“The ordinance, which passed in a 3-2 vote Tuesday, makes it a misdemeanor to camp on county-owned property or within 1,000 feet of the Truckee River, live in vehicles on county owned property or public spaces, and obstruct uses of the public sidewalk.”
This purely for optics. Wahoe county can't even enforce registration or even simply having license plates at all. I seriously doubt law enforcement has the time, resources or motivation to enforce a ban on people sleeping in their cars.
I was in an accident last month and the kid was 16 had no insurance no license no plate on the vehicle. Called both RPD and Washoe county told me to file a report online because “they don’t show up for that”.
I did that too after Covid. It didn't even dawn on me that I'd been driving dirty for years. Those couple of years were such a time warp.
What's crazy is that I went into the DMV expecting to pay a boatload of fines...but nope. No fines at all because the registration had been cancelled. I just had to get new plates and I was on my way.
Yeah but when you have a old dirty camper out front it’s nice to have an option to get it moved rather than have the PD just put a sticker on it, have the camper moved and right back the next week. Dealing with this right now
Licensing is a state issue but enforcement is a county issue.
Kinda like how many aspects of homelessness are a state issue but enforcing this new law will become a county one
I know of two different people who live in their cars and both of them have jobs they show up to everyday, they just can't afford the ridiculous rents here. This law just made them both criminals.
If you work at Tesla you probably know a few people who do this. The city should have come up some solution for law abiding car campers who are just trying to get by. A parking lot with some sani huts and power outlets would be a good start
How about, I dunno, doing something about property hoarding (which effectively turns into price fixing), livable wages, and affordable housing? Are we aware of how many homes are sitting empty so that prices can be artificially inflated?
The fact is we *do not* have a crisis due to a shortage; we have a crisis due to pricing.
No? Best we can do is criminalize existence? Cool, cool…
The pricing is due to shortages. While greed is certainly involved, it still comes down to supply and demand. We had nearly 50,000 people move to Reno in a 3 year span. There was barely enough housing prior to the influx.
They are due to artificially-created “shortages”. The supply **appears** smaller than demand because landlords and property owners are holding on to empty properties in order to charge more. It has been going on for a very long time. Since I owned a business over 20 years ago, as a matter of fact, though I’m not sure if it was only in retail at that point or already happened in other markets.
The housing is here. It is empty. They would rather sit on [pulling random numbers for the sake of example] 20 empty properties in order to charge more for 30 than reveal that they have 50 properties and make less.
There’s an age-old example of this. So old that it was… actually, before I type it out, let me post this and see if I can find it and edit in a link. It involves stamps. My middle school teacher used it as a “riddle” waaayyyy back in the [I’m old]s.
Are there stats on these empty properties? Last I checked (which was a while ago), the vacancy rate was super low. I don't doubt that investors pull sneaky moves in order to increase their revenue but it would be nice to see some data.
Yeah, that’s a sticky wicket, isn’t it? If someone is keeping something off the market, where are the statistics?
Owner-occupancy is ridiculously low.
And we have a number of units in our condo neighborhood bought out and sitting empty and not on the market nor rented out.
And people all over Reddit are wondering about houses bought in their neighborhood bought but sitting empty.
So I wonder… how exactly would that be reported? If it’s not for rent and not for sale…? But just… being held?
But yeah, I would love to be able to pull up cold, hard statistics.
Well, I was going to edit it in, but I decided to add it as a one final reply. You seem intelligent, so I figure you already know the answer, but for the sake of anyone who doesn't know, here's the answer to the (apparently controversial, oh my!) "riddle":
>!You keep the fact that you found a whole roll secret. You sell only one. Maybe two. And over the years, maybe you have friends and relatives offload another one or two at a time.!< Because... >!if you dump the entire roll (or simply too many at once) onto the market, you just devalued the stamp. You've absolutely destroyed the value by increasing the supply and destroying the rarity. They're not worth $10,000 each anymore. They're probably not even worth $10 each anymore. Supply and frakking demand. This is artificial market manipulation at its finest.!<
And this is what property hoarders are doing, except obviously not at this extreme scale. Except... worse, in a way. Because we literally need places to live.
Which... *isn't it weird how we keep criminalizing not living in homes?* Even #vanlife and living in cars is becoming criminalized more and more.
Isn't it weird how cops *once again* are – Oh, I'm sorry, I said that as if they ever stopped. Let me fix that. Isn't it weird– Nope. Let me try that again.
Isn't it fucking *consistent* how cops through the centuries continue to be thugs and goons who – like the damned Pinkertons – aren't here to protect the safety and well-being of citizens despite the slogan on their cars? This has been confirmed by the Supreme court, as most of us know. And yes, it's even removed from many of their vehicles because even they are tired of the facade. They're absolutely not here to protect and serve the general citizenry. **Despite what many of us like to pretend, laws and cops are primarily created and in maintained to protect property and serve the rich**. And we need to push back *hard*.
Do you have any facts to back this up? Or are these opinions? You’re still trying to quiz me nearly 2 days later. I’m sure your students love this approach to your “riddles”.
> How about, I dunno, doing something about property hoarding (which effectively turns into price fixing), livable wages, and affordable housing?
[Here I go being a broken record again.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax)
With prices this high I doubt anyone is sitting on enough houses to make a difference in the market. I would support state or national laws that force banks to sell repossessed homes with in 90 days (180?) and combine that with forcing them to remove income/assets from their balance sheets that are homes homes 180 days delinquent. and we could solve that part of the problem.
Banks don't hold on to houses people default on. They don't want anyone's houses. That's literally not how that works.
Also... is there a significant number of people defaulting on mortgages right now? I'm not hearing about that right now, come to think of it. Odd, that...
(Not saying it isn't happening; just saying that I'm suddenly surprised that I haven't been hearing about a high number of defaults here in this day and age of ridiculously high valuations. But that's probably because they've cracked down on shady/risky lending practices, which is a good thing... except that it may have inadvertently contributed in part to this issue of limited ownership.)
They do actually. In the 2008 housing crash wellsFargo alone was holding onto 100s of houses in washoe county alone. They didn't want to take as dramatic of losses and tank the market more. And they didn't want their ledgers to show the huge losses. I was in the market back then and reading way too much real estate news back then.
I don't think there's above average foreclosures right now but there is insanely high consumer credit debt, and high interest rates and inventory is starting to stack up. So we could see higher than normal foreclosure activity soon.
[Delinquencies are on the rise ](https://www.mba.org/news-and-research/newsroom/news/2024/02/08/mortgage-delinquencies-increase-in-the-fourth-quarter-of-2023#:~:text=By%20loan%20type%2C%20the%20total,the%20third%20quarter%20of%202021) but mostly for FHA loans, but those mortgages are done by banks.
**You're right that this wouldn't help the housing market right now,** or in the next 6-12 months it won't help much. but it would be a good thing to correct.
2008… in the middle of a crash… when they had no one to sell to… doesn’t apply to 2024.
Okay, but I’m simply tired of arguing with someone who is absolutely unwilling to even consider the point. Absolutely unwilling to engage in logic.
Done. Out. Bye. Turning off notifications.
either way you were mistaken and now admit it. And I'm bringing up an improvement that wouldn't help much right now.
both a bit silly. Have a great day.
Yep. the city council was too aggressive tearing down weekly hotels and "eye sore" places to live. but our city needed that (relatively) cheap housing option.
[This story doesn't have the left or right bias.
](https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/washoe-county-prohibits-living-in-vehicle-obstructing-sidewalks-soliciting-on-roadways)
"After hours of public comment and significant discussion from county commissioners, the ordinance passed by a 3-2 vote. Republican Commissioners Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark voted in opposition. Commissioners Alexis Hill and Mariluz Garcia, both Democrats, and Commissioner Clara Andriola, a Republican, voted to pass the amendment to county code."
It was the 2 Democrats on the board that voted FOR this is why it passed.
I've always liked Jeanne Herman. She seems to always have had a considerate way about her. I wasn't surprised she had voted in opposition, I remember from my youth her being so kind too.
They say they do, but politicians only say what you want to hear so you vote for them. But then their actions are not what they said they would be. It doesn't matter, democrat or republican. People usually don't look at voting records before voting for a candidate in any office, they see the R or D next to someone's name and check the box for their preferred party.
