A Community Comes Together To Provide Motel Vouchers

It was a week to remember. Snowfall was following snowfall and the temperature was getting lower and lower. Advocates for those without stable shelter were arguing with Reno City Council members over social media. Officials kept saying beds were still available at the main shelters but what about those who had bad experiences and never wanted to return to those shelters? What about opening up hotel rooms and motel rooms to save people from dying in the streets? That’s when the community stepped up and with a large donor and matching contributions, a new initiative started to get people into motel rooms with private funding. Our reporter Richard Bednarski caught up with Mary Gilbert from the group RISE which also operates a women’s shelter, as the whole operation was getting underway, starting a new movement with citizens providing the solutions and getting it done as well.