According to monthly data from ‘Built For Zero’ (a “Community Solutions” organization specializing in homelessness), Reno Nevada has recently decreased its homeless population by about 20% annually. Comparing October 2022 to October 2023 data from the BFZ Trends Monthly chart.
The drop in homelessness is attributed to the joint program created by Reno and Sparks Nevada, called the “Nevada Care Campus.” A facility that intakes single men and couples, while segregating single females seeking shelter to the “Our Place” housing organization. It started in 2021 with initial funding of $17 million from the CARES Act, donations, grants, and taxpayer dollars.
At the moment, the ‘Nevada Care Campus’ is a large tent structure, similar to a ski lodge base camp, situated on 15 acres of land. Filled with beds for 'emergency housing,' it was erected in just 85 days and reached maximum capacity (604 occupants) within the first month of opening. The rapid influx of shelter seekers overwhelmed the campus’s structure, resulting in the collapse of a ceiling and mold in showers, as the showers would run constantly throughout the day. Further construction is underway to improve the facility's functionality and provide more services to the occupants. It is in Phase 2 of a 5-Phase plan and resumed construction in June of 2022 - Phase 2 should conclude in the winter of this year.
The end goal of the project is to have multiple housing and service wings to aggregate occupants within the campus based on needs rather than joining them all together. The hope is to provide behavioral health services, communal areas, kitchen/cafeteria, bathrooms/showers, laundry, and permanent & short-term housing. ‘Nevada Care Campus’ has already rolled out the “Safe Camp,” an area of the facility run by Karma Box. This area contains living pods, where people referred to the camp can live if they agree to work with a county case worker to create a path to permanent housing.
Even with the improvement in homelessness, there are complaints about the 'Nevada Care Campus.' After increasing its budget allocation from $17 to $80 million, tension grows regarding the cost-benefit ratio of the campus for Reno - seeing as how it is still in Phase 2 of construction. Additionally, the question of how knowledgeable the Reno leadership is on solutions for the homeless crisis is debatable. As the heads of the Nevada Care Campus, Dana Searcy and County Manager Eric P. Brown have reportedly hired around 32 outside agencies to help consult and run the facility.
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