What if Reno and Sparks were Connected to Raheem's Patch App?

When Susan Clopp called 911 to get help for her son Miciah Lee in January 2020, who was suffering from a mental health crisis, he ended up dead after being shot by police during a chaotic scene that ended his life rather than rescued him.  

On advice of the Sparks insurance carrier, the city decided agreed to pay $2 million to settle his family’s lawsuit which stated  that officers deliberately killed Lee with their "lack of training and indifference to his impaired condition."

What if there was a service available locally which allowed distressed friends and relatives to get help in these types of situations? 

The Oakland-based non profit organization Raheem has developed an app to replace 911 emergency calls called the People and Technology for Community Health (PATCH) Network, “harnessing the power of community and technology to reimagine safety and create a world without police.”

Raheem says it “builds infrastructure for the future of community crisis response.” 

It works with a request screen indicating time, address and need.

It’s been used in different cities with existing organizations offering non-police responses to crises such as  M.H. First in Oakland, Cambridge Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (HEART), Denver Alliance for Street Health Response (DASHR), and Revolutionary Emergency Partners in Minneapolis.

Would a northern Nevada organization be interested in joining up and doing the same, giving local communities other options than 911 in times of distress? 

Our Town Reno, July 2003

If not Washington or Nevada, How Can Reno Help with our Childcare Crisis?

Many parts of Nevada are child care deserts. 

The recent 2023 Kids Count Data Book listed Nevada as 47th in child well-being, with the lack of affordable and accessible child care a main factor for this terrible ranking.

Our lawmakers aren’t helping.

Bills which would have created an “Office of Early Childhood Systems within the governor’s office” and another which would have given tax credits to businesses offering child care benefits to workers both fizzled.

Parents scramble, missing shifts due to child care challenges, or quit their jobs altogether. Child care providers aren’t paid enough, creating less than ideal centers for those that do operate.

Our lawmakers needed to go even bolder, and introduce universal preschool attached to our existing public schools but sadly that wasn’t even in the cards. 

It’s not even a blue state / red state issue anymore either as West Virginia, Alabama and Oklahoma are among the many states currently looking to provide universal preschool programs to serve all of their states’ 4-year-olds. Mississippi and Arkansas are looking to expand their early childhood education programs. 

In blue states, California, Illinois and Michigan are all working aggressively toward universal pre-k for 4-year-olds as well.

Preschool scholarships do exist in Nevada, but so far it’s for families with incomes 200 percent below the poverty level. That needs to be expanded up to our middle class.

Studies show investing in early childhood education provide benefits which far outweigh costs.  It also needs to be done correctly, with college educated teachers, as well as small class sizes and teaching assistants.

The federal Build Back Better Plan wanted to pick up the tab for the first three years of funding pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds but that didn’t make it out of Congress. This even though public spending on preschool hasn’t increased in two decades when inflation is factored in. 

If the federal government and state both fail to deliver, the city could step in. 

In Massachusetts, Cambridge is allocating $20 million by shifting funds in its budget to offer free preschool to all 4-year-olds in the city starting in the fall of 2024, by using a combination of public schools, private child care centers and in-home family child care providers.

Washington, D.C. has been building the country’s most comprehensive universal pre-K for years now, and it’s paid off with much higher test scores for students in K-12, an outcome Nevada and Reno could also benefit from.  What say you Reno elected officials and voters?

Our Town Reno, Ideas for Progress, June 2023

Despite the Governor's Vetoes, Three Ideas Reno Could Go for Now to Help the Housing Insecure

Where is the leadership, the urgency, the alarm on the continued lack of overall local affordable housing? Shouldn’t it be an all hands on deck all the time at all levels situation?

There are meetings and initiatives here and there, COVID-related budget allocations, but it usually seems piecemeal, one project here, two Motel 6s purchased there, one community land trust over here (of which there could be more, but every one of them seems like a slow mission to Mars), one failed negotiation to take over the Sundowner and an RHA / City of Reno feud over the Bonanza Inn.

At the state level, the governor’s recent veto spree ended hopes of legislation to help tenants, including pauses on eviction proceedings if a rental assistance application was pending, and more regulations against onerous rental applications and fees.  

Senate Bill 371 which would have expressly given cities and counties the authority to “enact any ordinance or measure relating to affordable housing” was also vetoed.  But the city of Reno and Sparks and Washoe County could already do so if it was their absolute main priority.

Here are three ideas, which could be pursued at the local level, whatever the governor signs or doesn’t sign.  

1) A Displacement Prevention Navigator Program

Like in Austin Texas, we could have a displacement prevention navigator pilot program.  Here, the focus of this pilot program is on preventing homelessness just as it’s about to begin.

Here is their own writeup: “The Displacement Prevention Navigator pilot program aims to help people stay in their homes with assistance from paid Navigators, people recruited from local communities. Acting as a bridge between communities and resource providers, Navigators will help renters and homeowners to learn about and access housing resources from the City and other organizations. Navigators will be paid $25 per hour for the year-long program. Training in summer 2023 will take approximately 6 hours/week. Outreach and assistance will take 10-15 hours/week from fall 2023 through May 2024.”

2) A Right to Counsel Program for those Facing Evictions

On the legal side, Reno, and perhaps all of Nevada, could join 15 other cities and three states including Seattle and Washington, with public programs offering legal representation to people facing eviction. 

Well funded right to counsel programs can help hire more lawyers and increase their pay as many new lawyers have a tendency to avoid practicing in tenant law, due to low remuneration there.

“To some extent in eviction we are in the business of mitigating harm,” Pat Wrona, director of Legal Services at the legal aid nonprofit CARPLS, which is helping administer a right to counsel pilot in Chicago, was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg article. “If we can get you more time in the apartment, if we can minimize the money that is owed, if we can keep this off your record by somehow getting the court case sealed … these are all victories.” 

3) Helping the RHA Buy More Existing Properties

In terms of preservation, the City of Reno needs to keep being aggressive in buying more buildings and working with the Reno Housing Authority to convert them into affordable housing.

“If we really want to solve the housing problem in this country, we have to get as much of the private housing stock as we can out of the hands of for-profit owners and turn it over to nonprofit owners and public owners,” James Stockard, a lecturer with the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and former commissioner of the Cambridge Housing Authority has been quoted as saying.

Dallas and Missoula have done it recently with a 347-unit apartment building, and a 96-unit apartment complex. Gary Indiana’s housing authority recently bought an old elementary school.  

On that front though, the purchase of the two Motel 6s to be converted into “workforce housing” was recently curtailed by annihilation of another similar project.

Media reports from earlier this year quoted an email from RHA Director Hillary Lopez furious that the Reno City Manager abruptly pulled out of a deal to help purchase the Bonanza Inn at West Fort and West streets and its 58 units.

In his own email, the City Manager Doug Thornley, who just got another bonus of $20,000, on top of previous raises, and last being listed on Transparent Nevada at $247 K in regular pay and $348K in total pay and benefits, was quoted as writing: “The city council has invested quite a bit in housing affordability over the last few cycles, and the RHA received a tremendous amount of funding from the state – which gives the city an opportunity to consider other strategic investments.”

Sadly, in addition to the governor’s recent vetoes that doesn’t sound like urgency at the Reno level. Perhaps, ideas such as these can plant some of the seeds for potential future candidates to be more caring and big picture results oriented in terms of having much more affordable housing in northern Nevada.  

Our Town Reno Ideas for Progress, June 2023

Should Reno Have a Tool Lending Library or Community Tool Sheds?

