The Cold Hard Truths of Evictions, while Not So Shiny New Things are Dangled
Harrowing evictions are being presented locally on social media, just as the Reno Housing Authority said it would no longer accept rental assistance applications as Washoe County's special funds are nearly emptied out. The RHA says by September it will have helped over 4,000 households within the county with more than $30 million in rental assistance. With inflation and housing costs still soaring though, what about the next wave of residents in need?
It seems they will be faced with limited access to government point people as well.
An email being circulated from Washoe County’s Homeless Services Program, and shown to Our Town Reno, indicates their offices can no longer respond to a “high volume” of current phone calls.
Writing to Catholic Charities and others, it indicates that if “tenants and future tenants are reaching out to apply for rental assistance” they should be sent to other agencies for possible help, including the Women and Children’s Center of the Sierra and the Washoe County School District Family Resource Centers.
The email says the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program is “defunding by early summer” but that the city of Reno still has separate funds which can go toward emergency rental assistance, as does the assistance program known as CHAPS.
Far from these hard cold realities, over at the national Mayor’s Conference held in Reno, Mayor Hillary Schieve reached for the mantle of “crypto mayor,” saying our historical registries will be uploaded to a new blockchain, and that NFTs will be launched for local art.
As the recent crash of crypto currencies reinforces, this alternative world based on ethereal speculation gives no solace to local residents in desperate need of decent housing.
Our main feature this week was about Racheo (above), advocating for safe parking programs, after having lived for months in harsh conditions in a repurposed ambulance.
Our #keeprenorad feature was about a local non-binary independent local wrestler.
Our podcast is with Sherrie Scaffidi, a veteran transgender woman helping others in northern Nevada.
Why do you volunteer? was one of our favorite videos on our new(ish) TikTok:
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser