The first time I met Adam was on a sultry September Sunday afternoon. He was in a grey vest and shorts walking the streets of downtown Reno handing burritos and water to the houseless population who were interacting with various volunteer groups. Adam was then serving as part of the Reno Burrito Project.
Months earlier, an Our Town Reno photographer took pictures of him being handcuffed outside the temporary 4th street shelter. Adam has been upset for months now at conditions inside local government-run shelters, has been vocal about it, and says he’s been thrown out too. He says conditions inside are not sanitary enough.
Adam has been unhoused for over a year now himself and lives in his Ford Taurus as best he can. He says he was working at a furniture store near Plumb Lane before he decided to quit that job and look for other paid work. Adam once received burritos from the outreach group, before being one of those helping.
Blaize Akanaab, the founder of the RBP, remembers Adam from one of his earlier Sunday handouts and says it’s yet another indication of the unhoused community coming together to help each other.
Over the Fall, Adam helped with the Reno Burrito Project. Photo by Kingkini Sengupta.
Adam now often pulls over opposite the Nevada Cares Campus on weekdays in the morning. He parks his car, unmounts a black and steel hydraulic chair, lays out his trimmers and scissors and waits for people to seek out his free service.
Within minutes a line forms of people waiting to get their hair trimmed by Adam for free. Adam is not a barber by profession but says he does this for the love for his unhoused brothers and sisters and for the glory of God.
“When you give them a haircut, they feel better, their confidence is built up, they are more eager to go out and get a job,” he said. After the haircuts Adam gives them a quick prayer and tells them, “Jesus Christ loves them, always has and always will.”
A happy recipient of a free haircut smiles with Adam into the morning sun outside the Nevada Cares Campus. Photo by Kingkini Sengupta.
‘Do you want all off or …,” Adam was discussing lengths of the cut with someone sitting in his chair when Aubrey and her husband Vincent were leaving the shelter to get a job for the day. Vincent immediately decided to queue in the line to get his hair and beard trimmed.
“Look at this guy, he is getting a haircut, which is awesome,” Aubrey said as she stood teary-eyed watching Vincent get the trim.
“It definitely helps the way people look at you, if you are presentable or not,” Vincent said. “God is using Adam to do his work in the best way possible. It’s a great way to give back to the community.”
In the summer, Adam did not have a place to shower after his haircut sessions and often cleaned himself up in the Truckee River before trying to go find a job. He says life gets tougher when one does not have much money or a home. Adam has a small child, he says, who has been adopted from him against his will.
Adam has various ideas about helping those in his predicament. He believes that the closed Santa Fe Basque restaurant could be reopened and converted as a cafe for the unhoused so that people could come and drop off the unused food resources provided to them.
He also believes a nearby downtown Reno barber shop could be used as a base for free haircuts for the unhoused. He often discusses these ideas with the people he provides haircuts to. On the day I met him outside the Cares Campus, he said a prayer for Aubrey and then packed up for a new job he had at a gas station.