Idealist.org once listed the Northern Nevada Tool Library, as part of the local maker movement, but its website www.nntl.co seems to be dormant. 

Should the concept be revived and expanded?  Could a section of Washoe County libraries or inside the Generator be devoted to this purpose, or a new local tools mutual aid group set up? 

With tree limbs falling across yards during recent storms, rather than having to buy an expensive chainsaw from Home Depot, wouldn’t it have been nice to have a local tool lending library?

These lending libraries are also convenient for those who don’t have the space to store any tools. Kitchen and gardening supplies are sometimes also shared.

Tool libraries started in the 1940s in Michigan, boomed in the 1970s in California, and now total about 50 across the county.  That’s a low number.

There are some impressive ones though, including the Berkeley Public Library’s one (pictured below) which can be accessed online.

Above is the tool selection page at the Grosse Pointe Public Library in Michigan, from A Aerator to W woodburning set and a dozen wrenches.

In Columbus, Ohio, a non profit called Modcon Living took over an existing tool library, and set up a system paid through fees and donations. It boasts “more than 4,800 hand and power tools for DIY projects.”

In Seattle, it’s a neighborhood association which operates a tool library called the PNA. There, tools beyond repair are donated to artists in case they want to use them as part of an installation, for extended use.

More recently, the Chicago Tool Library was set up and closer to us the Sacramento Library of Things.

There is also the concept of community tool sheds, some of them free like in San Antonio, which “contains a collection of hand and gas power tools that can be used at no cost by residents, businesses, and community groups … to clean and improve their properties.”

Available tools include lawnmowers, leaf blowers, loppers, rakes, shovels, tree pruners and weed eaters.

Rock Hill, South Carolina has a similar program to “promote community engagement, empower residents and organization to maintain their neighborhoods, serve as a resource for residents who are in violation of city code(s) to address matters in a timely fashion [and] reduce annual cost of enforcement of overgrown property and minor exterior structure violations.”

Is someone in Reno ready to rev this up?

Our Town Reno, Ideas for Progress, March 2023

Should RTC Follow D.C. and KC in Establishing Free City Buses?

Washington, D.C., recently made headlines by passing a zero-fare bus bill.

The new bill in our nation’s capital is eliminating its previous $2 fare for all city buses, adding a dozen 24-hour bus lines and making other service improvements to its public buses.

In 2019, Kansas City, Missouri, with a population similar in size to Washoe County, started its own transit system zero-fare.

Should we follow this so-called zero-fare public transit movement?

Having accessible public transport would boost our economy, go hand in hand with making downtown and Midtown more pedestrian friendly, and allow people who work at UNR, casinos or hospitals to conveniently live along bus lines. Not to mention more people using public transit is guaranteed climate and community friendly.

One D.C. council member said people should think of paying for collective public transit like they think of the fire department, as a public good for everyone.

Some cities like Boston and Denver are taking more timid approaches, but at least there’s an effort. Boston is testing zero-fare on three bus routes, while Denver has introduced temporary fare-free holidays such as “Zero Fare to Vote” on voting days and “Zero Fare for Better Air” during August.

Reno wants to pay for more police officers. Why not give us all free and better buses instead?

Our Town Reno, Ideas for Progress, March 2023

Squat, Work with Housing Authority, Get Fixed Houses into Local Land Trust, Repeat

In the City of Brotherly Love, the Philadelphia Housing Authority is now working with advocates for the unhoused by fixing dozens of vacant houses to directly house the formerly homeless as part of a newly established Philadelphia Community Land Trust.

The advocates, some of them unhoused themselves, were previously squatting unused homes owned by the housing authority and then pressured authorities to hand them over in revamped conditions rather than auctioning them off. They also lived in a protest camp in front of the housing authority headquarters for over a month to put additional pressure, until city officials relented. 

Who would have thought: a housing authority agreeing to new ways to help those most in need.

The idea is to have “collectedly owned, permanently affordable housing that operates outside of the current piecemeal system of tax breaks, subsidies, inclusionary zoning programs, time-limited HUD contracts, and other efforts to influence the private market.”

Shelterforce, a website with expertise in such subject matters, also recently wrote: “The group is now working to realize Bennetch’s vision of a sprawling, independent housing cooperative, operated and occupied by formerly homeless people as an alternative to what she saw as the controlling or even coercive shelter options provided by government and foundation-funded organizations.”

Bennetch is Jennifer Bennetch, an outspoken activist and homeless encampment organizer, who passed away last year at the age of 36 after being the main driver of this initiative. 

In a GoFundMe just prior to her death from illness, she wrote: “Please help us house individuals who don’t qualify for typical housing programs in a non-restrictive private home.”

The Shelterforce article goes on to say, the community land trust “needs to gain control of several dozen more vacant homes and find substantial funds to rehabilitate and maintain the units, while working not to stray from Bennetch’s ideals.”

Bennetch grew up in foster care, and after aging out became unhoused, with no housing options with her limited income, and no programs to help her specifically.

Her legacy is now that the squatting to legally living in a home cycle has been completed. 

Harper’s Magazine reported in its February 2023 issue that “about fifty individuals remained housed in homes Bennetch helped them to occupy.”

Several mothers have regained custody of their children due to their new housing.  Grants are coming in to help.

Where are the recent updates for the Community Foundation’s Community Land Trust?

Could this Philadelphia model be duplicated here in Reno?  

In 2019, there was a Reno Gazette Journal article indicating “Reno was looking at tax-delinquent, abandoned homes for affordable housing.”

The article by Jason Hidalgo mentioned that “the RHA oversees about 150 houses acquired through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and are being rented out at affordable rates. That program, created through the Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, allowed the RHA to acquire houses in high-foreclosure neighborhoods during the recession. The city of Reno has also donated properties to the RHA in the past, which the organization is renting out.”

What was done in Philadelphia though is transferring these homes to an advocate-run, grassroots community land trust.  

Locally, the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada with expertise in “philanthropic advising, grantmaking, charitable asset investment management, leadership, and community engagement” has started a Community Housing Land Trust.

It currently lists Golden Valley Homes at the top of its dedicated page : “The City of Reno donated 2.5 acres of land in Golden Valley near West Golden Valley Road and Yorkshire Drive to the Community Housing Land Trust in October 2020 to develop single-family homes for ownership for buyers making less than 80% of AMI. As with all Community Housing Land Trust home sales, the buyers will own the home and lease the land from the Community Housing Land Trust. The price of the homes will be below the market rate. “

It’s unclear what has come of this.  It seems the Philadelphia process responded much more urgently to those desperately in need of housing.  

The Community Foundation also has listed its City Cottage, as “the first home sold by the Community Housing Land Trust.” A picture on that page has a photo of a couple which includes a well-known local advocate smiling. What about others? 

Finally, it has the Village of Sage Street, which has 216 dorm units, at a rent of approximately $400 a month, a successful model (even if some residents have complained of too much security) but it seems it’s our only such “village” for now, rather than having more.

The latest article on the website is from August 2020, with residents appreciative of the “Village.”  Where are the more recent developments in these pressing times,  with COVID-19 related programs which helped people being evicted ending, and high numbers of people locally desperately seeking new options before they get kicked out of their homes?

Like Philadelphia, converting vacant properties might be a good place to start.  Rather than criticizing motels, these could also be bought out by the City before Jacobs Entertainment gulps up more to turn them into housing for the very poor.

Another alternative happened in the Bronx where residents created a so-called Housing Development Fund Corporation which allowed them to improve buildings abandoned by their landlords.

