Shortly after nine p.m., last night, Natasha, an elderly woman in a purple coat and slippers, holding a flyer for the Good Neighbors Warming Center walked into a side entrance of the St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral on W. 2nd street, saying she was afraid she would “freeze to death.”
Lily Baran had her quickly sign an intake form and she was shown a cozy room with cots and new sleeping bags. “Oh!” she said delightfully when she was told there was water, hygiene products and snacks as well.
The mood was caring and compassionate. Baran said she recognized her from a Family Soup Mutual Aid gathering, while they chit chatted about her past.
A half dozen volunteers prepared the reception area, tried out which keys worked for which bathroom and brought in new boxes of supplies from outside.
“We’ve been discussing having an emergency shelter for a while,” a parishioner at St. Thomas Bridget said. “So I was really excited to volunteer to help make it a reality.”
Recorded deaths for the unhoused reached a record high of 135 neighbors last year, that number having tragically gone up for an eight consecutive year, despite the Cares Campus being open, which as our recent reporting has indicated some individuals avoid for a myriad of reasons, including a lack of perceived safety to feeling crammed into a warehouse, prison like environment.
Volunteers decided to take it upon themselves to find churches to have 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. caring sleeping environments for this winter, when discussions with Reno city officials were unproductive.
The Reno First United Methodist Church, the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd are all on the list for upcoming nights stretching into early March.
The program in collaboration with RISE which runs the often full Our Place shelter is open to women, families, and single dads with children.
“I’m just optimistic that we can help provide a little bit of respite for women and children that are on the streets and don't have a place as we get colder and colder each night,” Bridget, a self-described 5th generation Reonite said.
“I think it is very much needed. I think if we look at the statistics here in Reno, we have a lot of unmet need for our unhoused community. We just don't have enough beds. So if we can just do this in the winter months, it'll help prevent somebody from possibly dying of exposure.”
Bridget said this church had experience as an overflow shelter during the pandemic, and its rector started NOTS (Night Off the Streets) in Carson City, which operates from November through March on a similar model.
“It's part of our fundamental teachings…love the stranger, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless,” she concluded.
Our Town Reno reporting, December 18, 2024