Who stays at the Cares Campus, how they did end up there, what kind of help do they get and what happens after they get housed?
These are questions members of the community, included elected officials, often ask. Due to Washoe County not giving access to people staying at the compound, it’s not easy to report about.
Shawn Jackson, 61, a former bus driver who faced serious health challenges and multiple surgeries a decade ago forcing him to quit work, is one person willing to share his experiences.
He’s doing so because he’s been angry about his current living arrangements after staying several months at the Cares Campus.
“Since I've even been here, man,” he says of the Vintage at the Citi Vista senior apartments at 650 Record Street where he’s living, “I’ve been having bed bug problems and stuff. I have to try to get out of here and get out of this situation I'm in.”
Jackson describes the bed buds as a living hell. He’s tried to complain to staff and management at Citi Vista, as well as local health authorities, but to no avail, so far. He says there was an extermination crew that came once but it doesn’t seem to have changed much.
“They are coming through the vents, they're coming up the walls in here and stuff,” he told us during a phone interview about the bed bugs. “And they’ve been chewing me up like a monster. My arm is swollen and killing me, it’s just unbelievable.”
We contacted Citi Vista to ask about this situation but got no response, outside of an automatic reply from FPI Management, which is headquartered in Folsom, CA.
How did Jackson end up in Reno and in this type of housing? He says he walked out on a bad marriage in Phoenix, Arizona, and their $300,000 home, took a Greyhound bus toward Salt Lake City and decided to get off in Sparks.
After sleeping in a hotel on Wells Ave, a cab driver took him to the Cares Campus the next day, where he stayed for over four months.
A first counselor there wasn’t of much help, but he says a younger second one helped him immensely, and gave him hope, as he struggled on the compound.
“I’ve never, you know, come to a place like the Cares Campus in the first place,” he remembers. “And then it was a zoo as far as I was concerned because, you know, you got a lot of different types of people in there man. And a lot of them seem like they need help real bad and you know, you could see them helping some people. When I got there, I even seen them helping a lot of the older guys who didn't need to be in there. A lot of those people in there don't want to stay in there.”
He says while he stayed five people he knew of died while at the compound.
A photo from inside the Cares Campus, where sleeping arrangements have been cramped.
Eventually, Jackson was able to find his apartment at Citi Vista on Record street to share with another former Cares Campus resident who is 71. Together they split the $1200 rent, paying with their Social Security benefits.
Now that he’s better recovered from his surgeries and facing dire living conditions, Jackson has started working again, finding some employment through temp agencies.
He’s also trying to get back to driving buses, with his former counselor at the Cares Campus helping him try to get his birth certificate back for that to be able to happen.
“Every time I got something going on, she'll try to help me,” he said. “She's really good at her job and I really appreciate her very much.”
Jackson says he likes it here, despite the “tricky weather,” or complaining that getting paperwork done takes time in the Biggest Little City.
“This is the first city I’ve ever been in where it takes that long to do everything,” he said during our interview.
While he tries to get his life back in order though, he feels the bed bugs are his biggest challenge, driving him crazy, and stopping his progress.
“There are bed bugs, everywhere, even in the laundry room, in the dryer, all over me. I mean they bite me so much, I can't even hardly sleep at night. Others are scared to speak up but I'm not a person who is scared to speak up. Why would I be? I’m paying rent, I’m the victim here. It is hard doing stuff … because every night I got to wake up and slap a bug, kill a bug, find out where it’s at, you know, there’s blood on the walls, they are climbing on my bed, they’re all in my pillow, I’m just trying to keep these bugs up off of me man.”