Moving Day
As day broke on March 4th, Moriah, 19, was forced to pick up her belongings and move, as police went up and down the train tracks where she has been living and sleeping recently. She was told she would get a citation if she didn’t leave ahead of a planned cleanup later in the day, even though she says she didn’t get a required 24-hour notice.
The Sacramento native has been living in Reno for the past four years, and admits her living conditions on the train tracks weren’t ideal, but that she had no other options left.
“I'm frustrated. I'm stressed,” she said. “This is really stressful and a lot of us, specifically because this is our home. We build our home around us, you know? No, it's not the most hygienic at times, but that's because we don't have indoor plumbing, cooking, you know, stuff like that. So it's really frustrating because, well, they basically uplift us from where we're at, after we've gotten comfortable. And I've been here since November. “
Many said they didn’t get the above notice of the planned cleanup. Moriah said a previous spot she was staying at along the Truckee River was bulldozed down, with their belongings thrown away. Many said verbal notices for today’s cleanup did take place yesterday. The main Reno shelter is full with a waiting list, leaving fewer and fewer options to those without shelter.
No Place to Hide
“We want a place where we can go and be comfortable and have it our own place,” Moriah said. “So then we're not having to, you know, move around once a week, twice a week, you know, it's really frustrating. Reno in general treat the [homeless], like we're the lowest, like we're the bottom of the scale. Not all homeless are drug addicts. Not all are addicted to anything. I'm actually one of a few actually sober people out here, so I'm not dealing with that addiction,” she said.
Moriah says many of the homeless are former foster kids like herself or Veterans trying not to bother others.
Plenty of Reno police were out in force this morning along the train tracks. They didn’t help people move, just told them they needed to go as cleanup crews were on their way. Photo by Scott King.
Avoiding Shelters
“A lot of foster kids actually live out here because they [don’t] have the skills necessary to become participating members of society. Most homeless like the older homeless that you see, those are normally Veterans, people who've served for us. And this is how we treat them like utter garbage. Most of the tents that you see out under the side of the road or in places like this, we're trying to be out of sight, out of mind. So then the normal public won't see us. Some of us try and maintain the appearance that we're not homeless, you know? Yeah, I live in a tent, but I'm making the best of what I have… They've done it because they don't want Reno being seen as a homeless city. They want it to be this perfect little shiny place. And there's homeless everywhere, in a lot of places. You know, you'll see them with a lot of shopping carts. Some of us try not to have those shopping carts. “
ACLU also circulated handouts reminding the unsheltered of their rights.
Hardships of Being Unsheltered
“You don't have the ability to do laundry,” Moriah explained of the many difficulties of being on the streets permanently. “When it rains and snows out here, clothes get ruined. Everything gets ruined because there is no way to actually protect it.”
Like many others, Moriah doesn’t like shelters any more though, saying they are unsafe, and rampant with bedbugs and people with illnesses sleeping next to you. “And on top of that, they don't have enough space. They really don't,” she said.
She goes to food banks or St. Vincent’s for meals, but that sometimes means getting some of her possessions stolen. Instead of a cleanup, she would like to see help, such as people passing out socks, hand sanitizers and trash bags.
Cleanup crews arrived a few hours after day broke and the police’s early morning arrival.