Hilary was residing at the Cares Campus when I met her this Winter.
“My experience has not been so lovely,” she said.
She filed discrimination charges with a local housing authority. She admits this with a small, nervous laugh. She trails off, asking how much of her story I’d like to know. She’s been trying to have her story heard for a long time.
Hilary has resided in Reno since 1984, briefly leaving to go to college. She returned to raise her now eight-year-old son by herself. That’s when she built her massage business. “I also was a goldsmith,” she says. “I traveled to Washington and I did jewelry repair once a month. I traveled back and forth and my folks helped me with my son.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic happened Hilary said her entire life collapsed.
“(It) slowly deteriorated my existence.” she said.
A car passes by as we sit on rocks outside of the Cares Campus. “Especially in this town… it’s been really awful.”
In April of 2020, Hilary says her Section 8 voucher was approved as part of COVID-19 relief programs. But then she says it was abruptly cut off. Around the same time, she says she received a note on her door saying they were raising her rent by $500. Hilary was facing approximately $2,400 due.
“At that point in time I was between vehicles-”
What sounds like a muscle car burbles along and she falls silent until it passes.
“-and so I didn’t have a vehicle and, oh my God, it was everything all at once.”
She let go of her massage business. This is when she turned to Amazon for a potential source of income.
Amazon promised her a $1,000 sign-on bonus. “It took them four months for them to get the background check. I have no idea why. They said it was because I moved a lot in my twenties. Which I did.” But when her background check was finalized, Hilary was already living on the streets.
She had her son stay with her mother.
“I’ve been homeless almost an entire year. This was my worst fear. I don’t know how I’m going to do this.” She began to cry. “I’ve been fighting. All that really matters is my son’s future. The three main things that matter are community, unity and agriculture. We are in a climate crisis. People are going to kill people because we do not live in unity at all. America is not united. We don’t live by the Ten Commandments.”
One of her friends Michael comes up to us to ask for a cigarette. “He’s got like twelve different personalities, God bless him,” she laughs; a more cheerful laugh.
She got a car again but then she says it was stolen. A woman involved in the theft asked Hilary to take her to a store where she, the thief, removed the key from the ignition. They went into the store. The thief “proceeded to fill a shopping cart with clothes and shoes and whatnot and bailed and took (the) car with her.”
Hilary says her car was returned to her “because I was also familiar with a lot of people on the street.” Problems didn't end there though.
“My catalytic converter was stolen out of it," she remembers. "From then on I don’t know who, what, how, when, why, where but I started having a lot of people follow me… in white vehicles. I was stalked out by what I think was human trafficking.”
We are interrupted by someone asking if she has a phone they can use. She replied “I don’t. I’m sorry. Mine’s dead.”
“I was at my friend’s house and kept seeing a signal. It was a light and it would turn on. A white car would go around me twice. This was still when my catalytic converter was still on. And then I sat in there and I saw a light flicker on again. And another white car encircled me twice. And about four different white cars encircled me. The fourth one was a humongous car with these really big, bright beams. Which was very unusual. I haven’t even seen cops have beams…”
My phone rings. I am on my way to meet a friend.
Our interview ends.
I email her about this article. Hilary replied and she seems to be okay. She didn't want to do a phone call though so there won't be follow up questions for the immediate future.