The Real Deal real estate news website reports “the goal was to use funds from either the city or a nonprofit to buy the building and create a tenant-run cooperative to manage it. Tenants who lived in the building during the process could then buy shares in the cooperative that would secure their space for $2,500 each. They would then be able to live there rent-free while paying typical monthly upkeep charges, and are allowed to sell the homes.”

In June, a Michigan-based real estate company purchased two Motel 6 properties in Reno, “with plans to remodel them into affordable workforce housing,” according to the RGJ.

The strangely named company Repvblik said it was acquiring the motels at 1901 S. Virginia St.  and 1400 Stardust St., just west of Keystone Avenue. 

Why didn’t the City of Reno purchase these instead and hand them over to a grassroots community land trust organization? 

At the county level, recently, at a Washoe County Board of Commissioners meeting, data was shared indicating only 850 subsidized affordable housing units have been added in the area since 2018, while over 30,000 people are in need.

It was also pointed out that county code permits commissioners to give county land to nonprofits to build affordable housing units. This is called land banking, and at least two of the commissioners said they are in favor of trying this out. That’s short of the three votes needed.

Elected officials give themselves pats on the back for any project that provides affordable housing, and say they are committed to helping with our affordable housing crisis, so why don’t they go all out, in every possible direction? They wouldn’t just be fooling us with their words would they?

Our Town Reno reporting February 2023

Should Reno Have More Roundabouts?

Do we like our roundabouts, rotaries and traffic-calming circles?  A few have recently been added near campus on Virginia street as well as in Midtown.

In the past three decades, roundabouts have been on the rise across the United States, from almost none in the early 1990s to nearly 10-thousand today.  

The idea is to slow down traffic without needing traffic lights, with drivers already in the circle getting the right of way.  Statistics show roundabouts reduce fatal crashes and car-crash injuries by impressive percentages, while allowing more cars to go through. 

Rather than traffic-control devices and technology doing the work, it’s old fashioned geometry and curves helping out.  

The champion city of roundabouts is the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel (see photos from articles written about it above), thanks to its seven-term Republican mayor, devout roundabout booster Jim Brainard. It’s been reported that traffic fatalities were slashed so drastically there that its fire department almost stopped using its Jaws of Life extraction tools.

Carmel has also been working toward a more walkable downtown, and roundabouts help for that too, allowing designers to reduce the amount of lanes, traffic lights, and fit more traffic into smaller spaces, while adding green spaces and sidewalks.

So what say you, Reno? Should we have more roundabouts? 

Our Town Reno, Ideas for Progress

Should Nevada and Reno Decriminalize Hard Drugs?

Should we follow the lead of a Canadian province and Oregon to decriminalize heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and other hard drugs? 

British Columbia is trying a three-year plan where these drugs will still be illegal but any adult carrying less than 2.5 grams will not be arrested, charged or even have the drugs confiscated. 

People found to have this amount or less of drugs on them will be given resources for help instead. 

"Decriminalizing people who use drugs breaks down the fear and shame associated with substance use and ensures they feel safer reaching out for life-saving supports," said Jennifer Whiteside, the British Columbia minister for mental health and addictions.

The sale of drugs remains illegal, as well as possession on school grounds, childcare facilities and airports.

Oregon is already more than two years into its own experiment, after voters passed Measure 110 in 2020, which decriminalized the possession for personal use of small amounts of all drugs, including cocaine, heroin, LSD, methamphetamine, and oxycodone. 

In Oregon, possession of controlled substances is now a Class E “violation,” which instead of a felony or misdemeanor, carries a maximum $100 fine.

The penalty can be waived if the person calls a hotline for a health assessment which can lead to addiction counseling and other services.

The decriminalization also automatically creates savings from reductions in arrests, jail time and probation supervision.   

Tens of millions of dollars have also spent on Naloxone, syringe programs, recovery housing, vehicles and staff for care centers. 

Outside of the Americas, Portugal decriminalized drug possession in 2000.

The European country’s approach is more aggressive though, with fines, travel restrictions, seizures and community work applied to those who are caught with drugs. 

With a Republican governor in power, any Nevada effort would probably be vetoed, but it’s something to consider. In 2020, Nevada was one of 28 states placed on “red alert” status for increased risk of death from overdoses from opioids and other drugs, with the fentanyl and methamphetamine crisis tragically well documented in Reno and its surrounding areas. 

Our Town Reno, Ideas for Progress

What About Hiring Mental Health Providers and Social Workers Instead of new Police Officers?

Reno’s City Manager Doug Thornley is indicating to media he wants more police officers, who now make nearly six figures in average base salary.

We already have 346 sworn officers.

What about instead of adding armed officers we add unarmed professionals who would go into the community whenever there’s a situation which could be defused with more expertise and compassion than just shouting orders, intimidating and being aggressive at any sign of resistance?

Recent studies indicate a quarter of those killed by police in recent years in the U.S. displayed signs of mental illness. In many cases, here and elsewhere, someone who needs medical or psychological help ends up in handcuffs.

There must be better ways.

Eugene, Oregon, has been sending CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) out on the streets for more than 30 years, with impressive results.  We have versions of mobile hybrid teams in Reno, but why not scale it up and make it an integral part of 911 responses? 

Outreach teams in Eugene consist of a mental health crisis worker and an EMT (emergency medical technician, or paramedic), without any police presence.

The collective the White Bird Clinic initiated the project.  In Reno, we have many mutual aid groups which could spearhead the project.

RISE was given the contract to run the Our Place shelter a few years ago, so it’s not unheard of for activists to finally be taken seriously. 

In Eugene, 911 calls are routed to CAHOOTS when deemed appropriate. One recent year, CAHOOTS required backup from police only 0.00625% of the time, with over 20,000 calls.

CAHOOTS is funded by the city with an annual budget of roughly $2 million, but is estimated to save the Eugene Police Department an average of over $8 million a year.  In addition to that, it saves Eugene an additional yearly $14 million in ambulance and emergency room costs.  

Denver and Olympia, Washington are now trying similar programs, with similar results.  

Closer to us and more recently, Nevada County in California two years ago created a mobile crisis team to defuse volatile situations and get more people into services or treatment rather than in the back of police cars.

San Mateo County, Pleasanton, Palo Alto, Santa Maria, Sacramento County, Humboldt County and Modesto are pairing law enforcement with behavioral health clinicians, while the LA Police Department recently moved a mental health unit from being secondary providers to becoming frontline responders. In the Bay Area, Oakland has funded a pilot program to send emergency medical technicians and counselors to respond to non-violent calls, while San Francisco has announced it is replacing police officers with unarmed professional to deal with the unhoused. 

Here in Reno, we also have the blue-shirted downtown ambassadors but their conduct as we’ve documented has been less than pristine in several situations. Plus, they get limited training and poor pay, making them less than ideal candidates to be truly effective beyond suggesting resources.

Reno, and your powers that be, what do you say? What about deploying more social workers, case workers and mental health professionals instead of beefing up our number of police officers?

Our Town Reno reporting, January 2023

On Occupying Construction Sites, Vacant Homes and Being Helped by Community Land Trusts

While Reno had several notable Occupy movements as well as a summer of protests to Stop the Sweeps in 2021, which included an occupation element on a small patch of grass outside City Hall, activists in other cities have combined some of these methods, and added on others to protest displacement and rampant gentrification.

This includes the RiseUpTown movement in Chicago, which had activists and the unhoused camp on the site of a hospital parking lot slated to be turned into luxury apartments, stopping construction for nearly two weeks. Participants took part in workshops, held free concerts and learned about local history. They also called on stringent guarantees for having affordable units for all new apartment buildings, and affordable housing as a right. Police disbanded the protest in late August, but not before more of the protest demands made it into local narratives.

