Amid concerns about when the next Community Homelessness Advisory Board will take place, with only one this past year, Lisa Lee, a long time local advocate for the unhoused, wrote an email to County Commissioner Mike Clark, ccing media, this morning indicating “it has become clear that the local governmental bodies are not interested in solutions--only "admiring the problems."
The last CHAB meeting, which are open to the public, scheduled for September 9th was canceled during the Davis Fire.
According to the county’s website, “the need around homeless issues in our region has expanded and as a result…” the CHAB “is intended to serve as the lead entity and to provide recommendations and coordination regionally regarding homelessness….The board is tasked with providing input and making recommendations on homeless issues in the region.”
Current members are chair County Commissioner Alexis Hill, City of Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson, Reno and Sparks council members and Commissioner Clark.
Clark had previously written to media and advocates asking what he should ask of “Chair Hill so she might schedule a CHAB meeting.”
The last one was held May 13th, 2024.
In her email, Lee wrote: “The shelters continue to be full, with fewer exits to housing.
Mutual aid, community care, and the faith community have continued to fill the gaps in our community.
The emergency shelter system was once collaborative with mutual aid and faith-based organizations, and we all worked together to create change in our community.
The Record Street campus graciously hosted Amber and the We Care volunteers, numerous meal-serving groups (through RISE and Dine), and many other groups of people who were invested in helping our friends and neighbors experiencing homelessness.
Since the County took over and "Housing and Homeless Services" was initiated, we have witnessed [Homeless Services Coordinator] Catrina Peters and [Housing and Homeless Services Division Director] Dana Searcy exclude (more like exile) community groups//advocates and silo these services.
Moreover, what used to be a huge network of volunteers that conducted the PIT count has been so siloed due to these processes of exclusion that, for the first time, they're not even conducting the count.
I was on the PIT planning team for years and used to coordinate a fairly large group of people who were currently or had formerly experienced homelessness in conducting the count.
We all had a good rapport with our unsheltered community and knew where the more hidden and isolated camps were. That all ended when Washoe County took over the CoC [Continuum of Care]“
The nationwide PIT count for unsheltered individuals is only mandated once every two years and the County decided to bypass it this upcoming year, as numbers of the counted unhoused rose from 2023 to 2024 despite the Cares Campus opening in 2021.
Amid a series of questions Lee then lists for Hill, she notes there were 13 CHAB meetings in 2020 which went down to seven in 2022, and three in 2023.
Some of the questions Lee included in her email are:
“How many deaths have occurred on the Cares Campus since May 2021 when it opened? How many sexual assaults have occurred? What is being done about employees at the campus selling drugs to guests? Who is providing harm reduction and overdose prevention services on campus?
Why do we not have a medical respite for people experiencing homelessness who are being discharged from hospitals ("patient dumping")?
Would Commissioner Hill stay at Cares? Would any of the members of CHAB feel comfortable spending a week there?”
Lee goes on to say that “supporting the work being done by mutual aid groups is a far more effective strategy. This has been most recently evidenced by Lily Baran and the local churches coordinating a compassionate response during the winter months,” referring to the Good Neighbors Warming Center.
“I am so exhausted from saying this so many times to governmental representatives that I have stopped taking time off work to speak at public meetings, but I will repeat it--housing ended my homelessness,” Lee concludes. “Housing ends homelessness. When we know better, we do better. Please convene the CHAB and schedule monthly public meetings again.”