A Routine Keeps Her Busy and Sane
As the morning rush hour rumbles overhead, Diana listens to the radio as she prepares a cup of hot chocolate over a small campfire. She says she has been homeless for over 30 years. “You know, at this point in time in my life, especially with the way everything is in the world, it's just, I have a routine, it's easier,” she said.
Diana has been in Reno for a little over ten years. She enjoys the city but says the people make it hard to live here, saying that “being homeless, people are very judgmental.” A routine keeps her busy and her mind occupied.
Being hypoglycemic, Diana must eat every few hours and spends this money on food, batteries for her radio, trash bags, and other odds and ends. “I just wish sometimes there is a way I could show them what I get,” Diana said of people who give when she pandhandles. She pointed out that when she is panhandling, or “flying a sign” she tries to keep what she has purchased nearby so people can see she isn’t buying alcohol or drugs.
Diana enjoys being outside and finds comfort in knowing our ancestors existed for millennia living outdoors. “I just want to look at people and go, whoa, where do you think your ancestors used to live? You know, I mean, we didn't have houses and condominiums and all that forever, you know?”
She finds comfort in the rhythm of gathering supplies and keeping an organized camp. Her possessions were all bundled nicely in a few plastic totes that tuck away inside a large blue plastic rolling shipping container, the kind you might see holding luggage in the belly of an airplane.
Not Disneyland Though
“Go home and [be] with your parents and go to school,” Diana wants to tell the younger homeless people she meets. Having been homeless since she was “eleven and a half,” she says, she does not want the younger folks to live the way she does.
Living in Washington, north of Seattle, Diana briefly worked at a Gospel Mission helping the homeless. She finds it strange and somewhat offensive that “richer people in the world are taking camping to a different level where they buy camping stuff and then camp in their backyard. And it kind of feels like they're mocking our situation,” while their camping is glorified, and her survival camping is criminalized.
When asked about the upcoming general election, Diana says she is not a regular voter. Having voted in the past and seeing the results play out, like many Americans, she says she has become disillusioned with the political process.
She does not plan to vote this year, “and I know a lot of people get mad at that.” She believes that politicians do not care about people. “There's no for the people it's money [and] power,” she explained and believes the current president Donald Trump is “a businessman and we're not a business.” She does pay attention to politics by listening to the radio but believes government does nothing to help those most in need, “I don't have a desire to be part of that craziness.”
“I'm sorry for the other flyers that are irresponsible and drunken rude and pee on the highway and do all that other stupid stuff. I'm so sorry I cannot apologize for them enough. But not all of us are like that some of us are honestly just waking up everyday trying to survive trying to do what we've got to do and just come home,” Diana told Our Town Reno reporter Richie Bednarski. Photo by Scott King.
“We’re Not All Living Garbage”
Diana wants the community to know that not all panhandlers and those without stable shelter are parasites, as some people say to her face or on social media.
“That we're not all what you see by your eyes, we're not all living garbage we're not all you know uneducated, irresponsible lazy people. We’re good for a lot of us have good hearts.”
She is hopeful people can “look past the other people [who] are doing wrongs just like people look past wrongs in a regular community and see the people for who they are and maybe take the time to come talk to us. ”I'm not out there to try and make anybody's life difficult but I do want the community to know that there are those of us out there that are so very appreciative of their help and if it wasn't for them we wouldn't we wouldn't be able to live, so thank you."