In Oakland, in 2020, another notable movement Moms 4 Housing had local mothers occupying a vacant house to negotiate its sale back to the community. After media attention, and the help of elected officials, the real estate investment company with a history of buying up foreclosed-upon houses was pressured to resell the property.

The Oakland Community Land Trust used a mix of public and private funds to purchase the house and then leased it back to the moms, as transitional housing for moms with kids.

It says its mission is “to expand and preserve housing and economic development opportunities for Black, Latinx, Asian, other communities of color, and low-income residents of Oakland. In practice, we acquire housing, land, and other critical community-serving real estate and steward them in trust to ensure that they remain affordable forever. We create innovative shared-equity ownership structures that balance the needs of individuals and families to build wealth with the long-term goal of permanently preserving affordability. “

On its own website Moms 4 Housing explains: “There are four times as many empty homes in Oakland as there are people without homes. No one should be homeless when homes are sitting empty. Housing is a human right. The Moms for Housing are uniting mothers, neighbors and friends to reclaim housing for the Oakland community from the big banks and real estate speculators.  Moms for Housing is a collective of homeless and marginally housed mothers. Before we found each other, we felt alone in this struggle… We are coming together with the ultimate goal of reclaiming housing for the community from speculators and profiteers. We are mothers, we are workers, we are human beings, and we deserve housing. Our children deserve housing. Housing is a human right.”

Our Town Reno, Ideas for Progress

Does Reno Need a Bill of Rights for the Unhoused and Its Shelters?

There’s been an idea of a shelter bill of rights for the Cares Campus being circulated, and we believe it’s an excellent idea.

Why not go further and also have an overall bill of rights for unhoused residents?

A Homeless Bill of Rights has already become law in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Illinois and has been under consideration by more than a half a dozen other U.S. states.

These bills of rights give the unhoused equal rights to medical care, free speech, voting, opportunities for employment, the right to use public spaces without fear of discrimination or harassment by law enforcement and the right to privacy of property in public spaces.

Criminalizing poverty and laws or ordinances that prohibit sitting, sleeping, panhandling, sharing food, or religious practice in public spaces are the opposite of this.

Rhode Island was the first state in the U.S. to pass a "Homeless Bill of Rights" in 2012. The bill prohibits discrimination based on housing status, stating, “No person’s rights, privileges, or access to public services may be denied or abridged solely because he or she is homeless. Such a person shall be granted the same rights and privileges as any other resident of this state.”

Illinois went further in 2013, with its bill giving the unhoused the ability to maintain employment as a right, and preventing discrimination based on housing status. In 2013, Connecticut also prevented the unhoused from being discriminated against in employment, housing, or in public spaces, such as parks and sidewalks.

There have also been efforts for “Right to Rest” acts, which have been Colorado, and briefly here at council meetings in Reno, which would generally protect the rights of the unhoused to move freely, rest, eat, perform religious observations as well as protect their right to occupy a legally parked motor vehicle. These have yet to pass though, and “homeless bill of rights” have yet to expand, since their initial surge ten years ago.

A man walks with his possessions in downtown Reno on a recent rainy day.

In the more immediate future, then, how about a shelter bill of rights for the Cares Campus, which has been rife with unhealthy food, broken showers and toilets, and a lack of water since its opening?

Shouldn’t this be a given since sweeps have been ongoing that the Cares Campus meet basic minimums?

In Minneapolis, the group Street Voices of Change suggested a shelter bill of rights, including clean facilities and dedicated staff to cleaning, a 90-day probationary period for new hires, an outside committee for grievances and review of staff misconduct, elimination of conflict of interest and “in-house” in hiring, ensure hiring of staff who want to be there to see improvements in peoples’ lives, grievance policies and a clear process and chain of command of staff for when grievances are not addressed, shelter should be sanctuaries where folks can be without fear of being taken by police without a warrant.

What would you like to see included in a Cares Campus shelter bill of rights?

A legislative bill was also introduced in California in 2021 that would have required “a city or county that receives a complaint from an occupant of a homeless shelter … alleging that a homeless shelter is substandard to inspect the homeless shelter, as specified. The bill would require a city or county that determines that a homeless shelter is substandard to issue a notice to correct the violation to the owner or operator of the homeless shelter within 10 business days of the inspection, or issue the notice to correct the violation immediately if the violation constitutes an imminent threat to the health and safety of the occupants of the homeless shelter. The bill would authorize a city or county to issue an emergency order directing the owner or operator to take immediate action to rectify violations if the city determines that the violations are dangerous, hazardous, imminently detrimental to life or health, or otherwise render the homeless shelter unfit for human habitation….”

Would you like to see our own legislature formulate and pass this type of law?

Our Town Reno, Ideas for Progress, March 2022

Should Reno Ban Plastic Bags?

Some of our leaders talk a green game generally, but what about banning plastic bags on local campuses, in Reno, Washoe County and/or Nevada? It wouldn’t be revolutionary. More than 300 municipalities across the U.S. already ban or charge fees for single-use plastic bags. California, New York, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and American Samoa all have general bans. The non-biodegradable bags get into soil and waterways, endangering animals and releasing toxic chemicals. 

At the state level, Governor Steve Sisolak has expressed his opposition. In 2017, a bill that was introduced by some Democratic lawmakers went nowhere. It would have required stores to charge 10 cents for a single-use plastic bag with a total phase out by 2022.   If not Nevada wide, what about locally?

25 Gifts Reno Could Give Itself Now to Become a More Caring Biggest Little City

#1 Giving people with current or recent lived local experience a seat on the Community Homelessness Advisory Board

#2 Having the Record street shelter operate as a warming center and an emergency spot for women and families in addition to Our Place 

#3 Keep Listening to Jon DeCarmine to make the Washoe County Cares Campus and safe camp better places, or better yet give the contracts to his teams to operate these

#4 Lining Truckee River paths with public trash cans, 24/7 toilets and showers

#5 Opening up more safe camps with pallet shelters 

#6 Starting a safe parking program with multiple, safe locations

#7 Starting more programs to pay the unsheltered with day contracts paid in cash to create art in different parts of town and to clean up riverways and downtown areas 

#8 Allowing granny pods in backyards

#9 Incentivizing micro housing initiatives and not of the luxury kind

#10 Ending sweetheart deals for big developers

#11 Fighting to save our alleys and public spaces 

#12 Beginning a guerrilla garden uprising in all the empty lots 

#13 Mapping public produce 

#14 Getting campaign finance reform in local elections 

#15 Incentivizing more local farms, backyard gardening projects and farmer’s markets.

#16 Shutting down parts of downtown for bikes and pedestrians on all weekends

#17 Adding bike parking areas as well as bike and scooter lanes across Reno

#18 Incentivizing the building and opening up of cheap hostels

#19 Helping existing motel owners improve conditions

#20 Funding, training and giving jobs to peer recovery specialists, social workers, drug counselors, mental health advocates and outreach specialists

#21 Removing hostile architecture and replacing it with green spaces and comfortable benches 

#22 Going chair bombing to add comfortable street furniture 

#23 Turning overpasses into wifi connected co-working community spaces 

#24 Turning empty downtown storefronts into public art spaces 

#25 Setting up tables in different parts of town for community conversations 

Our Town Reno Listicle, December 2021

From Boosting Snap to Cutting Poverty to Record Lows, Should We Pursue this Path?

