A Stop the Sweeps Occupation and Challenging Conditions Inside the New Shelter
The petition to stop ongoing sweeps now spreading eastward into Sparks has now topped 1,000 signatures with a new goal of 1,500. Concerns about the local community without proper housing dominated public comments at the latest Reno City Council meeting, while a new Occupy-style nonstop, rotational protest began across from City Hall.
We had an overview article this week on how the sweeps, the meeting, the petition and the protest were all coinciding, with sadly anger prevailing in all these realms.
Protests don’t always lead to immediate change, but they do usually “change the narrative” and affect the words people use, which can have lasting effects. For example “people without stable shelter” and “sweeps” are now used by many, whereas just a few years ago these terms were hard to find in mainstream media. Those who put their hat in the political ring and forthcoming elections may also be impacted.
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” the old adage goes, and we provided the photo above as part of our coverage of conditions inside the new NCC compound. Our report today looks into complaints about clogged toilets, unhealthy food, and overall challenges. It also raises several questions people are having, such as how management contracts for different operation components were selected, and when the safe camp might open. When asked when Washoe County might take over running the entire compound, Jon Humbert from the City of Reno wrote back saying: “That date is still a moving target, but yes, the goal is for Washoe to take over operations and their folks would be handling media response.” For now, media tours aren’t being offered.
Our podcast episode this week is with Wraith, who calls herself a “street mom” and was helping people at the N Edison and Mill Street encampment pack up before Thursday’s morning sweep. Listen to the episode in link or find it by searching for Our Town Reno where you get your podcasts. Advocates such as Ilya Arbatman who were hoping that area could be used as a tolerated safe camp until the legal safe camp opens at the new compound wrote about his frustrations for our Citizen’s Forum page.