A new Citizen Movement for the Unhoused Emerges
From Protests and Motel Vouchers to Looking into Buying Properties, and Turning Mutual Aid Groups into Non Profits
Fears of a Discontinued Voucher Program Lead to Protest
After fears a Washoe County paid for, RISE run, motel voucher program for some of the women on the waiting list at the Our Place shelter would be discontinued, a protest was quickly gathered at the Believe Plaza earlier this week. Our Town Reno’s Richard Bednarski was the first reporter, and maybe the only reporter, on the scene. Many other reporters in town went to the Governor’s Bowl instead, for an update on the yet to opened super shelter, or “Nevada Cares Campus”, but we didn’t receive a notification for that.
The motel voucher program for women seems to have been saved, and will now be paid for more directly by Washoe County, instead of by RISE, which apparently ran into upfront cash flow problems. To the surprise of many, RISE was given the contract last year to start and operate Our Place, a shelter for women, and also couples and the elderly. The non profit also known for its advocacy and progressive members seemed an unlikely partner to work within the slower moving, but deeper pocketed county structure. How this works out over the longer term, however, still remains to be seen.
Finding Solutions for the Unhoused Outside of Government Systems?
Currently, with the success of mutual aid groups, and donation drives, there is talk in northern Nevada of turning some of these into non profits, some of which are looking into pooling money to build or buy structures, including possibly a hospitality building on Victoria Ave. currently on sale for $9 million. The price seems steep, but advocates are working hard to figure out strategies and solutions to make an impact outside of government red tape. A recent L.A. Times article looks at how developers are working with non profits there to build housing faster and for less than those using federal, state, county or city money.
Podcast
Our podcast this week goes back to an example of citizen success in raising private money to get people motel vouchers. Here’s how we wrote our audio intro for that: 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.
Street Portraiture
One of our volunteer street photographers Steven Wideman, who used to volunteer at the overnight overflow tent on Record Street, is back at it, after a pandemic break, taking beautiful portraits, showcasing the resilience of those trying to survive while living on local streets. You can find his new work on our Instagram.
More Reports and an Event Lookahead
This week, we also reported about a student fund for students having difficulties during the still surging pandemic, amid high rents, tuition and declining work hour possibilities. We are also starting to organize a public Zoom forum about the issues we report about for the evening of April 13th. So mark your calendars for what we hope will be a productive conversation. If you’d like to be a featured panelist, let us know. It will also be an occasion to mark five years of this multimedia reporting initiative, to build awareness on gentrification, the affordable housing crisis, the extremely unfortunate criminalization of poverty, the disappearance of public space and the value of street art.