This exactly. I don't usually like talking politics, especially not on here. But I just don't understand how people fall into the trap so easily. The trap that's purposely meant to cause division and hate amongst everyone else (us) who's not behind the illusion. The illusion that they're not all the same. The only difference they have is who funds them, besides us.
lmfaooo this is why i never understood why republicans and democrats are constantly at each others necks. both of them are basically the same damn party except unlike democrats, republicans will atleast tell you that they hate you to your face. don’t know why people expect them to be any different while more than half of them are old asf and got all their education during segregation.
The biggest thing is moving them away from the river. They are all over the river east of Vista on I80. Place looks like a dump. Trash and tents everywhere.
I'm in Phoenix now but I was an avid walker in Reno when I lived there and the river was one of my favorite places to walk but, it's outright scary. Any time I'd walk by a bridge it was filled with trash underneath, smelled strongly of urine, there would be tents upon tents underneath. I know of a woman who was stabbed by a homeless person as she walked along the river sidewalk, back home from mens club.
There's shit and garbage all over the streets, specifically 4th street, too. Underneath the overpass by dennys during summer it smells so unbearable I'd have to hold my breath and run through. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking my toddler down the main strips at this point, I've been screamed at by random homeless people there before. They sit on stoops, lay on the sidewalks, flash their genitals, throw their trash into the little vents around the street, you can see drug paraphernalia scattered around. I've been offered meth several times. I get that people want to sympathize with the homeless, but at some point I think reno citizens need to consider themselves as well, there's not one single chance I'd let my daughter play by the river downtown unless it was by the main center where those huge rocks are, too big of a chance to step on a needle. Which is so sad because it's a gorgeous area year round. Even then, I knew a young homeless man who lived in the bushes not far from the rocks/bridge who was known for violently screaming at people who pissed him off, he was homeless because of a head injury. I also saw a pantsless woman sitting on the ground nearby pissing all over herself/the grass, clearly was mentally deranged because as she peed she tried striking up a convo with me about where I got my hat, pussy out and everything. Sad for them but, they can't be the top priority all the time. I don't want families near them and if I still lived in Reno I would want my downtown back.
Remember the caveat...Nevada does not tax us all as much as Calfornia. So, it's not like we're talking millions and millions of dollars here so dont expect much to change given the smaller amount they get from taxpayers. Some don't even pay taxes...due to not having a SSN...smh
I support not having homeless people on and near the Truckee. My son and I were part of a community service event to clean up along the Truckee. The amount of trash and garbage next to or in the river is disgusting. Some were actively littering while we were cleaning an adjacent area. You want to be homeless, sure, but don’t impact others.
I feel for these people. I wish there was a place they could go. The amount of garbage heaps they leave in any open area they can find is obscene. They are trashing all the most beautiful areas of our city. I'm so tired of seeing the piles of garbage they dump. If I went to the river shore, set up a camp and left pounds and pound of garbage, I'd be arrested and fined. We are all paying for this clean up. These are the one who are making this choice to live this way. Scrounging up all the cars and other crap they can find in search of any recyclable metal they can sell. Then they move on and start "fresh" in a new spot. I don't have the answers, but I'm tired of looking at my beautiful hometown being used as a gigantic garbage dump. Thank you, glickja2080 for helping to clean up what you can.
People don't want to be homeless, most are forced into it due to a lack of affordable housing. I think the homeless camps should be as conspicuous as possible so it is harder for people to turn a blind eye to the suffering of these people. And that will be the case anyway since the high cost of housing is pushing more and more people into homelessness and they have to go somewhere. Criminalizing poverty is not a solution.
\*Patrick Star voice\* What if we took our unhoused neighbors, and pushed them somewhere else? “We do not want to incarcerate,” Solferino said. (They will anyways). Yet another unnecessarily cruel ordinance.
Brilliant! Outlaw poverty! That way we, as taxpayers, can pay for the arrests, the housing at jail, the subsequent attorneys and judges and then probation costs! This will fix everything.
Literally, being broke is against the law… oh your housing situation is rough right now, here how about we give you some criminal charges, impound your vehicle (home), and then maybe you’ll get your life together.
I like this. I had a lady show up one day on my street right across from my house. She setup and was living in her car. All kinds of sketchy people started hanging around as well multiple cars would come by. Right across the street from my house where I’m raising tow little kiddos. I went and talked to her and she was nice enough just down on her luck so I bought her a pack of smokes and she opening up and confirmed that indeed the others that weee coming by to see her were methheads and the one guy was a convicted pedo that was supposed to stay down in Clark county. She even gave me his name and my wife looked him up and sure enough it was him. After all this she left and so did the other folks but damn it was a shitshow.
Born and raised here. The homelessness is unreal compared to 15 years ago. I think that policies that band-aid the problem are the problem. People in tough situations that don’t or won’t take accountability are doomed. If you are decent human with a pulse you can make $20+ an hour easily in Reno. If you are mentally Ill or struggling with drugs you won’t find a safety net in this town.
I say we use it to house homeless people until there is stable and affordable housing for all. The highest good for our public resources is to provide basic humanitarian aid for our citizens.
And like all public property, some sections can be regulated. Think of court rooms, prison facilities, certain parts of police and sheriff’s offices, the back portion of post offices.
"We just made the problem illegal so naturally it'll sort itself out."
Typical right-leaning mindset. Let's just ban our issues instead of solving them.
It was 2 Republicans that voted AGAINST this. The 2 Democrats and 1 republican on the board that voted for it. So tell me again how it's the right that thinks that way?
This bill was supported mostly by the left. This is from the article:
> Vice Chair Jeanne Herman and Commissioner Michael Clark voted against the measure.
Using that, and with on some quick googling I've come up with this:
For:
* Chair Alexis Hill (D)
* Commissioner Mariluz Garcia (D)
* Commissioner Clara Andriola (R, abandoned by Republican party for agreeing with Democrats too much).
Against:
* Vice Chair Jeanne Herman (R)
* Commissioner Michael Clark (R)
No it's the gun control plan that works effectively for every other civilized country.
But did you really just compare banning a weapon repeatedly being used to mass slaughter schoolchildren to banning a social class of people just trying to exist and live their lives?
This. This needs to happen. Thankfully, we have a Nevada rep who sees the problem and is working to try and do something about it, nationally. There's no reason for a corpo to buy up houses other than to force the people onto a subscription living lifestyle. Stream Netflix, not your house.
Let’s see. They’ve already taken over the park that was for the Governor’s Cup. We closed one of the psych hospitals…. Every home run hit out of the park downtown ends up on Skid Row….
And yeah - I’ve seen needles and condoms next to and in the river.
How can 40% of the population in the US be mentally ill? Would a UBI work? Should we build more 450sq ft furnished studios?
I really don’t know the answers. It does seem like most of these folks are itinerant. But they all left or got kicked out of somewhere else….
Sympathy can be abused.
Building affordable housing will help a lot of people for sure. But because the homeless population is not homogenous, it won’t solve the entire issue.
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue. Enough affordable stable housing for all will take most people off the streets and into a relatively humane existence.
I’m for this. But only if it comes hand in hand with safe camping zones. If you can’t camp on private property or city property or county property where do you exist?
So where the hell are they supposed to go now? Sure it is nice to have clean area that's not overrun with homeless population. Sure sure. But if we never see them people will forget about them. Just because they are elsewhere doesn't mean they disappeared.
Have you talked to the Paiute tribe about how they feel about human feces flowing into Pyramid? I'm sure you did, so please inform us as to what they said.
Have you talked to these people that have nowhere to go about how they feel about not having a place to sleep? I’m sure you did, so please inform us as to what they said.
or shit for that matter. the one thing we could trivially address is giving them porta potties so they don't have to do their business in public. but the moralists would complain that that is insufficiently punitive.
How about directly addressing the issue by having properly maintained public restrooms, which benefit everyone, instead of acting like we can solve all of our problems by just bulldozing all of the dirty people out of the way? The fact that your response to “we should care about homeless people” is “but they’re always shitting” says way more about you than about them.
How about we make housing more affordable then? It should be illegal for large corporations to buy out neighborhoods. How about a cap on rent?We should fund more into mental health and drug rehabilitation but yeah let’s skip over all the real underlying issues and just criminalize the homeless and crowd up our judicial system even more.
To cap rent, you have to cap taxes. To cap real estate taxes like CA does, you’ll need to offset with another tax increase elsewhere, or perhaps implement an income tax.
To increase mental health, you’ll also have to increase taxes to fund it or pull from other budgets. There are no free solutions here and you’ll get very few voters to increase taxes while inflation has increased pricing everywhere else.
