On an early morning by the Wells Avenue bridge, downtown Reno ambassadors roam around on Segways; cops respond to disturbance calls, and two women attempt to clean out their tents in hopes of making the area feel more like home. Ahead of a new Cares campus, this is where people living in tents are being allowed to stay, but that may all change soon, with sweeps being threatened, and police refusing to hire more social workers, despite pleas from advocates.
Shannon Moore, 32, has lived in Reno for 30 years and has been homeless for the past six years. Moore feels invisible because of her current state of living. To her, being a woman and homeless comes with severe challenges.
“I can't even take a shower now,” she said. “You know, like they have two different men's shelters for men to do whatever they want all day long, be drunk on beer and all that. And they can take showers. The women’s shelter is all the way (across town). And when you get there, you can't get in and take a shower, not unless you have a bed there and the bed wait is like a month.”
Now instead of showering Moore has to boil water and clean herself. Moore feels uncared for. She says she’s not worried about COVID-19 as she has worse to worry about, such as, she says, recovering from recently being shot in the head. She says she used to sleep in just a lawn chair so it’s been worse for ever.
The tent where Moore was sleeping in, saying the shelter for women is already full.
“There is a lot of perspective. You know, you have that loyalty and respect for yourself, not just yourself, but if you know yourself, then you've got loyalty,” Patches explained of the predicament of being a woman out on the streets. “I’m a girl, you know, people out here hate that. It's all about themselves and not doing what they're supposed to do. They take and take from other people, you know, and people get mad.”
Patches says she longs to have a home for herself, but has endured mistreatment from landlords and even loved ones. The homeless camps have brought friendship and relationships for both Moore and Patches. Moore has friends that “always got her back,” and Patches has a girlfriend.
Both Patches and Moore take great pride in their tent homes they have created. Moore took the morning to clean out her whole tent. “I had it all fancy. I have my bed. I put my blanket down and then my tablecloth thingy that's like pretty fancy. ”
Patches even tries to help other clean up their sleeping areas. “I'm a person that gets along with everybody,” she said. “Right. Everybody loves me. Cause when you hear Patches up and down the street, or anywhere people live, they all know me. They know who I am. I'm a good person. I'm down to earth people. I help anybody in the whole world.”
Patches does say people are jealous of each other in the encampment and will sometimes trash each other’s possession or burn tents out of spite.
Both women have plans for the future. Moore hopes to go to rehab in Fallon so that she can see her 14-year-old son again who is in a “facility” in Las Vegas, and Patches hopes to move back in with her adult son at some point. Homelessness was neither woman’s choice nor plan, but the world sometimes has other plans and its harshness can cause unintended consequences. They both expressed their hopes for a better world for homeless women to be seen and cared for.