, an odorous and contained mint garden and an aquaponics and bee watering station.  

Hebert was a construction laborer for 40 years who retired at 58, got divorced at 64 and then started getting into gardening with a ring of onions and a couple tomato plants.  “One of the cliches I've come up with is if it wasn't for this garden, I'd be completely crazy. And because of this garden, I'm only half crazy,” he says. 

“I am not a scientific gardener. I'm an emotional gardener. And I know that's a tomato plant, but I have no idea what kind,” he says while giving an extended tour.  

He can occasionally get precise though.”This is what they call walking onions, Egyptian walking onions and that’s the bulb. When the bulb falls over on the ground, it sends down roots and they kind of walk across the property that way. This is what I call my mother plant. Anything that grows, I'm happy with it and I can selectively prune it and weeded out if I need to.”

Hebert made his own rainwater capture system and a watering line with an old ski sock tied to the end.  “You can buy a pretty aluminum thing for about 12 bucks, but I only had one of these ski socks, so I put it to use,” he explained.  

He has no irrigation system though, and hand waters everything twice a day, throughout the year.  

“In the winter, there's not much growing. However, the worms and the mycelium and all those microbes, they need water to be healthy,” he says.

He is also working on a circuitous forest pathway with flat logs that came from trees on the property that he cut down.  “I’m not an English gardener. I do not want straight borders. It’s all designed to rot. All this stuff is and is rotting as we speak.” 

Hebert sold this property on Caliente street to a friend not wanting to be a homeowner and stayed on as a renter gardener.  “It was a business deal eight years ago. I just decided I didn't want to be a property owner. I don't want to be part of that system. So we made a deal. I sold him a house under market value and he promised me cheap rent for the rest of my life,” he says.  

He trades some of his produce for meals at local restaurants. “I’m a bachelor who doesn't cook, so I this works for me quite well,” he says.   He also provides ingredients for a local group which cooks healthy meals for the unhoused.

Pedestrians sometimes stop to chat, while he cut down a six foot fence into his neighbor’s property in half.   

“I've handled a lot of food over this half fence, and had there been a six foot fence there, it probably wouldn't happen,” he said.  

“If I'm known as the old man down the street who had a great garden, I'm okay with that. But it's the soil that actually let that happen. So the legacy that I'd like to leave is this garden to somebody else who'd like to carry it forward. I'm also going to be composted when I die. And I'd be perfectly okay with being mixed right back into the garden. I don't know the legality of that, but I'd be nutritious, I'm sure,” he concluded, before handing over a bag of fresh and wonderfully flavored produce to go.  

Our Town Reno reporting, Summer of 2024

Clara Andriola's Swing Vote Sends Primary Election Results into "Uncharted Water"

Clara Andriola decided to join non certifying county commissioners to vote against approving two primary recounts yesterday, including one in her own race for the Republican nomination for District 4, a post she was selected to as a departure replacement by Governor Joe Lombardo.  

The recounts which are mandated to be done in the same way as during the initial count each changed outcomes by just one vote.  Efforts to force hand recounts are now being considered in our court system, and off to less than promising starts.  

After dozens of heated commenters asked for new elections yesterday before county chambers, Andriola pointed to “concerns of alleged mishaps,” and “hiccups,” saying she believes the vote count “warrants further investigation.”

She gave no specifics. Fellow commissioner Mike Clark has repeatedly pointed to pending lawsuits, Assembly District 40 candidate Drew Ribar left off sample ballots and thousands of ballots sent to wrong addresses. 

The county commission’s role has previously been viewed as largely ceremonial in approving election results, with the matter now going to the Nevada Secretary of State and Washoe County Assistant District Attorney Nate Edwards calling it “a little bit of uncharted water.”

Counties are required by law to canvas election results within five business days of the completion of a recount.

Andriola previously certified initial election results before right wing agitator Robert Beadles, who was one of the repeat speakers, paid for the recounts.  A post on his Operation Sunlight website had a new post titled “We Won a Battle …” 

Another recount was dropped by third place candidate Lily Baran in the Reno Ward 1 race over fears she might face jail or fines for accepting Beadles money to pay for it.  

Not certifying results at the county level has been a recent strategy to undermine election results, with a Donald Trump-Joe Biden top of the ticket rematch set for November, with Washoe County as one of the few swing counties in the entire nation, and a Nevada election which could determine the Senate’s balance of power.  

In looking at the results now in limbo, two hard charging opponents, Mark Lawson, who is seeking that race’s recount, and Tracey Hilton-Thomas, combined had more votes than Andriola in the Republican primary of District 4, meaning she faced headwinds and an onslaught of negative social media bashing.

Positioning herself as a swing vote on this matter could broaden her electoral base.  

In the other recount, in the disputed District G School Board race, Paul White, got over 4,500 votes but was in fourth place and more than 2,000 votes behind Diane Nicolet to face off against Perry Rosenstein in November.