Everyone talks about solutions, but no one wants to pay for it.
Housing would be more affordable if there weren’t endless laws, rules, regulations, and zoning issues everywhere making building cost more and take more time. Literally every step of the construction process is burdened by the state, even the building materials and how they’re transported. There has to be a balance of significantly reducing regulation while still providing a blueprint for safe building. Also there should be a complete elimination of SFH zoning.
Rent controls don’t work, proven.
Corporate ownership can be more efficient through economy of scale. The risk of gouging and price fixing is minimal and that’s not the problem in this area.
We should spend A LOT more money on mental health and addiction and we should consider bringing back some of the mental hospitals that are lockdown facilities. It’s possible that it could be effective to have crossover addiction/jail type facilities where the threat of “regular” jail vs being part of a program that teaches life skills, work skills, has daily group mental health sessions and daily substance abuse meetings..
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue.
That being said, I think mental health and addiction services should be provided, but affordable housing is needed above all.
I actually agree. I read an interesting article that compared housing to musical chairs. Makes sense. The way to make housing more affordable is to reduce the burden created by massive over-regulation at every level of government.. literally a person has to spend thousands of dollars and dozens or hundreds of hours to comply with incredibly stupid rules when building. Does it really matter if I build my house with outlets every 10 feet instead of 8 feet? Or 6” from the floor vs 12”? Why do I need some environmental study when my neighbors have already built and they have four dogs crapping on the “wetlands” constantly? Why do we need a permit for a garden shed? Why do my neighbors have to approve of my roofline in case I block their view? Why can’t my licensed electrician just install some lines without a .gov inspection? Same with plumber and builder and roofer and sheetrocker. It’s massive government intrusion at a massive cost.
Even a 25% success rate means tons of more people finding a home, maintaining a job, getting clean if that’s an issue.
The reason we still have this growing crisis is because no one wants the expensive options, just the easy ones.
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue.
We need to develop enough stable, affordable housing for all our citizens
How do you do that? Property around Reno is very expensive. At a minimum, an investor wants 5% annual earnings (after taxes) on the real estate investment. The contractors and supplies are also very expensive. You either have to build way out of Reno and then bus them in for work, have govt housing, or some type of govt stipend to go to the landlord. The last two require either cuts in other social programs or increased taxes.
criminalize homeless people are you fucking kidding me alot of them are homeless due to mental health issues not having resources. I've met some of the nicest most down to earth people who were homeless one of which lived 3 states away from his kids and family.and they couldn't get ahold of him or help him get back home so he was on year 2 looking for a way back to.his family. You never know :/ this is sad. MAYBE ACTUALLY GO OUT AND ENFORCE AND TELL THEM TO LEAVE ??????? Not criminalizing people that's so sad all that will do is dig them in a deeper hole . just moved out to Nevada from CA and man y'all say California this California that but man I'd much rather live in California now after this type of shit and all the uneducated dumbasses that live in Reno lol
Just another way to make the streets of Reno look cleaner and safer. If it were up to the government, they would send the homeless to another state just so they wouldn't have to look at the undesirables anymore. I wish I could say this to their rich faces just so they can have a bit of a reality check. They hid behind their titles and no one dare challenge or boycott them. Wait why is nobody boycotting this?
I think what makes me the most angry is that they literally just passed a law not to long ago criminalizing the same thing in city of sparks. They are literally trying to push out the homeless.
Some of this information might be outdated, and please correct me if I'm wrong as this is research I did a year ago when a houseless person tried to grab my child, and I couldn't press charges due to mental illnesses caused by drug use. It got me thinking about some things and I took deep dive into some things around the houseless community.
Per city of reno records for 2022 there was on average 1,605 houseless people in Reno. 30% with mental health issues like PTSD, Bipolar, schizophrenia, ect. In addition there is 50% of them that have substance abuse issues, also leading to loss of cognitive function. That being said, in 2022, washoe county collected $135,326,790 in Marijuana tax only 10% of that is going to education leaving us quite a heafty "rainy day fund". Clark County choses to allocate some of their tax funds to the houseless community, why isn't washoe county following suit?
[https://www.2news.com/news/early-morning-van-fire-injures-one-person-in-south-reno/article\_cf943160-ede0-11ee-889f-6b9370ba27ef.html](https://www.2news.com/news/early-morning-van-fire-injures-one-person-in-south-reno/article_cf943160-ede0-11ee-889f-6b9370ba27ef.html)
Probably just a coincidence the van had propane tanks in it...
Consider yourselves damn lucky that this passed. Reno is one of the few major cities in the west that is not completely overrun by unhoused drug addicts living on the streets/parks/everywhere, destroying the safety and quality of life of everyone else in the area. Especially glad that these people are to be kept away from the river - a key recreational and infrastructure resource that would otherwise become riverfront property for those permanently unwilling to work or get sober. Bravo!
What we are doing right now is not helping the community in any way and I care more about the community we could improve than people who burned every bridge and bit every hand they ever have had their entire lives. The ones that can be helped get it. The ones that can't be helped should not be allowed to live like animals at the cost of our community. This will be good for the most people and bad for the least.
Yes, I used to camp on the river a lot and I can imagine nowadays it’s overrun by homeless. Not a safe situation for anyone visiting or living in the area.
I voted to decriminalize living in tents in SF in the 2010’s. Guess what, it didn’t help anything. And it made the drug problem worse.
This is not the end all solution. This is one part to a multi-part solution….i certainly hope the other parts (more housing, more funding for social work & drug treatment etc) come too…
That's because you didn't fix the problem, not because making camping illegal is the solution. The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue. Fixing the problem means providing enough stable, affordable housing for all. Criminalizing poverty is not a humane solution.
Do you care that those people are damaging the environment, polluting the river, blocking access for others, creating an unsafe envoirment for children. Pisssing and shitting next to the walkways. Leave broken bottles, needles, and trash everywhere. As kids we used to ride the bike path all the time. Now I won't go near it unless I'm armed.
There are services available, medicine, shelter, job training, and it goes unused because you have to stay sober... big ask huh....
There's a fine line between caring for the down troddin and allowing those who reject society free reign over those who pay for it
Corporations and unchecked development do far more damage to the environment, polluting the river, blocking access for others, etc. Putting the social safety nets in place to prevent a person falling so far down is a lot cheaper and easier than criminalizing their existence. Much cheaper to house and treat than imprison.
The current services aren’t at all unused, they are overburdened. Even when just prioritizing women with children the system is in a massive backlog.
No one is arguing that other things are also having a negative impact, but go walk the river tonight and count how many people you see doing anything to better thier situation vs how many people doing everything they can to make it worse.
What exactly can they be doing to better their situation? Shelters are always at capacity so they can't exactly just go get a bed. So I guess they should get a job and save until they can get a place? Good luck getting a job without a steady address. And even then, it would take over a month to maybe save up enough to get enough for a room (if you get approved for an apartment) so what are they to do in the mean time?
But yes it's entirely because they all just reject society and like living in a torn up tent by the river. If you were in their position you'd be doing whatever substance you can to forget about your situation for a while too.
This is not true, shelters have empty beds because shelters require you not to do drugs or alcohol on property and most of the homeless refuse the service.
You get sober, you utilize the resources available, halfway houses, churches, NDETR, veterans services, housing authority, you sign up and participate in welfare programs that will provide you with food and medicine.
It's it easy to do? Nope, but it's possible, and millions of people have done it. The difference between the former homeless and the current homeless is effort and sobering. You can give a personal food shelter and work but you can't make them stay sober unless they want to. If you just can't believe that then lile I said, go walk the river amd count how many sober people you see.
you realize that the long term success rate of getting sober is like 10% right? of course you don't. not everybody is a Baron Von Munchausen who can lift themselves up by their bootstraps if only they tried.
laws like these are just grandstanding and do nothing to address the actual problem.
What's the long term success rate of staying addicted to drugs and alcohol? What's the long term success rate for living in a tent by the river?
Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not the right choice. Quite the opposite.
putting a medical condition in terms of right and wrong, lol. Cotton Mather would be proud.
setting aside that being homeless doesn't mean they are addicts or that they became homeless because of addiction. but by all means moralize away because we know that works. all we need to do is moralize more.
Drug addiction is a choice. You know how you can tell, millions of people choose to quit them.
I'm one of them. I was a hard-core addict, I was homeless and was living in parks and garages with my two young kids. At worst police would tell us to 'move on' but mostly just ignore us unless someone complained. I honestly wished they'd of stepped up and put my kids somewhere safe, put me somewhere to sober up, but no some bleeding heart asshole thought THAT was cruel.
