When Will County Reconsider its Safe Camp Contract with Karma Box After Employee Joins Two Others in Custody?

A recap of our recent reporting plus bonus content.

Mar 04, 2026

Another month, and another Karma Box employee in Washoe County custody.

Executive Director Grant Denton confirmed on a call with Our Town Reno this morning that supervisor Jessica Hillman booked this morning on charges of embezzlement and exploiting an old or vulnerable person is an employee of the non profit, which bills itself as helping “individuals experiencing homelessness through outreach, resource connection, and recovery programs.”

“She is not a county employee, so you’d have to reach out to her employer for comment,” county spokeswoman Bethany Drysdale wrote back to Our Town Reno.

After we wrote back to Drysdale that we were “just wondering if the county has any concerns contracting with Karma Box and entrusting them with Safe Camp responsibilities [at the Cares Campus] following so many arrests of late,” we did not hear back.

The county website describes the Safe Camp as “part of the Nevada Cares Campus and operated by the Washoe County Human Services Agency (HSA),” offering “a supervised outdoor option for individuals experiencing homelessness who are unable to access indoor shelter.”

We emailed Karma Box Chief Operating Officer Ian Anderson but did not hear back at all.

Hillman joins Eddie Luna in custody since February 26th with a $200k bond and former camp supervisor Mat Grimsley in custody since November 22nd on a $50k bond on charges related to pistol whipping and domestic battery. Another Karma Box outreach specialist recently pled guilty to owning or possessing a firearm by a prohibited person.

The only time Our Town Reno was allowed to visit the Safe Camp in 2021 we were told to leave the premises after just a short while, when county employee Catrina Peters seemed irritated by some of our questions about details of the contract linking Karma Box to the county.

That contract was initially listed as an “emergency agreement” for professional services between Washoe County and the Karma Box project to provide “contracted staffing to operate the [then] temporary Safe Camp,” at over $100,000 for an initial three month term.

Despite other misconduct complaints against Denton himself that he has denied, growing concerns about hiring practices by Karma Box and its credentials to carry out such important work at the county funded Cares Campus, and its temporary loss of nonprofit status due to a failure to file a required form over three consecutive years, the contract has been repeatedly extended.