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Former County Employee Speaks out Against Allegedly Toxic Leadership for Homeless Services

Emily Elyse remembers their last day working within the county to help our unhoused neighbors all too well.

It was April, and they had a meeting scheduled with Ryan Gustafson, the Director of the Washoe County Human Services Agency, following their repeated complaints of having to deal with an allegedly toxic workplace.

“I knew that it was sort of like I'm either going to quit or get fired because I have a lot to say. And so I did. And so I went off on them really, and I mean, to a certain extent, you know, it wasn't necessarily professional at the end, but there was just so much really that went down with H.R. in particular in their handling of everything,” Elyse remembers.

After the conversation, which took place during the lunch hour, they say they submitted their letter of resignation with two weeks notice.  When they returned from their lunch, they say a box was ready for them in their office and they were told they would be put on administrative leave effective immediately.  

Elyse had been recruited from the Bay Area where they had earned a master’s in public administration and had worked during the pandemic with supportive housing programs in the Tenderloin neighborhood.

They were interested in helping shape new efforts in northern Nevada, where they had family ties, but soon became frustrated, describing county leadership as rejecting any type of constructive criticism or new ideas.  

Dana Searcy giving a tour to media of the Nevada Cares Campus.

Elyse worked as the so-called Northern Nevada Matchmaker from October 2022 until that fateful day in April 2024, with a role of trying to get the unhoused in a direction toward being housed 

In a letter sent to Washoe County commissioners in June, they alleged “workplace bullying” from her then direct supervisor and the current Continuum of Care coordinator Catrina Peters. We emailed county leadership, Peters and communications director Bethany Drysdale about this, but only heard back from Drysdale who wrote: “We can’t comment on personnel matters.”

Our Town Reno had its own difficult experience with Peters who when she agreed to give us a tour of the safe camp three years ago, cut our visit short after we asked more details about its funding and contract with the Karma Box project. Her LinkedIn describes herself as Homeless Services Coordinator at Washoe County, while her last Transparent Nevada has her in that role already in 2022 earning over $160,000 in pay and benefits.

Peters on the left and Grant Denton from Karma Box in the middle when they gave Our Town Reno a tour of the safe camp, which was cut short by Peters after we asked about the contract to run it.

Elyse, who has since moved out of the county and started working for a non profit, wrote in the letter that superiors within the county structure were aware of ongoing issues but failed to intervene.  

After they pursued their first code of conduct complaint against Peters in October 2023 they allege Peters became increasingly more aggressive and undermining.

“Between October to November, she just kind of like got more passive aggressive with me, which is sort of like how she operates and so the actual code of conduct was about me asking for access to training that I needed and her telling me I was behind on my work essentially, and I couldn’t,” they told us in our phone interview. 

“And so, they tend to shut people out entirely, including the public. I felt coming into the county that, you know, that something was amiss and I just like got to see over time that there is this really subtle sort of cycle of bullying that happens under Catrina [Peters]. And I just really hate to see folks subjected to that. It was obviously really hard for me to deal with as well,” they told Our Town Reno.

“I know that their behavior is wrong and that there is a profoundly negative impact on the folks who are on the ground doing the work.”

The complaints were also sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development amid a planned audit of Washoe County of the northern Nevada Continuum of Care.

Per the HUD website “The Continuum of Care (CoC) Program is designed to promote communitywide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, and State and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless individuals, families, and communities by homelessness; promote access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families; and optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.”

These responsibilities were shifted from the city of Reno to Washoe County in September 2021, as part of a new post pandemic era with the Cares Campus starting operations.  

In both the letter and phone interview, Elyse also pointed out to shortcomings in local homeless services, including the need for better help for those fleeing domestic violence, interacting more with Indigenous communities, discomfort in dealing with racial disparities, failure to properly spend grant money by required deadlines and missed opportunities with the federally-mandated point in time counts, which they were asked to lead in both 2023 and 2024.  

One idea they wanted was to include more local registered nurses, to which Elyse writes Peters “passive-aggressively questioned me about whether or not nurses serve the unsheltered population,” and then allegedly failed to provide support for their participation in the motel portion of the count.  

“I think nurses being involved is so important. And just the fact that they reached out to us to participate like that is just sort of to me was an obvious yes and yeah, because of their experience and because of the huge overlap that exists, like folks being admitted into our hospitals and emergency rooms at very high rates, who are experiencing homelessness and that kind of like not really getting the care that they need at those places and not having a place to return to,” they explained of their own willingness to include nurses. 

Another idea they had was to keep counters out longer into the morning hours, to which they allege all street counters were instructed to return to the PIT command center by 7 a.m. rather the suggested 9 a.m..

“I would say it seems like there is a pressure to manage the numbers,” they said of not keeping the count going a few more hours.  

Minutes from a NEVADA INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS SUBCOMMITTEE FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE meeting in September 2023.

