Satisfied with the Temporary Big Tents on 4th Street
The Reno Event Center has officially closed in its role as a temporary shelter for the displaced community, seven months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced city officials to get creative in implementing social distancing guidelines at local shelters.
In its place, a Big Tents shelter has been built farther down on East 4th Street to serve as another temporary shelter for the near future. With the new Big Tents shelter and the opening of the Our Place campus this summer, the unsheltered community in Reno is finding itself spread out across a number of facilities to find support.
“What we've been doing since the beginning of the pandemic is pretty much continuing with social distancing requirements and everything like that,” Jon Humbert, City of Reno spokesman, said in a recent interview with Our Town Reno. “We've just changed locations from the Reno Event Center to the new temporary shelter farther down on Fourth Street. We know that [the Big Tents shelter] is designed to be temporary and that we need it to be temporary. But it seems to be doing well at this point and given how quickly it came together, we're pretty happy with the results.”
When the Reno Event Center was operating as a temporary shelter, it had the capacity to host over 300 people with beds placed six feet apart to maintain proper social distancing. Humbert noted, however, that the typical nightly use at the Reno Events Center was between 230 to 265 individuals. But as the summer went on those numbers continued to dwindle down to about 165 people, which is about roughly the same capacity the new Big Tents shelter holds at a little over 200.
“The hope is [for the Big Tents shelter to operate] through the fall, so probably about the next three and a half months,” Humbert said. “But all of that is pending negotiation and what we can do as far as space. But we’ve been consistently saying it's a temporary [shelter] and that's the goal.”
The big tent situation got off to an uncertain start with a lawsuit, but a judge allowed the plan to proceed despite this court action. In mid-August, District Judge David Hardy lifted a Temporary Restraining Order that for a week or so prevented the opening of the new homeless shelter on a Truckee Meadows Water Authority lot. The owner of Wells RV Storage just next to it had earlier filed suit, saying the shelter would cause harm to his business and that it could become a long term facility.
A google street map view of the Governor’s Bowl Park which could be a future shelter site.
Looking at Future Possible Permanent Shelter Locations
The city of Reno is still in negotiations with the state about other long-term solutions to support the unsheltered community, especially men. Women, families and the elderly have started being moved to the new Our Place campus run by RISE and Washoe County. One potential site that is being explored for men as a future option is the Governor’s Bowl Park on East 7th Street.
“We're still ongoing with the state [with discussions on the Governor’s Bowl],” Humbert said. “There hasn't been any sort of specific ‘No’ at this point from anybody on any side, but those discussions are ongoing at this point.”
Meanwhile, the Volunteers of America-operated Record Street downtown shelter has remained open as it has been since the start of the pandemic, but with fewer people being helped.
When the transition to the Reno Events Center first took place in mid-March, the Record Street shelter retained several dozen men, most of them veterans or disabled. Linda Grace, the Regional Development Officer at Volunteers of America, noted that resources such as VOA’s Restart program for mental health services have also continued despite the pandemic.
“We are still keeping 35 men in our men's shelter and all of this has been done so that we can keep people socially distant because you can't have them in the shelters as they were prior to COVID,” Grace said. “But our case managers continue to meet with all of the clients via telephone or making visits standing outside their door so as to keep that social distancing.”
The downtown Record street remains busy during the day, with some people outside close together and not wearing masks.
Lots of Moving Pieces
With the new big tents shelter and Our Place moving people around, Grace explained Volunteers of America has been busy maximizing local places they have access to, to keep people they are helping spread out.
“We've taken over what used to be the Good Shepherd's Clothes Closet and have converted that into a shelter and we're housing 53 individuals there at night,” Grace said. “Looking ahead, we have the capacity to add about another 87 beds here at the Community Assistance Center and other different areas. Then what used to be the old family shelter, we have a plan to move about 30 individuals up there but we don't have that set in stone yet. We have a space in another area that we could take 40.”
Meanwhile, the emergency overflow shelter on Washington Street is still hosting approximately 50 women as the dorm-style wing at the women’s shelter on the Our Place campus is only at partial-capacity due to social distancing requirements there. Consequently, Grace and VOA are looking at how they can support the 20 or so women that are still in need of nighttime shelter.
“It's our understanding that not all the women are being served [at Our Place],” Grace said. “So we're looking to take in about 17 to 20 more women over here [in the future].”
The Reno Events Center is no longer being used as an emergency shelter, as local casinos have expressed interest in restarting events there whenever possible.
Despite the shuffling of temporary shelter locations, Humbert says he has been pleased with how well everyone has adapted to the challenges the pandemic has brought for shelter operations.
“We're pleased that folks have been so adaptable to some of these changes and the need to modify lifestyles, but we still do the very best we can to maintain quality of care,” Humbert said. “We know that our VOA partners are working a lot with less these days and we're glad that they're doing their best to keep things going.”
Humbert also acknowledged that more needs to be done as the city looks to the future.
“We know that by expanding resources, that'll take some pressure off of everyone and that's why we're continuing to focus on the Governor's Bowl as a possible opportunity in the future to expand and improve,” Humbert said. “But the temporary shelter is a great example of our community coming together and the city to be able to get creative and do something different because we can't just sit on our hands anymore on any of this.”