Lost in some of the headlines of the Delta variant, mega fires, Reno’s terrible air quality and a botched retreat from Afghanistan, has been the record drop in poverty rates this year, especially for children, and an oncoming boost of SNAP benefits across the country, starting in October, when the average benefit will increase by $36 per recipient per month. 

The U.S Department of Agriculture conducted studies indicating current benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program were too low to provide for a healthy diet, with rising costs of fruits, vegetables and other wholesome food options. 

“Ensuring low-income families have access to a healthy diet helps prevent disease, supports children in the classroom, reduces health care costs, and more,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “And the additional money families will spend on groceries helps grow the food economy, creating thousands of new jobs along the way.”

A USDA study published earlier this summer indicated almost nine out of 10 SNAP participants faced challenges to achieving a healthy diet.

This development to rectify these food shortcomings also comes as the number of poor Americans is expected to fall by nearly 20 million from three years ago, according to several studies. This poverty decrease of nearly 45 percent of our country’s population has been directly tied to pandemic related relief programs and the recent strengthening of our federal safety nets. 

In the United States the definition of poverty is generally getting less than $13,000 for one person per year, or $26,000 for a family of four. This is calculated from the poverty threshold set by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Even with growing calls to modernize and refine how poverty is calculated exactly, the recent trend lines are clear.  

For children, a recent Urban Institute report says over 30% of children would have been living in poverty without the additional Covid-era assistance programs, but that instead with these the child poverty rate has been driven down to 5%. 

These figures represent the lowest level of record of Americans in poverty.  Overall, projections from the Urban Institute would put poverty at 7.7% of the population at the end of the year, compared to 13.9% in 2018.  

Which begs the question, rather than sunsetting some of the programs which have helped, such as enhanced unemployment and stimulus checks, shouldn’t we continue on this path, not just with SNAP and child credit checks, but with other programs as well?  Or is high poverty among our population a policy choice wanted by many? 

It’s clear that if you want to end poverty and help the poor, you don’t need charities, non profits or churches, you just need to put money in people’s hands. We hear the clarions of those saying this will lead to widespread laziness, rampant inflation and other economic catastrophes. But there are studies indicating COVID relief money isn’t leading people to quit working, just that they are making better decisions for themselves of what type of work to pursue. Why is that a bad thing? As for inflation doomsday scenarios and general economic tailspin, it hasn’t happened yet, so why not have policies that help the poor for a change?

Another big wildcard though is the end of the eviction moratorium amid this unaffordability crisis we are going through, which could tip more people back into poverty, as being poor and unhoused is especially expensive and can become its own vicious cycle if shelter is so out of reach.

Our Town Reno Op-Ed Reporting, August 2021

In Chico, Advocates Strive for Pallet Shelters after Court Stopped Sweeps

An Evolving Warren v. City of Chico Court Case

In Chico, the “City of Roses” in Northern California, in the Sacramento Valley, the fight to help the growing number of unhoused involves what could potentially become a new landmark court case, climate refugees from devastating fires, efforts to establish an emergency pallet village, and acrimonious battles, online, at protests and during government meetings.

Tensions were stoked further when on Sunday the Chico Police Department responded to a call about a stabbing near the main encampment at a place called Comanche Creek on the south end of the city. The male victim was later reported dead.

While Chico is smaller and there are many differences with Reno, there are also similarities, such as occasional tragic deadly violence at encampments, opaque decision making at City Council, passing the buck between the city and the county, raging Facebook commentary and dedicated allies of the unhoused. The court effort to stop the sweeps also could eventually have wider ramifications throughout the West. 

The next hearing in the Warren v. City of Chico case is currently scheduled for Aug. 30.  Bobby Warren is one of eight unhoused individuals who with the Legal Services of Northern California is seeking to stop the City of Chico Police Department from enforcing various ordinances that purportedly prevent them from “sleeping, sitting, lying, resting and simply existing in the City of Chico.”

Temporary Site Falls Short of An Earlier Court Decision

In previous rulings, the District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Morrison Cohen England Jr.  has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting new sweeps and then converted it into a preliminary injunction. 

In an effort to abide by the court and resume sweeps, the city opened a temporary resting site with a bit of shade, hand washing stations, water and portable restrooms near the Chico airport, but that failed as Judge England refused to call it a shelter:  "Under none of these definitions is the airport site a ‘shelter.’ It is an asphalt tarmac with no roof and no walls, no water, and no electricity. It is an open space with what amounts to a large umbrella for some shade. It affords no real cover or protection to anyone,” the judge said. 

The Martin v. Boise 2018 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was followed in 2021 with an agreement ensuring that in the West the unhoused will not be cited or arrested for sleeping outdoors when no shelter is available. The follow up also guaranteed Boise will take steps to put every person experiencing homelessness on a path to permanent housing.

Cities such as Reno have relied on Martin v. Boise to conduct sweeps when there are shelter beds available.  In Chico, local leaders were aiming for the same strategy but so far failed repeatedly in the face of federal rulings.  

"The judge says you don't have to build the Taj Mahal, but the question is what does the word shelter mean? Does shelter mean a tent where you can rest or does it mean individual tents with beds? The Boise case doesn't say that,” Chico City Council member Sean Morgan has been quoted as saying. 

Trying to Establish a Pallet Shelter

One of those striving to instead establish a pallet shelter village is Julie Wood.  With two grown kids, and a past as an English teacher, who also worked in PR and on a family farm, the 57-year-old is now working her way toward a master’s in social work.  

“We need many more social workers,” she said of her new direction during a phone interview with Our Town Reno.  “The funding that goes toward punishing people should be going towards prevention. If we spend money giving people a hand up it’s going to save money in the long run. If that’s all people worry about is the money, it just makes fiscal sense to have an army of social workers.” 

The pallet shelters would come from a company of the same name, with both 64 and 100 square feet models, and efforts already underway in Los Angeles and established elsewhere.   

Wood sees the pallets as being the “most comfortable” solution.  “They are heated and cooled and can be locked. There could be fencing so smaller groups of women or men or families or low barrier could have their own area. There would be bathrooms, laundry facilities and lockers.  There would be unhoused people who manage disputes and manage the cleanliness of the camp and they would be paid for that service. We wouldn’t have guards. There would be facilities for social agencies on the premises for offices and there would be electricity so people can charge their phones. It would be close to services and transportation.” 

The idea of having the unhoused themselves take care of their community comes from the Safe Organized Spaces organizer Daniel Barth, based in Richmond, CA. 

Looking for Solutions and Combating “Politics of Divisiveness”

Wood says she is working “on a good plan” with a group of allies and advocates to find a site near downtown which could house a few hundred people in pallet shelters.  Wood says the county is willing to pay $1.5 million to pay for infrastructure, including electricity, water, sewer, and trash. She said about a fifth of Chico’s unhoused are from the thousands who came to the city after the major Paradise fire in 2018. “We’ve got this climate refugee syndrome,” Wood said.

Those in support of the sweeps, including NIMBYs, according to Wood, are well organized, backed by powerful local politicians and representatives, and like in Reno use terms such as “just get a job.”

“Those are politics of divisiveness,” Wood told us. “Those are just dog whistle terms to get people to fear and to hate each other so that they can remain in power. It is easily demonstrable that people fall into homelessness because of a chain of unfortunate events, a hospital bill, a loss of a job, and the next you thing you know they don’t have any place to stay.  It’s a systemic failure.”

Allies, she says, are not as well organized but are resolute. 

“We are not satisfied with the city council’s effort to criminalize the homeless. They’re not solving the problem. They just move people around. They are creating chaos with changing laws and secret meetings, doing things without oversight that we can’t keep up. What people really want to see is nobody unhoused. Their tactics are never going to solve the problem. We’re being proactive and not reactive.”