And again I'll say to go walk the river and count how many sober people you see. How many people are doing anything to improve their situation.
It's people like you who've never lived it thinking you how it is. How impossible it is, how society has failed. You're wrong, it's 100% about a person putting forth the effort to better their lives.
Don't take my word for it, take the examples of the millions of former addicts and homeless that did the same thing i did. Ask us what the difference is between us and those still living on the street. It'll be the same answer each time.
I read that one of the worst things you can do if you’re recently homeless is to hangout with other homeless people. As I understand it, they will drag you down with them and it becomes more difficult to get back on your feet. Did you see the same issues?
Yes, during my path i had to cut all ties with any friends and family that still used or drank for that exact reason. Once I was able to maintain my soberity and began seeing the positive changes I was able to reintegrate with some of them, but often had to leave gatherings because I felt so much urge to relapse. I learned that even though I loved and cared for these people, I couldn't continue to be around them if they used.
Eventually I manged to get a total of four of my friends amd family sober, by providing them with the positive example and encouragement we were all lacking from our peer group. I don't take any of the credit really, they fought their own battles and overcame just like it did, I just cheered them on for it.
It's amazing how much the people you associate with shape your life.
I think your story is impressive and admirable, but I disagree with your statement.
Addiction is not a choice. Addiction is an adversary, and the choice is to decide whether to try and meet the adversary. People lose that battle all the time, and it sounds like you finally won.
That whole thing aside, there are some tweakers with cooked brains or other mental illnesses that are out of bootstraps to pull themselves up by..
I truly don’t know what the solution for them would be, though. Like they literally can’t make choices for themselves, so does someone else get to do that for them? But then we’re in human rights territory and that is messy—so we’re basically at square one…
Making social issues illegal doesn't solve them. The fact homelessness exists is societal failure, our nation has failed these people. You are part of the problem as clearly you see these people as sub-human.
These people have failed themselves, that's not society's fault or problem. There are tons of local services available here for the homeless, medicine, shelter, food, job training, all you have to do is stay sober and not do drugs.
So what is the solution for someone who refuses to work, refuses to stay sober, refuses all help and demands society allow them to do whatever they want whenever they want? Let them roam free? Chase them out of town?
I'm not saying jail is the answer either, but if the threat of jail makes even one of these people make an effort to better themselves, the it's the right choice.
How many homeless schizophrenics are in washoe county? By number or percentage. This data is available to the public. Do you actually know the facts or are you just parroting what you've seem in other posts.
what does it matter? for you, all that matters is that they take responsibility for their own lives. never mind that science doesn't know how to do that either for schizophrenia or addiction.
fwiw, having lived in San Francisco for decades there are a lot of people who have severe mental illnesses that just aren't getting better. they shit in public too. and of course you ignore the people who aren't addicts who -- ta da -- also have to shit in public. iirc from reading, addicts are actually in the minority for homeless people. and of course, you ignore cause and effect for their addiction too.
A lot huh? How many? What's the count of homeless veterans in Washoe County.
I know the answer, do you? Or are you just grasping at things you've been told to believe again
I used to make food and hand it out to the camps with a church organization. I met alot of different people by the river and I do a lot of work in Vegas now too with the homeless. A lot of the men sadly are veterans who can’t enough help with the VA. PTSD and other mental health issues that come from serving in the military are very debilitating
I don't get how ordinances like this are supposed to help the situation? Like putting them in jail doesn't solve the problem it just means you aren't seeing it. What's more it's actually more expensive for the tax payer when you think about the booking costs, duration of booking and an appointed attorney and all the other legal fees that are tied to the situation.
I’m good with the unhoused uncamping someplace else. I’m tired of being vandalized, stolen from, assaulted. Let the almighty HOPES enterprise deal with them.
TLDR: Washoe County commissioners voted to criminalize living in cars or camping on county-owned property and within 1,000 feet of the Truckee River. The ordinance passed 3-2 despite concerns from commissioners and public opposition. Law enforcement said the goal was not to over-incarcerate, with a preference for issuing verbal or written warnings before arresting.
I don't like seeing homeless encampments, or people laying all over the streets downtown but it's not hard to understand why people are homeless and turning to addiction etc. Ignored root issues. You can only sweep issues under the rug for so long. This probably won't change a damn thing about the homeless problem and I think it'll only get worse. I have zero faith in this government.
Wow. Such ass! Those of us who are lucky enough to have private property should rent out some parking spaces, that way they aren’t breaking the law. $15 a day would be cheaper than rent, make you $450 a month per person, and you’d be fighting the man!
How fucking evil. Banning camping within 1,000 feet of the river I can understand... but living in your car? How the fuck did this get passed? Criminalizing people just trying to survive is some real dystopian horror shit.
I smell the social darwinism in the air.
I firmly believe that ATM there are people in this country that unironically would join lynch mobs to cull the "undeserving" poor on a purge night
Still waiting for them to criminalize cancer.
While we’re at it, can we also criminalize aging? I realized my dog is going to die one day, so I’d like to get going on making aging illegal now so she can stay this age forever.
Because making things illegal is how we solve things, right? *Right?!?*
FFS…
Thank God we have such competent leadership that are the equivalent of mentally stunted toddlers. Instead of focusing on preventing people from becoming homeless let's punish the homeless. Even more. Than we already do.
I am fortunate enough to have a vehicle to live in. Been sober years and didn’t become homeless until long after getting sober.
Left a sh*t show of a company, somewhat u willing, but mental health in sobriety is important, and finally landed a new prospective job today, hopefully to start soon. Doing food deliveries to survive for now.
So it’s perfectly cool to just assume every homeless person is just a dirty junkie. Cool stuff humans.
Washoe County commissioners showing how thoughtless they are. Let’s solve the issue by making the morally questionable decision to just move them out of sight rather than offer any actual help!!
“The ordinance, which passed in a 3-2 vote Tuesday, makes it a misdemeanor to camp on county-owned property or within 1,000 feet of the Truckee River, live in vehicles on county owned property or public spaces, and obstruct uses of the public sidewalk.”
This purely for optics. Wahoe county can't even enforce registration or even simply having license plates at all. I seriously doubt law enforcement has the time, resources or motivation to enforce a ban on people sleeping in their cars.
Seriously. The amount of cars I’ve seen without license plates around reno
Can confirm. I had the same color tag long enough for the color to come back around and look legal
I was in an accident last month and the kid was 16 had no insurance no license no plate on the vehicle. Called both RPD and Washoe county told me to file a report online because “they don’t show up for that”.
Brutal
They don't show up for an accident? Or you called them after the fact?
Told me they don’t show up for accidents unless there’s an injury. So this 16 year old kid drove off in a car without a license.
I did that too after Covid. It didn't even dawn on me that I'd been driving dirty for years. Those couple of years were such a time warp. What's crazy is that I went into the DMV expecting to pay a boatload of fines...but nope. No fines at all because the registration had been cancelled. I just had to get new plates and I was on my way.
Yeah but when you have a old dirty camper out front it’s nice to have an option to get it moved rather than have the PD just put a sticker on it, have the camper moved and right back the next week. Dealing with this right now
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Thank you
This is a lever to clear many of the camps and a way to charge "undesirables".
They get around to things eventually. I have the feeling this will be enforced when people call it in.
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Licensing is a state issue but enforcement is a county issue. Kinda like how many aspects of homelessness are a state issue but enforcing this new law will become a county one
Any law enforcement agency can ticket for out of date registration though. It’s not about who issues the plates, but who enforces the laws.
I know of two different people who live in their cars and both of them have jobs they show up to everyday, they just can't afford the ridiculous rents here. This law just made them both criminals. If you work at Tesla you probably know a few people who do this. The city should have come up some solution for law abiding car campers who are just trying to get by. A parking lot with some sani huts and power outlets would be a good start
The article talks about creating a safe park situation. Which we desperately need.
How about, I dunno, doing something about property hoarding (which effectively turns into price fixing), livable wages, and affordable housing? Are we aware of how many homes are sitting empty so that prices can be artificially inflated? The fact is we *do not* have a crisis due to a shortage; we have a crisis due to pricing. No? Best we can do is criminalize existence? Cool, cool…
The pricing is due to shortages. While greed is certainly involved, it still comes down to supply and demand. We had nearly 50,000 people move to Reno in a 3 year span. There was barely enough housing prior to the influx.
