UNR Police Takes Part in Threats of Oncoming Sweeps
In a recent notification posted by UNR Police on UNR land away from the main campus, houseless individuals were notified of the upcoming opening of the CARES Campus, followed by an order to vacate the area. The flyer cited Sparks Municipal Code 9.48.030, which states that camping on public property is illegal “within 350 feet of the shore of the Truckee River.”
At a recent CHAB (Community Homeless Advisory Board) meeting, a UNR police representative said one police staff was doing two days a week of outreach in that river area.
A phone call to UNR Police Services and a conversation with Eric James, listed as Assistant Chief of UNRPD, pointed me towards the direction of the Sparks “H.O.P.E Team”, which stands for Homeless Outreach Proactive Engagement. The flyer was said to be part of a “regional effort” by Reno and Sparks PD, including UNRPD.
After we posted a photo of the flyer on the Our Town Reno Instagram page as well as on our Twitter https://twitter.com/ourtownreno, angry comments poured in. One of those was from Elise Campbell (she/they), a student at UNR and member of a group called FUSED UNR. Campbell said those looking to connect to the local houseless population could donate food, water, and other necessities by contacting either themself or the FUSED UNR Instagram page.
After getting into contact with Elise and FUSED’s president, Ro Gil (they/them), we set up a call to talk about what FUSED UNR is, why UNR Police may be conducting sweeps, and what are the other solutions to this issue.
Elise Campbell (top left), Ro Gil (bottom left), and Rachel Jackson (bottom right) spoke over Zoom about FUSED UNR and how the club relates to Reno’s police and houseless community through social work. Visual by Rachel Jackson.
FUSED Concerns
While neither Campbell or Gil were born in Reno, they both consider the Biggest Little City their home. As members of FUSED, they are focused on social justice movements and ways to create change through social work. Campbell and Gil are both social work majors with interests in macro social work, which includes lobbying, policy-making, and global social work in contrast to individual case work and therapy that micro social work entails.
FUSED UNR is a club of about 10 or so consistent members who are involved in multiple social movements. In the past, they have done fundraisers with the ACLU, a collaboration with Nevada’s attorney general on a bill to end no-knock warrants, and a march with Indigenous people to Mackay Statue which resulted in a petition to get rid of the statue (the sculptor was a member of the KKK). They also have educational talks with guest speakers on issues like mass incarceration.
When asked about their thoughts on Reno, Campbell compared the city to the many other places they’ve lived as a child in a military family.
“There's a, like a lot of pretty lights and there's a lot of fun things to do and tattoo parlors and like, um, you know, everything like that. But, uh, when you start to look at like the background and like, notice that, you know, on Virginia street, for example, just like the gentrification and the amount of properties that have been demolished even like specifically right next to the University for that bus stop.” Campbell said, later commenting on Reno’s handling of the housing crisis: “there's obviously a huge, huge problem in Reno specifically, just because I don't think you could go to any intersection, any street intersection without seeing someone with a sign, you know, asking for some spare change or anything like that.”
FUSED has been fundraising through tee shirts.
Having Social Workers Do Work Instead of Police Outreach
In response to looming sweeps on camps of houseless individuals, Gil voiced their solution of taking the money used to conduct the sweeps and giving it to social workers and services to help the houseless individuals affected. “Sometimes I do not understand human beings and how they can see a dog on the street or a cat on the street, and everybody huddles around them and like, ‘Hey, let's help this dog. This dog is lost,’ you know, and they can see another human being and they just turn a blind eye and don't even care, you know, and, and call the police on them and, and do things like that. Like it, just, to me, it does not make sense,” Gil said.
“It's just crazy that they're making these requirements and these rules like that, but they're also, they're not willing to provide even like a water spigot here, you know, where you can get clean water or anything like that,” Campbell said of the 350-feet rule.
Campbell went on to describe how university money going towards UNR Police could be directed towards a social services coordinator position on campus.
FUSED UNR is currently recruiting members for the upcoming fall semester, and also held a donation drive on April 18, partnering with the Reno Burrito Project.