One group she is part of, the Affordable Housing Creation Group, is trying to figure out solutions with different developers, government officials, city planners, lawyers, social agencies and others to come up with a cohesive plan.  

“We’re going back to the drawing board for our own agenda, and that’s an agenda of solutions,” Wood said. “You have to create a continuum of care and also a continuum of building codes. There should be a comprehensive plan from tent to permanent housing and the most urgent need being emergency shelter with safe organized campgrounds in conjunction with surrounding neighbors and social workers so people can be integrated into the community and let them able to stay there for as long as they need to, to transition into other housing. The long term plan also has to be permanent and transition housing built. “ 

Our Town Reno reporting, August 2021

Combating the Luxurification of the Student Experience amid an Affordability Crisis

Rising Costs, Debt and Inability to Afford Housing and Food

The newly built Canyon Flats on Virginia Street is offering a pet spa, a yoga and cross-fit center and an art gallery. Those are nice amenities but for non affluent students are these really needed? A fall semester there for students will be in excess of $3,300, much like Uncommon, which is prioritized for incoming freshmen, still cheaper than Peavine Hall, Juniper Hall or Sierra Hall, where singles top $4,000 for the fall. There’s even higher priced singles at the Great Basin Hall or Nevada Living Learning Community which are each close to $5,000. That’s not counting equally pricey meal plans as most of these options offer very little in terms of being allowed to cook for yourself, sometimes banning cooking altogether in rooms.  

Where are the cheaper more convenient options though, as nearby motels and some of the older homes which were split into different rooms, are razed?

Apartments nearby now go for over $1,250 per month for a one bedroom and some artificial turf in front at 145 Lofts for example. For students trying to get ahead with a degree but not drown themselves financially, these logistical challenges are acute amid this housing unaffordability crisis.  

In total in the United States, there is currently an estimated $1.4 trillion in federal student loan debt, of which most is federal.  Discussions are ongoing in Washington in terms of how far the administration and Congress are willing to go in terms of student loan forgiveness.  Meanwhile, the system that led to these frightening numbers remains out of control.

This semester, enrollment seems to be down again at UNR, with more and more students seemingly unwilling to leave home for their college experience, meaning fewer Vegas and California transplants wearing the Wolf Pack blue and grey.

For some local students, still trying to get their degree here, housing and living costs exceed the cost of tuition. Food insecurity affects at least one in five students. There’s also a hidden population, estimated to be at least 10 percent of the student body in most western cities, which lacks stable housing.

One interesting, award winning program to address this is the Tacoma Community College Housing Assistance Program. According to its website, it’s “a partnership with the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) and other community organizations that allows homeless and near-homeless students to access housing vouchers and low-cost apartments subsidized by THA.”

Wouldn’t this type of well funded program be a welcome collaboration here in Reno between UNR and the Reno Housing Authority? 

Specific Shelter Options for Students and More Roving Case Workers

A UCSC student organization (Instagram feed above) is currently starting a donation funded shelter for college students experiencing homelessness in the Santa Cruz area. It’s called Slug Shelter. Could a group at UNR do that? Discrete, population specific shelters seem to be the way to go rather than the one size fits all mega shelter northern Nevada has adopted, despite warnings from many.

Slug Shelter’s website reads: “Slug Shelter is a student-led organization at UCSC that is committed to providing a temporary living space for college students experiencing homelessness in the Santa Cruz area. Our goal is to create a safe, reliable space that meets the physical and emotional needs of these students, enabling them to devote more time to their studies and other professional pursuits. With this program, we hope to mitigate the financial struggles endured by students who are most affected by the high cost of living in Santa Cruz. In addition, we offer student volunteers a valuable, hands-on experience in building a strong community.”

In Ohio, there’s an initiative to hire social case workers to roam neighborhoods where students live to do outreach and connect them with available resources and also try to pinpoint problems before they worsen. These ideas seem to offer some respite and safety valves, while hopefully more structural solutions are being worked on going forward.

Our Town Reno Op-ed July 2021

Eileen Bidwell, Pushing for Safe and Legal Parking for Neighbors Living in Vehicles

New Federal Money Presents Opportunities

As more and more federal money arrives into Nevada and local coffers, those seeking to help our struggling neighbors are seizing the moment to reinvigorate long held ideas never tried before locally.

At the June Community Homelessness Advisory Board meeting, Eileen Bidwell, representing the One Truckee River non profit, presented the need for a local safe parking program.  CHAB members seemed interested but wanted to keep the ball in her court, to keep seeing how much further she could take the idea herself.  They seem preoccupied by the new Nevada Cares Campus and its safe camp, she said.  She will go back to the board though, she says, because she does believe in the idea.

“Safe and legal parking can make a huge difference in people's lives. It could make the difference between living unsheltered or living in a relatively safe and legal place to park,” Bidwell said during a recent interview.  “People who have no choice but to live in their vehicles live in fear of notices and having their shelter towed away.”   She said other advocates in the community were thrilled by her presentation. 

“The reaction outside the meeting was great. The community is really supportive of this, and I'm just delighted to hear that. I continue to go around and try to talk to people. One of the outreach workers in the community is out counting vehicles and talking to people and I've been helping her out.”

Bidwell has been seeing more and people she says living in their vehicles, RVs, trailers, trucks and cars as she walks in park areas, in her Ward 1 neighborhood and along the river, keeping an eye on vehicles she recognizes and noticing new ones where people might also be sleeping inside.   She says these people are counted in annual point in time counts, used to estimate numbers of those inadequately sheltered. In western cities, estimates range from several hundred people living in their vehicles to over 15-thousand in Los Angeles County. 

Long Experience Elsewhere, Now Applied Locally

The Chicago and Seattle transplant thought she was retiring when she came to Reno eight years ago, after a long career which included helping people without stable shelter. Now, due to that experience and people reaching out to her, she’s a human services educator for One Truckee River and is also on the board of the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality, which runs the Our Place shelter for women.  

Bidwell sees zoning codes as the biggest hurdle, so that any future host to a safe parking program would be able to operate legally and be protected.  Until recently, many Walmarts were operating safe parkings on their own terms, allowing people in vehicles to also use their bathrooms to clean up at daybreak. 

Bidwell has studied nine safe parking programs, seven in California and two in Oregon. “Their budgets are kind of diverse, just all over the map,” she said. “Many of them operate out of private parking lots, including churches and businesses, others operate from a publicly owned parking lot. All of the nine are managed by non profit organizations and they provide access to the parking lot. So they actually invite people in and learn about them and what their needs are. And then they manage the program as well. Some of them are done very economically because the land is donated. Others are more expensive depending on the services. Some provide meals. Some of them also provide health care services. A few of them have repair services for vehicles. Some have towing. All of them provide bathroom access, laundry access, and trash removal.”

Some of these programs, up the coast from San Diego to Eugene and Beaverton, have 24-7 security, while others have part time security. “Most of them are what we call low barrier, which means anybody with a vehicle can park in these lots. Some of them only allow RVs, others allow cars as well and trucks and others any vehicle.”

Bidwell says there’ also the approach of opening up entire areas to legal street overnight parking with people inside their vehicles. 

“I think that it's also necessary to designate street parking,” she said.  “There are also people who are not interested in parking in a safe parking lot. They have their own reasons. And I think that they should be entitled and allowed to park. In certain cities, with these programs, there have complaints, and most of them are around, garbage of course, and you know, blocking the streets, particularly RVs blocking the streets. Or [you have] oil leaks, or if the vehicles become immobilized and they're just, you know, they they're just there, they're just parked there. So, some of the communities have found creative solutions, others have not, and it remains a problem.”

