“It’s humbling. I came from Winnemucca. It’s hard. I had nowhere else to go. I was fighting with my sister in law and I had nowhere else to go. So a great woman bought me an Amtrak ticket, one way, to right here.
There's good people here, man, then just like anywhere else and there's bad people. No matter what situation, know what you're going through in life, stay humble. It won't last that long. I'm a Christian. So I believe in that, man, God gives his hardest situations and the hardest missions and hardest battles to the strongest.
I came here with just a suitcase and my backpack. The first day I was here, I was walking up and down, walking up down Fourth street, giving up my clothes to people, just paying it forward.
I don't really worry about [COVID-19]. It's terrible. I don't wear [a mask] unless I got to go in the store.
[At the tent shelter], there's a lot of elderly people here, veterans too. And it upsets me, you know?
My message to everybody, even the veterans, like I said, just be patient man. Just give it time. It says it's got to get worse before it gets better, I’m a firm believer of that. So right now we're at the worst of it, but it will get better in time.”
Marcus, Put on a Train and Finding the Big Tent Shelter in Reno
Marcus Stewart, 25, who has albinism and is legally blind, had been sleeping at the big tent shelter on East Fourth Street about a week when we met him. He said he moved from Winnemucca to Reno in August, but he says the sun here makes it hard for him, and he’s not sure what to do next. He’s originally from Oklahoma City, where he says he might try to get back to.