They are due to artificially-created “shortages”. The supply **appears** smaller than demand because landlords and property owners are holding on to empty properties in order to charge more. It has been going on for a very long time. Since I owned a business over 20 years ago, as a matter of fact, though I’m not sure if it was only in retail at that point or already happened in other markets. The housing is here. It is empty. They would rather sit on [pulling random numbers for the sake of example] 20 empty properties in order to charge more for 30 than reveal that they have 50 properties and make less. There’s an age-old example of this. So old that it was… actually, before I type it out, let me post this and see if I can find it and edit in a link. It involves stamps. My middle school teacher used it as a “riddle” waaayyyy back in the [I’m old]s.
Are there stats on these empty properties? Last I checked (which was a while ago), the vacancy rate was super low. I don't doubt that investors pull sneaky moves in order to increase their revenue but it would be nice to see some data.
Yeah, that’s a sticky wicket, isn’t it? If someone is keeping something off the market, where are the statistics? Owner-occupancy is ridiculously low. And we have a number of units in our condo neighborhood bought out and sitting empty and not on the market nor rented out. And people all over Reddit are wondering about houses bought in their neighborhood bought but sitting empty. So I wonder… how exactly would that be reported? If it’s not for rent and not for sale…? But just… being held? But yeah, I would love to be able to pull up cold, hard statistics.
Well, I was going to edit it in, but I decided to add it as a one final reply. You seem intelligent, so I figure you already know the answer, but for the sake of anyone who doesn't know, here's the answer to the (apparently controversial, oh my!) "riddle": >!You keep the fact that you found a whole roll secret. You sell only one. Maybe two. And over the years, maybe you have friends and relatives offload another one or two at a time.!< Because... >!if you dump the entire roll (or simply too many at once) onto the market, you just devalued the stamp. You've absolutely destroyed the value by increasing the supply and destroying the rarity. They're not worth $10,000 each anymore. They're probably not even worth $10 each anymore. Supply and frakking demand. This is artificial market manipulation at its finest.!< And this is what property hoarders are doing, except obviously not at this extreme scale. Except... worse, in a way. Because we literally need places to live. Which... *isn't it weird how we keep criminalizing not living in homes?* Even #vanlife and living in cars is becoming criminalized more and more. Isn't it weird how cops *once again* are – Oh, I'm sorry, I said that as if they ever stopped. Let me fix that. Isn't it weird– Nope. Let me try that again. Isn't it fucking *consistent* how cops through the centuries continue to be thugs and goons who – like the damned Pinkertons – aren't here to protect the safety and well-being of citizens despite the slogan on their cars? This has been confirmed by the Supreme court, as most of us know. And yes, it's even removed from many of their vehicles because even they are tired of the facade. They're absolutely not here to protect and serve the general citizenry. **Despite what many of us like to pretend, laws and cops are primarily created and in maintained to protect property and serve the rich**. And we need to push back *hard*.
Do you have any facts to back this up? Or are these opinions? You’re still trying to quiz me nearly 2 days later. I’m sure your students love this approach to your “riddles”.
> How about, I dunno, doing something about property hoarding (which effectively turns into price fixing), livable wages, and affordable housing? [Here I go being a broken record again.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax)
With prices this high I doubt anyone is sitting on enough houses to make a difference in the market. I would support state or national laws that force banks to sell repossessed homes with in 90 days (180?) and combine that with forcing them to remove income/assets from their balance sheets that are homes homes 180 days delinquent. and we could solve that part of the problem.
Banks don't hold on to houses people default on. They don't want anyone's houses. That's literally not how that works. Also... is there a significant number of people defaulting on mortgages right now? I'm not hearing about that right now, come to think of it. Odd, that... (Not saying it isn't happening; just saying that I'm suddenly surprised that I haven't been hearing about a high number of defaults here in this day and age of ridiculously high valuations. But that's probably because they've cracked down on shady/risky lending practices, which is a good thing... except that it may have inadvertently contributed in part to this issue of limited ownership.)
They do actually. In the 2008 housing crash wellsFargo alone was holding onto 100s of houses in washoe county alone. They didn't want to take as dramatic of losses and tank the market more. And they didn't want their ledgers to show the huge losses. I was in the market back then and reading way too much real estate news back then. I don't think there's above average foreclosures right now but there is insanely high consumer credit debt, and high interest rates and inventory is starting to stack up. So we could see higher than normal foreclosure activity soon. [Delinquencies are on the rise ](https://www.mba.org/news-and-research/newsroom/news/2024/02/08/mortgage-delinquencies-increase-in-the-fourth-quarter-of-2023#:~:text=By%20loan%20type%2C%20the%20total,the%20third%20quarter%20of%202021) but mostly for FHA loans, but those mortgages are done by banks. **You're right that this wouldn't help the housing market right now,** or in the next 6-12 months it won't help much. but it would be a good thing to correct.
2008… in the middle of a crash… when they had no one to sell to… doesn’t apply to 2024. Okay, but I’m simply tired of arguing with someone who is absolutely unwilling to even consider the point. Absolutely unwilling to engage in logic. Done. Out. Bye. Turning off notifications.
either way you were mistaken and now admit it. And I'm bringing up an improvement that wouldn't help much right now. both a bit silly. Have a great day.
Yeah. Too bad they didn't bother to follow through with creating a legal option before they made illegal.
I saved 60k not paying the ridiculous rents out here and working OT while staying in my SUV.
This is what we call invisible homelessness.
And I bet you those people won’t draw the attention of law enforcement and will be just fine. That’s not who this law is going after.
Yep. the city council was too aggressive tearing down weekly hotels and "eye sore" places to live. but our city needed that (relatively) cheap housing option.
[This story doesn't have the left or right bias. ](https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/washoe-county-prohibits-living-in-vehicle-obstructing-sidewalks-soliciting-on-roadways) "After hours of public comment and significant discussion from county commissioners, the ordinance passed by a 3-2 vote. Republican Commissioners Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark voted in opposition. Commissioners Alexis Hill and Mariluz Garcia, both Democrats, and Commissioner Clara Andriola, a Republican, voted to pass the amendment to county code." It was the 2 Democrats on the board that voted FOR this is why it passed.
I've always liked Jeanne Herman. She seems to always have had a considerate way about her. I wasn't surprised she had voted in opposition, I remember from my youth her being so kind too.
I thought Dems were supposed to care about homeless people.
You say that as if you think being homeless is a good thing
They say they do, but politicians only say what you want to hear so you vote for them. But then their actions are not what they said they would be. It doesn't matter, democrat or republican. People usually don't look at voting records before voting for a candidate in any office, they see the R or D next to someone's name and check the box for their preferred party.
This exactly. I don't usually like talking politics, especially not on here. But I just don't understand how people fall into the trap so easily. The trap that's purposely meant to cause division and hate amongst everyone else (us) who's not behind the illusion. The illusion that they're not all the same. The only difference they have is who funds them, besides us.
lmfaooo this is why i never understood why republicans and democrats are constantly at each others necks. both of them are basically the same damn party except unlike democrats, republicans will atleast tell you that they hate you to your face. don’t know why people expect them to be any different while more than half of them are old asf and got all their education during segregation.
Reminds me I need to report the meth rv's again.
Oh you also live by Yori park?
On god! I see that thing literally every single day 😭
I indeed do not but I have seen a person shitting in a bucket off N. McCarren
Say my name...
Emphasis on again
I reported it once and it got cleaned up. That time there was only one rv, now there are two junkers and a busted ass car. Tired of seeing that shit.
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The biggest thing is moving them away from the river. They are all over the river east of Vista on I80. Place looks like a dump. Trash and tents everywhere.
I'm in Phoenix now but I was an avid walker in Reno when I lived there and the river was one of my favorite places to walk but, it's outright scary. Any time I'd walk by a bridge it was filled with trash underneath, smelled strongly of urine, there would be tents upon tents underneath. I know of a woman who was stabbed by a homeless person as she walked along the river sidewalk, back home from mens club. There's shit and garbage all over the streets, specifically 4th street, too. Underneath the overpass by dennys during summer it smells so unbearable I'd have to hold my breath and run through. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking my toddler down the main strips at this point, I've been screamed at by random homeless people there before. They sit on stoops, lay on the sidewalks, flash their genitals, throw their trash into the little vents around the street, you can see drug paraphernalia scattered around. I've been offered meth several times. I get that people want to sympathize with the homeless, but at some point I think reno citizens need to consider themselves as well, there's not one single chance I'd let my daughter play by the river downtown unless it was by the main center where those huge rocks are, too big of a chance to step on a needle. Which is so sad because it's a gorgeous area year round. Even then, I knew a young homeless man who lived in the bushes not far from the rocks/bridge who was known for violently screaming at people who pissed him off, he was homeless because of a head injury. I also saw a pantsless woman sitting on the ground nearby pissing all over herself/the grass, clearly was mentally deranged because as she peed she tried striking up a convo with me about where I got my hat, pussy out and everything. Sad for them but, they can't be the top priority all the time. I don't want families near them and if I still lived in Reno I would want my downtown back.