Partnerships and Non Profit Needed

 It’s important to find partners with land Bidwell says, and churches could make for ideal collaborators. She also says a group of advocates could create a non profit specifically for this aim. 

“This could really make a profound difference in people's lives,” she said underlying the need for this type of formal program. “People live in fear that their homes will be towed away with all of their belongings and once they're towed away, the cost of getting them out of the towing yards is exorbitant and almost nobody can afford it.”

She said it could also save local governments money. “Both cities, the city of Reno and the city of Sparks are spending a lot of money to tow these vehicles away. And the funding could be used to actually assist people in being safe.”

Sadly, she has only seen the need become more acute over time, with wages and fixed incomes stagnated for so long, and rent prices going up. Still, now Bidwell sees an opportunity with federal money flowing in to deal with housing.

“I could just kind of anticipate that this population would explode as housing prices and the cost of living increased so much over the years.I just didn't want it to get like Seattle, which now has the third largest population of unsheltered people in country. We have to be creative and work on solutions and collaborate to end homelessness. I've been going to a lot of meetings lately, national and statewide groups that I'm involved with. We're all really excited about this once in a lifetime opportunity, using federal money and that's going directly to areas to solve homelessness. I don't think we can wait any longer.  I have met so many wonderful people in this community who really care about their homeless neighbors and our homeless neighbors. And,  I think that the federal funding, if used appropriately  it's going to make a big difference. So I'm cautiously hopeful.” 

Need for New Zoning and Land Use Codes

In a follow up email to our interview, Bidwell wrote: “Zoning and land use codes have to be changed to reflect reality and accommodate the creation of more affordable housing in our neighborhoods. Many U.S. cities have done this successfully and it would make a profound difference here. Changes should include flexibility for parking vehicles.”

She reiterated that “people living in vehicles are actually NOT counted in annual Point in Time counts. When you look at the numbers, PIT totals would be a lot higher if vehicle dwellers were included. Also, one thing I neglected to mention is that private lots for RV and camper parking typically do not allow older vehicles to park there, so paid lots are not an option for many. I'm not sure why private lots have these rules.”

She also wanted to add a final underlying message to structural challenges: “The current systems to address homelessness were not created or structured to actually end homelessness. Services are fragmented and traditionally under funded. The systems should be torn down and recreated with people in mind. The ARP [American Rescue Plan] has given us an opportunity to make dramatic and lasting change. I have met so many amazing people who truly care about ending homelessness in our community. It gives me hope that safe and stable housing can become a reality in the future.”

Our Town Reno Interview, July 2021

If There was a Will, What could Reno Try More of to Help the Unhoused?

A Few Ideas We Suggest Should Be Tried As Soon as Possible

There are projects here in Reno that get lots of drawn out media attention to help the poorly sheltered in our community amid an accessible housing crisis: the Village on Sage Street and the Hope Springs tiny home village come to mind, to name a couple. Now these are great projects, but their delays to get going and reliance on slow fundraising efforts and refinancing indicate these may just remain experimental and not duplicable.

Such projects also rely on large numbers of not always motivated external staff and hi-tech security, which alienates some who don’t want to perpetually feel like a “client” or a “bridge” project or worse, like an “aided inmate,” all quotes we’ve recorded during our reporting.

There is also a dominant political narrative in our community to meld everything together: recovery, food aid, mental health resources, job training and possible access to future housing, to name a few. But if getting someone housed is the goal shouldn’t that be the main priority? Nothing wrong with considering the whole, but do we not mostly treat mental health or recovery exclusive of housing components for the more affluent?

Lots of money has been available with the CARES Act to address houselessness, which is why we at Our Town Reno would like to suggest a few other ideas to pursue. These would all be easy to implement, some cheap, others more costly, but all of them doable if there was political will. Some might fail but some might succeed. If an also needed overnight camping ordinance were to be passed, these could immediately help hundreds people currently living in precarious situations. Lots of attention seems to be given to food programs for the poor in our community, but much less on housing.

City-Sanctioned Safe Camping

While this idea has long been talked about, and there is maybe going to be a section for it at the new Governor’s Bowl shelter location, to be called the Nevada Cares Campus, why hasn’t it happened sooner? Why hasn’t it happened yet? Why can’t it happen elsewhere on other plots of city-owned unused land with a low barrier of entry? Why don’t we try it out and see what works, what doesn’t work, rather than just talking about it for years and years?

Residents themselves could be hired for some of the safe camp jobs, and there could be gardening spaces as well as creative spaces. There could also be a nightly fee, as many we’ve interviewed sleeping in tents along the river and railroad tracks say they would be willing to pay for added safety.

We could have a government-sanctioned safe camp for just Veterans for example, as has been the case recently at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration campus, in Brentwood. That camp has been designated as a "Care Treatment Rehabilitation Service" program, or "CTRS" in official federal acronym language.

Wouldn’t this be better than unsanctioned camps which regularly get swept up by police when they become too big and lead to possessions being thrown out, poverty being criminalized and communities of friends being uprooted?

Safe Overnight Parking Lots

Many people still own a vehicle but don’t have enough money to afford rent. Rather than finding out of the way places to park, create trash, and use the outdoors as their toilet, wouldn’t it be better to have safe parking lots with basic amenities for them to park and spend the night?

Again a nominal fee could be charged in exchange for safety and legality. There could be one person working an overnight shift, and large church parking lots could be used. Many people experiencing homelessness for the first time do so initially in their vehicle. Some safe parking programs also include an intake component by a social worker to have a conversation to see if any immediate help or resources can be provided. Trash cans, portable toilets and shower trucks could also be on location.

Homeless Huts

In Oregon, the Community Supported Shelters (CSS) non-profit has come up with structures called Conestoga Huts which seem like a good solution to go inside a safe camp or to add to a tiny home village. This also begs the question, why in Reno there aren’t more non profits focused solely on housing.

These lockable huts give a resident 60 square feet of indoor living space, enough to keep possessions safe and dry and to have a comfortable sleep. The Conestoga name comes from the historical Conestoga Wagon. These cost about $2,500 to build, a quarter of the price than the most basic tiny home, while being much more durable and tidier than tents. There could also be a nightly fee.

Reviving “Flophouses”, or Creating Bunkhouses, Hostels and Micro Apartments

The term flophouse has a derogatory sound to it, but for years, in the early decades of the 20th century, the flophouse were like the motels of the 80s onward now getting bulldozed away, a place for people without the means to sleep anywhere else, in transition, on a day to day, week to week or month to month budget. Some had kitchens and dining halls, and you could pay for one night. Flophouses were often in downtown areas, making them convenient for people getting around on foot. Now the name flophouse is bad for marketing obviously, so why not build new ones which look like log cabins, and call them bunkhouses? These could go for $10-$20 a night. We could also have hostels with several people per room for artists or young travelers. Why always go for the high end of everything with new projects?

Or rather than tearing down some of the historical mansions which were already used for voucher recovery housing programs, why didn’t we improve those? Another possible name for rented out rooms which feels less derogatory is micro apartments or SROs, single room occupancy.

Nearly 11,000 hotel and motel rooms are being made available statewide to protect homeless individuals in California from COVID-19, Gov. Newsom's office said...

