Kieran Dazzo and Jaedyn Young recently caught up with Kia and her boyfriend Matt, who have both done time. He says he has warrants out on him so he avoids shelters. They try to protect each other and others living on the streets of downtown Reno. They shared anecdotes from a recent morning with the two reporters. Here are their in their own words impressions of their own lives as part of our reporting on unhoused people in our community. An audiogram version can be found on our affiliated TikTok.
“This is Molly our dog (in second photo). We’ve had her since April.
We're trying to find like warm, medium shaped sun where we can get warm and then cool off, warm and then cool off.
Being out here is freedom. I have no responsibilities. I'll be 47 this month. I got three kids. I got two grown daughters. One son that are grown. So, I mean, it's my choice to be out here. I have places to go. I got family around here, but, I choose to be out here.
You know, we can breathe out here.
But when we go to jail, we're stuck indoors and we can't get out. And that's the worst.
I came out to Reno and I became homeless by choice. And then I have been to Parr, which is jail over here four times, five times, because of homeless [stuff]… shopping cart, warrant for not taking care of my open container 'cause I drink What else are we're going to do?
We have fun. Smoke weed, drink alcohol. We obey the laws. That's not fun. That is fun.
[Today] we went to the co-op and just had a great morning. And then I stashed my stuff up in front of The Eddy over there and it was nice and neat and they already knew it was mine. Everybody knows what my stuff looks like, even the ambassadors. But when I came back, everything was gone. Not a thing was there. Everything. I'm talking blankets, her stuff, my stuff, backpack. Not even her dad's backpack that I'm watching.
He's in jail. When they take things like that, they just throw it in a dumpster somewhere that we are not told where. So we can't get our stuff back.
Everyone steals from everybody. And it's stupid. I don't steal … I don't cheat. The only thing I do is take care of everybody out here.
We're out here and we see everything. We live out here. So we make sure that we're all safe. We find out some girl is being terrorized. We make sure that that man knows that in no uncertainty or no, no missing words, you touch her again, you better not, you have to leave town.
If you don't leave town after we tell you a few times, you will leave town.”