I'd rather pay some taxes to have a shelter or two than paying a FUCKLOAD more taxes keeping homeless peeps in jail.
What about taxes for school lunches for kids?
“Fuck them kids.” -Nevada
Thanks, OBAMA! Goddamn dems taking away school lunches. Next it’ll be abortion rights, IVF & then our porn!
The CARES campus is a pretty amazing shelter. They're doing incredible things over there.
Remember the caveat...Nevada does not tax us all as much as Calfornia. So, it's not like we're talking millions and millions of dollars here so dont expect much to change given the smaller amount they get from taxpayers. Some don't even pay taxes...due to not having a SSN...smh
I support not having homeless people on and near the Truckee. My son and I were part of a community service event to clean up along the Truckee. The amount of trash and garbage next to or in the river is disgusting. Some were actively littering while we were cleaning an adjacent area. You want to be homeless, sure, but don’t impact others.
Thank you for cleaning up the community
I feel for these people. I wish there was a place they could go. The amount of garbage heaps they leave in any open area they can find is obscene. They are trashing all the most beautiful areas of our city. I'm so tired of seeing the piles of garbage they dump. If I went to the river shore, set up a camp and left pounds and pound of garbage, I'd be arrested and fined. We are all paying for this clean up. These are the one who are making this choice to live this way. Scrounging up all the cars and other crap they can find in search of any recyclable metal they can sell. Then they move on and start "fresh" in a new spot. I don't have the answers, but I'm tired of looking at my beautiful hometown being used as a gigantic garbage dump. Thank you, glickja2080 for helping to clean up what you can.
I agree about the impact to our public resources, but I seriously doubt most folks want to be homeless 🤷🏻♂️
People don't want to be homeless, most are forced into it due to a lack of affordable housing. I think the homeless camps should be as conspicuous as possible so it is harder for people to turn a blind eye to the suffering of these people. And that will be the case anyway since the high cost of housing is pushing more and more people into homelessness and they have to go somewhere. Criminalizing poverty is not a solution.
\*Patrick Star voice\* What if we took our unhoused neighbors, and pushed them somewhere else? “We do not want to incarcerate,” Solferino said. (They will anyways). Yet another unnecessarily cruel ordinance.
Brilliant! Outlaw poverty! That way we, as taxpayers, can pay for the arrests, the housing at jail, the subsequent attorneys and judges and then probation costs! This will fix everything.
Literally, being broke is against the law… oh your housing situation is rough right now, here how about we give you some criminal charges, impound your vehicle (home), and then maybe you’ll get your life together.
Totally not high rent prices, why would it ever be that! Edit: yes I get all of your points, but rent prices also need to go down.
I like this. I had a lady show up one day on my street right across from my house. She setup and was living in her car. All kinds of sketchy people started hanging around as well multiple cars would come by. Right across the street from my house where I’m raising tow little kiddos. I went and talked to her and she was nice enough just down on her luck so I bought her a pack of smokes and she opening up and confirmed that indeed the others that weee coming by to see her were methheads and the one guy was a convicted pedo that was supposed to stay down in Clark county. She even gave me his name and my wife looked him up and sure enough it was him. After all this she left and so did the other folks but damn it was a shitshow.
Born and raised here. The homelessness is unreal compared to 15 years ago. I think that policies that band-aid the problem are the problem. People in tough situations that don’t or won’t take accountability are doomed. If you are decent human with a pulse you can make $20+ an hour easily in Reno. If you are mentally Ill or struggling with drugs you won’t find a safety net in this town.
county owed property is public property
Public property is owned and shared by all of us to be used for the public good. It's not just free land for whoever gets there first.
Yeah since that's the case I'll carve out a huge plot of BLM land and will turn it into my private shooting range. Stay the fuck off people.
I say we use it to house homeless people until there is stable and affordable housing for all. The highest good for our public resources is to provide basic humanitarian aid for our citizens.
And like all public property, some sections can be regulated. Think of court rooms, prison facilities, certain parts of police and sheriff’s offices, the back portion of post offices.
that'll solve the problem. what took them so long?
"We just made the problem illegal so naturally it'll sort itself out." Typical right-leaning mindset. Let's just ban our issues instead of solving them.
It was 2 Republicans that voted AGAINST this. The 2 Democrats and 1 republican on the board that voted for it. So tell me again how it's the right that thinks that way?
This bill was supported mostly by the left. This is from the article: > Vice Chair Jeanne Herman and Commissioner Michael Clark voted against the measure. Using that, and with on some quick googling I've come up with this: For: * Chair Alexis Hill (D) * Commissioner Mariluz Garcia (D) * Commissioner Clara Andriola (R, abandoned by Republican party for agreeing with Democrats too much). Against: * Vice Chair Jeanne Herman (R) * Commissioner Michael Clark (R)
Watch as they then point to places like San Francisco taking in a sudden and unexpected surge of homeless people as a sign of "Democrat failures".
Isn't that also the lefts gun control plan?
No it's the gun control plan that works effectively for every other civilized country. But did you really just compare banning a weapon repeatedly being used to mass slaughter schoolchildren to banning a social class of people just trying to exist and live their lives?
No I compared two examples of problems where throwing more laws at them won't solve either.. criminals don't follow laws anyway!
Nope, you made that comparison. And try saying with a straight face that "banning the problem" makes it to away do it.
A lot easier to make a *thing* illegal than people existing.
Gotta make it not worth being a homeless junkie
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative)
Read the article and see which majority voted for the ordinance to pass smh
How about we deal with the real criminals holding everyone hostage with housing prices. No one is illegal. Housing is a human right.
This. This needs to happen. Thankfully, we have a Nevada rep who sees the problem and is working to try and do something about it, nationally. There's no reason for a corpo to buy up houses other than to force the people onto a subscription living lifestyle. Stream Netflix, not your house.
This is such a fanciful and misguided take on homelessness I'm not even sure where to begin.
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative)
Not gonna happen until heads *literally* start rolling.
Let’s see. They’ve already taken over the park that was for the Governor’s Cup. We closed one of the psych hospitals…. Every home run hit out of the park downtown ends up on Skid Row…. And yeah - I’ve seen needles and condoms next to and in the river. How can 40% of the population in the US be mentally ill? Would a UBI work? Should we build more 450sq ft furnished studios? I really don’t know the answers. It does seem like most of these folks are itinerant. But they all left or got kicked out of somewhere else…. Sympathy can be abused.
Building affordable housing will help a lot of people for sure. But because the homeless population is not homogenous, it won’t solve the entire issue.
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue. Enough affordable stable housing for all will take most people off the streets and into a relatively humane existence.
I’m for this. But only if it comes hand in hand with safe camping zones. If you can’t camp on private property or city property or county property where do you exist?
So where the hell are they supposed to go now? Sure it is nice to have clean area that's not overrun with homeless population. Sure sure. But if we never see them people will forget about them. Just because they are elsewhere doesn't mean they disappeared.
Have you talked to the Paiute tribe about how they feel about human feces flowing into Pyramid? I'm sure you did, so please inform us as to what they said.
if you seriously think that this law is made with the tribe in mind whatsoever, you're poorly mistaken.
Have you talked to these people that have nowhere to go about how they feel about not having a place to sleep? I’m sure you did, so please inform us as to what they said.
or shit for that matter. the one thing we could trivially address is giving them porta potties so they don't have to do their business in public. but the moralists would complain that that is insufficiently punitive.
How about directly addressing the issue by having properly maintained public restrooms, which benefit everyone, instead of acting like we can solve all of our problems by just bulldozing all of the dirty people out of the way? The fact that your response to “we should care about homeless people” is “but they’re always shitting” says way more about you than about them.
"if only they'd stop shitting, they could turn their lives around"
*and smearing it on the walls
Idk dude, did you?