City-Owned Motels

Speaking of motels, what about the city, rather than complaining about them, buying some, renovating them and then using rooms to house homeless families? In the early months of the pandemic, California used this approach as part of Project Roomkey, a joint state and federal program that leased more than 15-thousand hotel rooms for the homeless. Oregon has a similar endeavor called Project Turnkey. In Reno, this would be much cheaper than building anything from scratch and we could also preserve some of the iconic structures and signs the motels give to our city landscape rather than tearing them down.

Jane Wells reports on the new niche business of mini homes for seniors.

Granny Pods

Not least but last, because this failed here in 2018 after years of discussions is to revive the idea of granny pods. For reasons we still don’t understand backyard accommodations which could house a family member or rented out for cheap, making it a win win for several parties, was shot down by a combination of politicians, rich home owners and affordable housing developers. Accessory dwelling units, also known as ADUs, or in-law suites, are very divisive here and elsewhere, but why not legalize them and give them a shot? Don’t we have an inventory shortage? Vancouver and Toronto to the north have several thousands of them now, also calling them Laneway and Carriage houses and even has preservationist tours and glitzy realtor videos to show some of them off. There seems to be the sense we need to preserve the “character” of neighborhoods, but we just can’t sweep the unhoused away, or pretend they don’t exist. Due to low wages and Social Security benefits, combined with higher and higher prices for housing, the unhoused are us.

Our Town Reno reporting, January 2021

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What Other Police Reforms should Reno, Sparks and Washoe County Pursue Now?

From #8CantWait, to signs at local #BlackLivesMatter rallies, to an opinion column by Sheila Leslie, to the Defund campaign, there has been a wide range of reforms demanded by many at both national and local levels.

We’ve seen Reno’s police update its use of force policy, including banning chokeholds and shooting at or from vehicles, and giving it some new wording: “It is the Policy of the Reno Police Department to protect human life and human rights. Officers must use only the amount of force that is Objectively Reasonable to effectively bring an incident under control, while protecting the safety of the Officer and others. The Officer must only use that force which a reasonably prudent Officer would use under the same or similar circumstances. Officers are expected to apply force in accordance with departmental training.”

For some protesters we’ve talked to, that’s not far enough. Here are ten other ideas we got in posts, conversations and on protest signs.

#1. Immediate Release of Investigation into Miciah Lee’s Killing by Sparks PD

#2. Fire Local Police Officers Who Engage or Have Engaged in Racist Behavior including with UNRPD

#3. Reduce future police budgets and instead increase spending for education, mental health, housing and other social services

#4. Have Medics and Health Care Professionals Respond to Most 9-1-1 Calls

#5. Demilitarize the Police and Refocus their training and equipment into Community Peacekeeping

#6. Cut all ties between local police and ICE

#7. End all contracts/special agreements between police and local schools, colleges and universities

#8. Make Police Disciplinary Records More Transparent and Available for Public Review

#9. Make all Data on Local and National Police Use of Force, including Killings, Available and Public

#10. Revisit the “qualified immunity” for police which leads to most lawsuits against police being thrown out

Listicle by Our Town Reno, June 2020

10 Ways to Help Each Other During the Pandemic in Reno

1. Stay Home for Reno and Away from Others as Much as Possible

Wearing a mask while grocery shopping, staying at home as much as you can, keeping your distance from others when you do go out and about might be more for others than for yourself, as you might be asymptomatic, while some of your friends, neighbors and relatives are immunocompromised and at much more risk than yourself. When you go grocery shopping, be fast and efficient, and keep your distance. When going outside to get fresh air, avoid doing anything in groups other than with those you already live with. The longer we have new cases, the longer the shutdown will last. Remember, we are in this together, and only as strong as the most vulnerable among us.

An inspirational message in Reno as the shutdown drags on.

2. Help your Local Community via Facebook Mutual Aid Groups and with check ins in your neighborhood

There are both new groups which started shortly after the coronavirus shutdown began such as Reno/Sparks Mutual Aid (https://www.facebook.com/groups/186246196158115/), Delivering with Dignity (https://www.facebook.com/dwd.renosparks/) or solidarity groups which existed prior to the pandemic such as Compassionate Neighbors Northern Nevada (article about that group we wrote here: http://www.ourtownreno.com/our-stories-1/2019/1/27/georgia-russell-coordinating-compassionate-solidarity-for-those-in-need). Check out their pages, get involved in discussions, and see if there might be someone posting there you could help.

You can also check on your neighbors from time to time, by text or phone, or while walking the dog, if you see them, to see if they are OK. Times are increasingly difficult for those without shelter so prepare care packages for them and organize with others how to drop them off along the river or in care boxes around Reno and Sparks.

A screengrab for the local collective #maskup initiative.

3. Apply Your Skills where they might be needed

A good example we recently profiled is the Northern Nevada Mask Coalition which is putting together experts at donation drives with those with abilities to make masks for local production and distribution: https://www.facebook.com/Northern-Nevada-Mask-Coalition-With-Lexies-Gift-106918264320302/

Local brewers who started making hand sanitizer is another example of a worthy endeavor, among many others popping up in the region. Create your own or join an existing group.

4. Donate to Causes and Groups You Believe In

Food Bank of Northern Nevada is doing a special drive for this giving Tuesday. You can look to Eddy House, which is also looking for help via its social media. The group RISE which is working on establishing a new shelter in Sparks for women and children called Our Place, and has other ongoing projects for those most in need in our community, also has a donation page: http://www.renoinitiative.org/donate/

5. Write Letters to Isolated Friends, Relatives and Strangers

Writing a letter will be therapeutic for yourself, and will create a connection, something many of us are lacking these days. Write an old friend you’ve been out of touch with of late. Sign up to a pen pal program. There’s also programs to reach out to people residing in nursing homes or incarcerated in prisons, facing even more loneliness than usual in these pandemic times. If local ones don’t exist which suit your specific wants, why not set one up yourself?

Reynolds School of Journalism Student Karina Dominguez reports on still empty toilet paper aisles.

6. Don’t Waste Food or Buy Unnecessary Items

There are still shortages and problems in the supply and delivery chain, so now is not the time to hoard, or to waste food, or to purchase unnecessary items. Some people are starting their own vegetable gardens to be more self-sufficient, or changing eating habits to be healthier. Start a compost pile. Turn your scraps into vegetable stock.

Joe Exotic of Netflix Tiger King hasn’t yet tested positive for coronavirus despite plenty of news reports initially indicating that he had. Someone else at the prison where he is currently locked up was a positive though, perhaps leading to this misinformation.

7. Don't Spread Misinformation

From fake cures to fake data and fake fears, there’s been plenty of misinformation about COVID-19. As a contributor to social media, it’s important to look at information closely and with proper attention before sharing or reposting. While much of the actual verified information is alarming, there’s no need to add increased stress, anxiety or false hopes while peddling misinformation.

8. Be Extra Kind to Those on the Frontlines

From nurses to postal workers, firefighters to EMTs, grocery workers to DoorDash delivery people, think of ways you can be extra nice in these times where they are performing their jobs while constantly putting their health at risk.

9. Help Friends and Family with Remote Child Care

Parents are swamped right now. If you don’t have kids, you can think of a Zoom activity to try with them, like magic tricks, or learning a new dance routine.

A screengrab of different types of diaries people have been starting.

10. Keep a Diary

Some people are calling a plague journal, but however ghastly this sounds, it can be meditative to organize your thoughts. It will also be a valuable resource to yourself and your family in the future, looking back on this coronavirus 2020, hoping it will soon be in our rearview mirror, and that we will all learn the lessons we need to learn, and take it as an opportunity to better ourselves as a community.

Listicle by Our Town Reno in May 2020