Imagine a storage unit stocked with jackets, boots, hand warmers, and blankets where anyone in need of an item can walk in and take what they need. Free of cost. What if this resource was made available to the most vulnerable, the unhoused.
“Our goal someday is to have something like that,” explained JP Harvey, a Reno resident who has seen the city change from okay to worse in regards to housing insecurity in her lifetime. The mother of three, she wants to make the world a better place, to change it.
That is why she first started volunteering with the Reno Burrito Project earlier this year. Working with the founder of that group Blaize Akanaab Abuntori and watching other volunteer advocates give their time, energy and ideas, inspired her to do more than just roll burritos.
“I saw all the work that, not only Jessica [Castro] and Bill [Simms], but everybody in the community has been doing more hands on and I decided to take that leap and do more hands on work,” explained Harvey on a chilly morning. She currently is working towards continuing her education at the University of Nevada, Reno and studying sociology in order to better understand what challenges people face to provide better advocacy. “I’ve been in Reno a really long time, I grew up here, and I just want to help as much as I can.”
Currently, Harvey is focusing on building a better bridge between advocates, community members, and officials. “I think it seems everybody is overwhelmed,” she said. She explained that the pandemic and raising rent costs are all compounding to create a situation no one has seen before. “A lot of the people I meet doing outreach, have jobs,” she explained. Yet they are still living on the streets. The main issue, Harvey believes, is that there is not enough affordable housing.
Harvey has joined forces with Simms and Castro and formed a group known as Helping Hands Loving Heart. Castro, formerly unhoused, understands the plight of living on the streets and has been providing food and essential items to anyone wiling to take them for a while now. Simms, who currently lives in low-income housing, understands the stress and concern of being on the brink of living on the streets. Nonetheless, the three have pooled together their time and resources to spend nearly every day of the week conducting outreach and providing resources for anyone in need. Be it food, a blanket, hand warmers, or boots.
“Honestly, it is probably just being out,” explained Harvey about her niche of advocacy. “I am probably out seven days a week.” When she gets word about someone needing something, she make it a point to procure those items and hand deliver them. Whether it is through donated items, monetary donations, or her own money—Harvey makes sure boots are on cold feet. Especially as we enter the coldest part of the year.
“Just making sure everyone has what they need,” she said.
This is not easy work and takes a toll on the mind. But Harvey keeps pushing ahead knowing that her work is impactful and helps ease the strife of living on the streets. Recently, she learned that some she helped were able to get housing and this encouraged her to carry on. The single thing that keeps her moving ahead is allocating a bus pass for someone so they can get to work. “I mean it’s so easy for me to do but it makes such a huge impact.” Harvey is the middle woman, helping convert cash into donations and connecting these donations to those in need. The best way to provide a donation, be it a jacket or tarp or tent or cash, is to reach out to Helping Hands Loving Heart on Facebook. She said one of the three will make it a point to connect.
“The biggest thing right now for the wintertime is just jackets, and blankets, and tents, and shoes, and boots,” she explained. “If [anyone] reaches out to us we can figure out a place to distribute that to the community.
“A lot of the unhoused people think they are forgotten about,” Harvey said was the most challenging aspect of her work, along with the sadness and grief. “They just feel like people don’t care about them or there are stigmas attached to people being unhoused.” We talked a lot about this stigma and it is something that pops up on social media a lot. People pointing the finger and looking down upon the unhoused; when in reality, the majority of American citizens are one calamity or paycheck away from joining the ranks of the unhoused.
One thing Harvey talked about is the fact repeated sweeps of encampments are detrimental to her work. When she saw that an encampment by the university was recently being swept, she was aghast. The day prior she was down there talking with the folks and passed out goods to many of the unhoused. Some of these newly purchased items were just gathered and tossed into a dumpster by city officials and will be hauled out to the landfill.
As winter is with us, Harvey and the others are assembling bags equipped with blankets, socks, undergarments, and food. As she has done in recent weeks, she will spend the next few weeks as 2022 begins, driving around looking for encampments and passing out goods to anyone in need. Harvey will be thinking about how to expand Helping Hands Loving Hearts into a storage unit lined with provisions.
“With the city and county displacing more people…I want to save the world,” she said. “If this is what I can do, to put my little hand in there and do that, that’s what I’m going to do.”