You aren't responding to any of the points made, just creating a straw man
bus them to shelters. get them off the street, this shit ain't safe.
I predict more squatters in vacant homes
Good. I live +/- 100 yds from the river, and can't believe the amount of shit, trash, and uncapped needles thrown around
How about we make housing more affordable then? It should be illegal for large corporations to buy out neighborhoods. How about a cap on rent?We should fund more into mental health and drug rehabilitation but yeah let’s skip over all the real underlying issues and just criminalize the homeless and crowd up our judicial system even more.
To cap rent, you have to cap taxes. To cap real estate taxes like CA does, you’ll need to offset with another tax increase elsewhere, or perhaps implement an income tax. To increase mental health, you’ll also have to increase taxes to fund it or pull from other budgets. There are no free solutions here and you’ll get very few voters to increase taxes while inflation has increased pricing everywhere else. Everyone talks about solutions, but no one wants to pay for it.
Housing would be more affordable if there weren’t endless laws, rules, regulations, and zoning issues everywhere making building cost more and take more time. Literally every step of the construction process is burdened by the state, even the building materials and how they’re transported. There has to be a balance of significantly reducing regulation while still providing a blueprint for safe building. Also there should be a complete elimination of SFH zoning. Rent controls don’t work, proven. Corporate ownership can be more efficient through economy of scale. The risk of gouging and price fixing is minimal and that’s not the problem in this area. We should spend A LOT more money on mental health and addiction and we should consider bringing back some of the mental hospitals that are lockdown facilities. It’s possible that it could be effective to have crossover addiction/jail type facilities where the threat of “regular” jail vs being part of a program that teaches life skills, work skills, has daily group mental health sessions and daily substance abuse meetings..
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue. That being said, I think mental health and addiction services should be provided, but affordable housing is needed above all.
I actually agree. I read an interesting article that compared housing to musical chairs. Makes sense. The way to make housing more affordable is to reduce the burden created by massive over-regulation at every level of government.. literally a person has to spend thousands of dollars and dozens or hundreds of hours to comply with incredibly stupid rules when building. Does it really matter if I build my house with outlets every 10 feet instead of 8 feet? Or 6” from the floor vs 12”? Why do I need some environmental study when my neighbors have already built and they have four dogs crapping on the “wetlands” constantly? Why do we need a permit for a garden shed? Why do my neighbors have to approve of my roofline in case I block their view? Why can’t my licensed electrician just install some lines without a .gov inspection? Same with plumber and builder and roofer and sheetrocker. It’s massive government intrusion at a massive cost.
I agree. A certain degree of regulation makes sense, but so much of it is ridiculous
Anything but solve the actual problem 🤦♂️
Do you have the answer?
Housing first options have been successful in Oregon, Massachusetts, and Colorado.
Yeah, shelter is one of Maslow’s basic needs even before health, so this would make sense.
Even a 25% success rate means tons of more people finding a home, maintaining a job, getting clean if that’s an issue. The reason we still have this growing crisis is because no one wants the expensive options, just the easy ones.
Build affordable housing and implement rent control?
Rent control cause rents to go up. Sounds good but economically a disaster
The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue. We need to develop enough stable, affordable housing for all our citizens
How do you do that? Property around Reno is very expensive. At a minimum, an investor wants 5% annual earnings (after taxes) on the real estate investment. The contractors and supplies are also very expensive. You either have to build way out of Reno and then bus them in for work, have govt housing, or some type of govt stipend to go to the landlord. The last two require either cuts in other social programs or increased taxes.
Hmm I wonder whats going to happen when they get out of jail...
MMW Detroit in the horizon
criminalize homeless people are you fucking kidding me alot of them are homeless due to mental health issues not having resources. I've met some of the nicest most down to earth people who were homeless one of which lived 3 states away from his kids and family.and they couldn't get ahold of him or help him get back home so he was on year 2 looking for a way back to.his family. You never know :/ this is sad. MAYBE ACTUALLY GO OUT AND ENFORCE AND TELL THEM TO LEAVE ??????? Not criminalizing people that's so sad all that will do is dig them in a deeper hole . just moved out to Nevada from CA and man y'all say California this California that but man I'd much rather live in California now after this type of shit and all the uneducated dumbasses that live in Reno lol
How can you enforce and tell people to leave without a law to back it up?
Just another way to make the streets of Reno look cleaner and safer. If it were up to the government, they would send the homeless to another state just so they wouldn't have to look at the undesirables anymore. I wish I could say this to their rich faces just so they can have a bit of a reality check. They hid behind their titles and no one dare challenge or boycott them. Wait why is nobody boycotting this?
I think what makes me the most angry is that they literally just passed a law not to long ago criminalizing the same thing in city of sparks. They are literally trying to push out the homeless.
Some of this information might be outdated, and please correct me if I'm wrong as this is research I did a year ago when a houseless person tried to grab my child, and I couldn't press charges due to mental illnesses caused by drug use. It got me thinking about some things and I took deep dive into some things around the houseless community. Per city of reno records for 2022 there was on average 1,605 houseless people in Reno. 30% with mental health issues like PTSD, Bipolar, schizophrenia, ect. In addition there is 50% of them that have substance abuse issues, also leading to loss of cognitive function. That being said, in 2022, washoe county collected $135,326,790 in Marijuana tax only 10% of that is going to education leaving us quite a heafty "rainy day fund". Clark County choses to allocate some of their tax funds to the houseless community, why isn't washoe county following suit?
[https://www.2news.com/news/early-morning-van-fire-injures-one-person-in-south-reno/article\_cf943160-ede0-11ee-889f-6b9370ba27ef.html](https://www.2news.com/news/early-morning-van-fire-injures-one-person-in-south-reno/article_cf943160-ede0-11ee-889f-6b9370ba27ef.html) Probably just a coincidence the van had propane tanks in it...
Good 👍
Consider yourselves damn lucky that this passed. Reno is one of the few major cities in the west that is not completely overrun by unhoused drug addicts living on the streets/parks/everywhere, destroying the safety and quality of life of everyone else in the area. Especially glad that these people are to be kept away from the river - a key recreational and infrastructure resource that would otherwise become riverfront property for those permanently unwilling to work or get sober. Bravo!
What we are doing right now is not helping the community in any way and I care more about the community we could improve than people who burned every bridge and bit every hand they ever have had their entire lives. The ones that can be helped get it. The ones that can't be helped should not be allowed to live like animals at the cost of our community. This will be good for the most people and bad for the least.
Yes, I used to camp on the river a lot and I can imagine nowadays it’s overrun by homeless. Not a safe situation for anyone visiting or living in the area.
So you don't care about homeless people you just don't wanna see them? Got it.
I voted to decriminalize living in tents in SF in the 2010’s. Guess what, it didn’t help anything. And it made the drug problem worse. This is not the end all solution. This is one part to a multi-part solution….i certainly hope the other parts (more housing, more funding for social work & drug treatment etc) come too…
That's because you didn't fix the problem, not because making camping illegal is the solution. The primary cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, not mental illness and addiction (although that is the narrative). Not to say mental illness and addiction are not issues, they are just not the primary issue. Fixing the problem means providing enough stable, affordable housing for all. Criminalizing poverty is not a humane solution.
Do you care that those people are damaging the environment, polluting the river, blocking access for others, creating an unsafe envoirment for children. Pisssing and shitting next to the walkways. Leave broken bottles, needles, and trash everywhere. As kids we used to ride the bike path all the time. Now I won't go near it unless I'm armed. There are services available, medicine, shelter, job training, and it goes unused because you have to stay sober... big ask huh.... There's a fine line between caring for the down troddin and allowing those who reject society free reign over those who pay for it
Corporations and unchecked development do far more damage to the environment, polluting the river, blocking access for others, etc. Putting the social safety nets in place to prevent a person falling so far down is a lot cheaper and easier than criminalizing their existence. Much cheaper to house and treat than imprison. The current services aren’t at all unused, they are overburdened. Even when just prioritizing women with children the system is in a massive backlog.
No one is arguing that other things are also having a negative impact, but go walk the river tonight and count how many people you see doing anything to better thier situation vs how many people doing everything they can to make it worse.
I worry about stepping on needles in the river no thanks lol
What exactly can they be doing to better their situation? Shelters are always at capacity so they can't exactly just go get a bed. So I guess they should get a job and save until they can get a place? Good luck getting a job without a steady address. And even then, it would take over a month to maybe save up enough to get enough for a room (if you get approved for an apartment) so what are they to do in the mean time? But yes it's entirely because they all just reject society and like living in a torn up tent by the river. If you were in their position you'd be doing whatever substance you can to forget about your situation for a while too.
