It was a cold, windy, and cloudy fall day. Puddles of water dappled the Believe Plaza in the normal random manner. Yellow and red leaves stuck to the aged concrete. A lone skateboard practiced his ollies and manuals through the puddles. Near the disintegrating Space Whale, a small group of unhoused community members took a rest and shared conversations. Winter was in the air as Bill Sims, a local advocate for the unhoused, met with Our Town Reno Reporter, Richard Bednarski.
“Having had a homeless father for several years as a kid living in California, I know what it’s like to be homeless,” explained Sims. His father was homeless on and off nearly a dozen years when he was younger and because of this real-life experience Sims believes it is important to give back to the community.
Before Sims relocated to Reno, he lived in both Fallon and Salt Lake City, Utah. He has lived in Reno for about nine years and has been a Nevada resident for nearly 19. He came to Reno to be closer to his mom and sisters.
“No matter what people think, people who don’t have a permanent roof over their head deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and given the basic necessities that they need,” said Sims. Sims is a recipient of low-income housing and a firm believer in the efficacy of rent control as a method to curtail exploitive rent increases and profiteering by landlords.
While not employed, Sims makes himself as readily available as possible to help out in the community. He has been a regular over the past year at many of the police sweeps to bear witness and help, the anti-sweeps protests, public comment sessions, and most regularly helping feed the unhoused weekly, if not more, at the CARES campus.
“Being able to essentially be the helper to the people that are helping and serving,” Sims explained as his preferred way to help. He enjoys being in the background making sure any outreach he is involved with happens smoothly and effectively. Without a car, he is always ready to go and help serve in order to allow the facilitators the time and energy to plan and organize an outreach event.
He has long helped Jessica Castro serve meals and provisions to the unhoused community, as part of the Puff Puff Pass the Love local initiative, as well as bigger non profits.
“I do help out a lot with Planned Parenthood,” said Sims. “I’ve been a volunteer with them off and on since 2017.” Even though helping the unhoused community is his main focus, Sims said he is willing and able to donate his time and efforts to other organizations and community groups that align with his personal values.
“Homelessness doesn’t make a person a good person or a bad person,” Sims said as he explained how he came to terms with his own father’s recurrent homelessness. Having grown up with a homeless father, Sims believes it is important to treat people with respect and dignity. It is something, he feels, should be first and foremost. “The reason why that is so important is because we don’t have a set in stone way of seeing things,” he said, knowing everyone has a different perspective.
As winter is steadily approaching, and the CARES Campus and Our Place are regularly filled to near or at capacity, Sims knows it is important the community steps up and donates warm weather clothing. He usually helps serve breakfast on Saturday mornings around 8:30 am at the CARES Campus and said anyone is able to come down and drop anything off they wish to donate.
“I think one big thing that the city could do right now is agendize looking into opening the Record Street Homeless Shelter again for couples and women,” said Sims. This comes on the heels of allegations of unsafe living conditions for women in the CARES Campus and ongoing sweeps. In addition, Sims believes the ongoing sweeps are ineffective and inhumane.
“There is of course a major housing crisis going on and that anyone that does not have a permanent roof over their head should not be looked down upon,” believes Sims. “For the greater Reno community, reach out to CARES Campus, reach out to Our Place, reach out to Jessica Castro, reach out to your friends whom you know work with homeless people and see what you can do to help them out,” he said as a concluding thought.