Robert Majors, Persisting with Establishing Huts in Nevada Despite An Initial Raid

A Path to Housing as a Human Right

As a long time volunteer with the Las Vegas Catholic Worker group, helping others selflessly at all times of day and need, UNLV engineering student Robert Majors is impressed with the potential of Conestoga Huts. These durable micro-shelters for the unhoused, offer “safety and security,” and “housing as a human right,” he says, despite the ongoing challenges he has encountered to establish some in his home city. 

The huts originated out of projects in Oregon and have since spread to being used in Washington and now in southern Nevada. 

“In the Northwest and up there, they're really progressive with trying ideas because up there, out there in the winter, you know, people die,” Majors explained.  “So, they're really searching through the cracks for solutions.”

Seeing the huts really appealed to him, as they are easily moveable, and a dozen huts can fit on a small plot of vacant land, creating an instant community, that is if these aren’t removed.  

His first attempt in Las Vegas, in a partnership with Food Not Bombs Las Vegas, ended in destruction in the fall of 2020 and the arrest of that group’s Joey Lankowski.  

“We had an encampment of them, 27 on city property and the city didn't like that. So they destroyed them all.  They gave everybody living there like 15 minutes to get out, [at 4 A.M.]. Joey just happened to be in the area, and he got arrested for filming because he was asking why they were doing it,” Majors remembered during a recent phone call.  “When I got there, they were loading dump trucks and hauling stuff out of the gate. They had 200 yards away from the encampment fenced off already. So they were just guarding the whole perimeter. And there were like 10 different organizations that were destroying these things. Nobody was in charge. They were like, ‘oh, this person is.’ I think the police eventually said somebody from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was in charge, but I doubt that.” Photo with hashtag shared by Majors with permission to use.

A Major Raid Doesn’t Deter Majors

The bulldozing of the initial huts experiment happened even though the advocates had been working with the city of Las Vegas, and porta potties had been officially installed.  “I’m sure they put off these raids as long as they could,” Majors said.  “There were like five raids that almost happened and they all got put off and then this one finally happened.”

The Nevada Department of Transportation released a statement following the sudden removal:

“NDOT’s top priority is the public safety of all Nevadans and visitors, while still facilitating relocation assistance and resources for displaced individuals,” it said. “The decision to pursue this abatement was intended to ensure the safety and welfare of both the homeless and surrounding community due to significant biohazard concerns, including bodily waste, debris and intravenous drug paraphernalia accumulating inside drainage channels that feed into the Las Vegas Wash.”

Some volunteers were discouraged, but not Majors, who wanted to persist with the idea. The new iteration now is to put the huts on trailers and have them registered at the DMV, while at the same time creating more awareness, getting more fundraising through a Patreon called New Leaf Community and making more connections.

“A lot of people were into this idea and it just takes time, and the right opportunity for something to grow,” Majors said of his strategy. “We're a strong community and there's a lot of innovative ideas coming out still, so that's good.”

Adding the trailer means the price of constructing the huts went from $600 to a still cheap $700.  Friday communal building sessions are held regularly, with a nonprofit recently offering its warehouse for the building to take place out of the summer heat.

“We build these with a group of volunteers, some inexperienced, who never cut anything in their lives. One person has to know what they're doing to lead the group, but it's really easy to pick up and learn. We can build one in four hours. And if we are doing more than one at a time, you could probably do like three in six hours.”

Now Adding Trailers, DMV Registrations and Trying to Get Land

The DMV process is tedious but offers new possibilities, Majors said.  “It just has to meet certain code requirements. The hut itself weighs about 700 pounds. So here in Nevada, as long as it's less than a thousand pounds, it's going to be something that you could just register.”

With the trailer option, Lankowski and Majors have now had hitches put on their own cars now to move the huts around if need be. 

“Now they'll just put a sticker on the trailer, they'll say, move this in a couple of days, if it's in a place where it's not supposed to be. And that was when they were unregistered and occasionally they would tow it and we'd have to just bail it out of the tow yard, which is better than having to build a new one. And the registered trailers haven't had any problems so far. So we're doing pretty good with finding loopholes. It’s a little more work because now we have to have people on call to go move the trailers if they need to be moved. The people living in them, you know, it would benefit them if they had a car with a hitch, they could tow it around.”

They are also trying to buy their own land at the right price and in a good location.  

“The important part is buying the land where you're not pulling people away from valuable resources that they need such as transportation, food, social services and stuff like that,” Majors said. “So the land around those areas are like half a million to a million. But we've been lucky in finding some pretty cheap land. We haven't purchased it yet. I think we're going to try to make a purchase [soon] because we have about $45,000 saved. So there's some properties that are from 40 to 50,000 and hopefully we can get one of those and just start something, because I know we've been kind of pushing the envelope from the beginning on what we can do. So if we can get some of these on an empty lot, that is ours, at least that's another barrier between us and the people trying to destroy the huts.”

Another full encampment won’t be allowed even on their own land, but he figures a small group of huts could stay. 

“There are a lot of people on our side who have experience with coding and building laws. And I think we will have enough to at least make something happen. It’s really just knowing the law and finding the loopholes. I don't think it'll qualify as a trailer park, it’s not zoned for that. It's zoned for single family residential. So typically a person would just build a house there, but every single family, residential property is allowed to have up to four vehicles on a property. So at least that's a loophole where we can at least buy this property and have four units there.”

Majors said the volunteers in Vegas are ready to share their expertise and experience with like minded advocates in northern Nevada. “We definitely want it to be a growing idea. It is a simple community solution. It's a tool for housing and a door to shut and lock your stuff in to be safe at night.”

Moving Forward Despite Government Inabilities

Like in Reno, sweeps in Las Vegas have increased as well since the end of the pandemic.  Like in Reno, where there used to be encampments, fences are going up.

“They’ve been doing so many, so many cleanups and putting up fences everywhere, so it’s harder and harder for people to find shade or a sanctuary. We were serving from an empty lot, keeping it clean. We served there for 10 years and the city just came out and put a big fence around like five properties. They say they work with the owners, but I highly doubt they work with the owners. They just fenced off  this place that has been used to feed the poor for so many years,” Majors said.

He says he believes authorities just don’t have the energy, track record and ingenuity to find solutions to really help.

“The government doesn't want to do the job. They want to pay somebody else to do the job because truth be told the job requires a lot of work. It requires setting up organizations and support systems that are beyond the government's abilities, but finding the community that can support that type of project is what the government should be doing. But unfortunately they've been putting their money into other people's pockets for so long that they're just trying to pass it on to the next person who will take their bid. So the direction that it's going, it looks like, they want to do something quick. They want to clean up the street. They want to provide some minimalistic affordable housing and not have a big crisis on their hands with affordable housing. They're just trying to pass it on. I don't think they're looking for a long-term solution. They're just trying to get somebody to handle it. That's how I feel.” 

He says by keeping the fight, finding loopholes, by establishing something that will help, in the end Majors is confident the model will prevail, and will then be used as an example to emulate.

“It’s worth the effort to try to get somebody into a stable situation that's worth the money. You know the amount of money that goes into these things is nothing compared to how much people are paying in rent and how much people actually have to spend on that. You know, it's worth way more than $600 to people.  I think even, even all of our discussions with the city have been like, ‘oh, this is a great idea.’ Like, they are just as lost as anybody else in finding the solution.  So we've been just, you know, working on our solution. It's got a lot of positive feedback. It's inspirational and it's not so hard to do. And if you build one, set it up, put it on display, find one place, that'll hold it and just say, look, this is a solution. That's everything that the government is looking for. They just don't know about it yet.”

Our Town Reno Reporting, July 2021