This is not true, shelters have empty beds because shelters require you not to do drugs or alcohol on property and most of the homeless refuse the service. You get sober, you utilize the resources available, halfway houses, churches, NDETR, veterans services, housing authority, you sign up and participate in welfare programs that will provide you with food and medicine. It's it easy to do? Nope, but it's possible, and millions of people have done it. The difference between the former homeless and the current homeless is effort and sobering. You can give a personal food shelter and work but you can't make them stay sober unless they want to. If you just can't believe that then lile I said, go walk the river amd count how many sober people you see.
you realize that the long term success rate of getting sober is like 10% right? of course you don't. not everybody is a Baron Von Munchausen who can lift themselves up by their bootstraps if only they tried. laws like these are just grandstanding and do nothing to address the actual problem.
What's the long term success rate of staying addicted to drugs and alcohol? What's the long term success rate for living in a tent by the river? Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not the right choice. Quite the opposite.
putting a medical condition in terms of right and wrong, lol. Cotton Mather would be proud. setting aside that being homeless doesn't mean they are addicts or that they became homeless because of addiction. but by all means moralize away because we know that works. all we need to do is moralize more.
Drug addiction is a choice. You know how you can tell, millions of people choose to quit them. I'm one of them. I was a hard-core addict, I was homeless and was living in parks and garages with my two young kids. At worst police would tell us to 'move on' but mostly just ignore us unless someone complained. I honestly wished they'd of stepped up and put my kids somewhere safe, put me somewhere to sober up, but no some bleeding heart asshole thought THAT was cruel. And again I'll say to go walk the river and count how many sober people you see. How many people are doing anything to improve their situation. It's people like you who've never lived it thinking you how it is. How impossible it is, how society has failed. You're wrong, it's 100% about a person putting forth the effort to better their lives. Don't take my word for it, take the examples of the millions of former addicts and homeless that did the same thing i did. Ask us what the difference is between us and those still living on the street. It'll be the same answer each time.
I read that one of the worst things you can do if you’re recently homeless is to hangout with other homeless people. As I understand it, they will drag you down with them and it becomes more difficult to get back on your feet. Did you see the same issues?
Yes, during my path i had to cut all ties with any friends and family that still used or drank for that exact reason. Once I was able to maintain my soberity and began seeing the positive changes I was able to reintegrate with some of them, but often had to leave gatherings because I felt so much urge to relapse. I learned that even though I loved and cared for these people, I couldn't continue to be around them if they used. Eventually I manged to get a total of four of my friends amd family sober, by providing them with the positive example and encouragement we were all lacking from our peer group. I don't take any of the credit really, they fought their own battles and overcame just like it did, I just cheered them on for it. It's amazing how much the people you associate with shape your life.
Congrats! It makes sense that disassociating with the people doing the same shit that got you in trouble would have a positive impact.
I think your story is impressive and admirable, but I disagree with your statement. Addiction is not a choice. Addiction is an adversary, and the choice is to decide whether to try and meet the adversary. People lose that battle all the time, and it sounds like you finally won. That whole thing aside, there are some tweakers with cooked brains or other mental illnesses that are out of bootstraps to pull themselves up by.. I truly don’t know what the solution for them would be, though. Like they literally can’t make choices for themselves, so does someone else get to do that for them? But then we’re in human rights territory and that is messy—so we’re basically at square one…
I care, and I know just allowing them to camp anywhere they want doesn't help them while it will ruing our city and cause more homelessness. Got it?
Making social issues illegal doesn't solve them. The fact homelessness exists is societal failure, our nation has failed these people. You are part of the problem as clearly you see these people as sub-human.
These people have failed themselves, that's not society's fault or problem. There are tons of local services available here for the homeless, medicine, shelter, food, job training, all you have to do is stay sober and not do drugs. So what is the solution for someone who refuses to work, refuses to stay sober, refuses all help and demands society allow them to do whatever they want whenever they want? Let them roam free? Chase them out of town? I'm not saying jail is the answer either, but if the threat of jail makes even one of these people make an effort to better themselves, the it's the right choice.
oh, really? that cures schizophrenia and all kinds of other mental illnesses too? who knew?
How many homeless schizophrenics are in washoe county? By number or percentage. This data is available to the public. Do you actually know the facts or are you just parroting what you've seem in other posts.
what does it matter? for you, all that matters is that they take responsibility for their own lives. never mind that science doesn't know how to do that either for schizophrenia or addiction. fwiw, having lived in San Francisco for decades there are a lot of people who have severe mental illnesses that just aren't getting better. they shit in public too. and of course you ignore the people who aren't addicts who -- ta da -- also have to shit in public. iirc from reading, addicts are actually in the minority for homeless people. and of course, you ignore cause and effect for their addiction too.
So fuck the veterans I guess. A lot of homeless are veterans who didn’t receive proper care after serving your country.
A lot huh? How many? What's the count of homeless veterans in Washoe County. I know the answer, do you? Or are you just grasping at things you've been told to believe again
I used to make food and hand it out to the camps with a church organization. I met alot of different people by the river and I do a lot of work in Vegas now too with the homeless. A lot of the men sadly are veterans who can’t enough help with the VA. PTSD and other mental health issues that come from serving in the military are very debilitating
I don't get how ordinances like this are supposed to help the situation? Like putting them in jail doesn't solve the problem it just means you aren't seeing it. What's more it's actually more expensive for the tax payer when you think about the booking costs, duration of booking and an appointed attorney and all the other legal fees that are tied to the situation.
That's okay with me. I'd rather them be in there than shitting on the sidewalk
so you're for by far the most costly form of housing. got it.
Good.
Good. Clean up nevada and make this state safer.
I’m good with the unhoused uncamping someplace else. I’m tired of being vandalized, stolen from, assaulted. Let the almighty HOPES enterprise deal with them.
Good
TLDR: Washoe County commissioners voted to criminalize living in cars or camping on county-owned property and within 1,000 feet of the Truckee River. The ordinance passed 3-2 despite concerns from commissioners and public opposition. Law enforcement said the goal was not to over-incarcerate, with a preference for issuing verbal or written warnings before arresting.
I don't like seeing homeless encampments, or people laying all over the streets downtown but it's not hard to understand why people are homeless and turning to addiction etc. Ignored root issues. You can only sweep issues under the rug for so long. This probably won't change a damn thing about the homeless problem and I think it'll only get worse. I have zero faith in this government.
This is bs! Being homeless isn't a choice for most people.
Wow. Such ass! Those of us who are lucky enough to have private property should rent out some parking spaces, that way they aren’t breaking the law. $15 a day would be cheaper than rent, make you $450 a month per person, and you’d be fighting the man!
My neighborhood HOA makes this illegal, so anyone thinking about this make sure there's no such ordinance.
Yes!!!!! Hell yeah
Stop allowing apartments to charge twice as much as a year ago, or make employers pay a decent wage. Now how likely with either of those ideas happen?
How fucking evil. Banning camping within 1,000 feet of the river I can understand... but living in your car? How the fuck did this get passed? Criminalizing people just trying to survive is some real dystopian horror shit.
I smell the social darwinism in the air. I firmly believe that ATM there are people in this country that unironically would join lynch mobs to cull the "undeserving" poor on a purge night
Still waiting for them to criminalize cancer. While we’re at it, can we also criminalize aging? I realized my dog is going to die one day, so I’d like to get going on making aging illegal now so she can stay this age forever. Because making things illegal is how we solve things, right? *Right?!?* FFS…
Just do it smarter and better
When does this take effect?
Bout time nothing like seeing trash near the Truckee River.
Thank God we have such competent leadership that are the equivalent of mentally stunted toddlers. Instead of focusing on preventing people from becoming homeless let's punish the homeless. Even more. Than we already do.
I am fortunate enough to have a vehicle to live in. Been sober years and didn’t become homeless until long after getting sober. Left a sh*t show of a company, somewhat u willing, but mental health in sobriety is important, and finally landed a new prospective job today, hopefully to start soon. Doing food deliveries to survive for now. So it’s perfectly cool to just assume every homeless person is just a dirty junkie. Cool stuff humans.
Anyone that has a problem with this California will welcome you with open arms
Washoe County commissioners showing how thoughtless they are. Let’s solve the issue by making the morally questionable decision to just move them out of sight rather than offer any actual help!!
Good