“She habitually stifles generative conversation and ideas, not just with her direct reports, but with the Northern Nevada CoC Leadership Council and its subcommittees,” Elyse wrote in more detail in their letter concerning Peters as part of her allegations. “She has been visibly uncomfortable talking about racial equity in the past, and shut down conversations with community members accordingly, essentially cutting public meetings short while making community members feel small. No part of me is ok with this.”

The letter concludes by asking for Peters as well as Dana Searcy to no longer be in positions to oversee the management of the Northern Nevada Continuum of Care.  Searcy lists herself on her LinkedIn as Division Director of Housing and Homeless Services for the County.  

In her phone interview, Elyse wanted to underline that workers within the local homelessness and recovery sectors show passion and commitment, but that it’s the leadership that has been toxic, stifling and unwilling to improve their conduct.  

“It's really such a wellspring that I hate to see stifled,” they said. “There are so many passionate and skilled folks who work there and who are capable of carrying this mission forward. And I hate to implicate them and their work and their passion in all of this, or just want to make it clear that not everyone that is in the county or in that base or even in the office is operating in this way.”

For their part, they are still working to help the unhoused, just in a different part of the country.

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024

Melissa Gilbert, Taking Local "Pollinator Posse" to the State Level

Three years after starting the Bee Friendly Reno campaign with a small but mighty “pollinator posse,” Melissa Gilbert with the Reno Food Systems has been working on the state version Bee Friendly Nevada, with a new website, a big campaign kickoff, a press release urging people to sign a pledge and new blue and yellow signs now being sent across the state.

In Gilbert’s own front yard in Midtown, where she’s created a healthy habitat for pollinators, bees happily buzz around. 

The campaign sponsored by the Help Save the Bees Foundation supports residents who without any pesticides plant pollinator gardens with water sources for bees and other pollinators.

“This campaign was created to create dialogue between neighbors and says, you know, take the pledge. We have a pledge that says we won't use pesticides. You'll leave water out and you'll plant organic plants,” Gilbert explained. 

The new statewide expansion comes after the 2023 passage of AB 162 banning the non-agricultural use of neonicotinoids, making Nevada one of a handful of states to ban outdoor, non-agricultural uses of neurotoxic neonic pesticides.

“There is what is called insect apocalypse and 40% of species are going extinct,” Gilbert said of the importance of attracting bees, who enjoy sweet smelling blue, purple and yellow flowers. “And so by creating a garden in your front yard, you create habitat. And the good news is that insects are really resilient and they respond well. So when you do go down this path of having pollinator plants in your garden, you get the joy of seeing all the insects.”

It’s not just about bees, Gilbert says, but all pollinators, such as flies, butterflies, moths and beetles to name a few. “They pollinate our food. So without pollination, food crops decline and it has a very serious impact. So if all of us get together, it's one of those things that I feel like when people feel helpless about a situation, it's so nice to have a concrete thing that you can do.”

Getting away from lawns is a first step in the process, Gilbert explains.  “I was the first house on the block to go woodchip,” she remembers.  “I had a lawn when we bought the house and I killed it almost immediately with a good couple of feet of woodchips. Especially in a desert state like Nevada, the sort of a green lawn paradise was, you know, bad for many reasons. A couple of years it just sat like that. I watered it. It kind of turned into beautiful dirt. And then I got to plant plants.”  

For those who want to keep some lawn, she says they can start a pollinator patch or switch out their lawn for a clover one, or even just mow less often.  

“Nevada is interesting because we actually have 25% of all native bees species. So out of 4000 we have a thousand…The more habitat and the more native plants that we can plant, the better chance we have of creating a safe place for these very important species,” she concluded.  

“We think of them as tiny. But the reality is that our fate is completely interconnected with the bees. And I think more and more people are realizing that. And this campaign really tries to support people to do something. You know, we are coming into a time where everybody needs to do their part.”

Our Town Reno reporting, Summer 2024

Make the Road Nevada Applauds New Federal Heat Protection Efforts for Workers

The non-profit Make the Road Nevada which seeks to elevate the power of working class immigrants is applauding new federal government efforts for national regulations which are being finalized to protect workers facing extreme heat including mandatory water breaks, shaded rest areas, and heat illness prevention.

“The reality for many outdoor workers in Nevada is that they endure intense heat and poor air quality, exacerbating chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and kidney diseases, and diabetes-related illnesses and leading to severe health issues like asthma attacks and heart attacks,” the press release indicated.

“This national action will bring significant relief and security to countless families across Nevada. It means safer working conditions, healthier communities, and a brighter future for our workers,” executive director Leo Murrieta said.

There is no heat-related safety protection for workers in the Silver State, despite recent legislative efforts. Nevada’s OSHA does enforce what is called a “general duty cause,” and a more detailed standard is currently being worked on.

Heat protection laws here and elsewhere often face opposition from construction and development companies as well as from chambers of commerce and business associations, due to what they say is difficult implementation and driving up costs.

Opponents say they intend to challenge the new federal regulations whenever these are finalized and implemented.

Our Town Reno reporting, July 2024