In two months, Reno did more to solve homelessness than SJ's done in two decades
Depicted: The Nevada Cares Campus emergency shelter. Image by Washoe County
Local progressives have long advocated (sometimes aggressively) for permanent supportive units for our unhoused neighbors, despite an increasing public outcry that they're inefficient, unsustainable, and even dangerous. Meanwhile, SJ's homeless numbers continue shooting through the roof. The WSJ unpacks how the City of Reno took swift and productive action on homelessness, lowering stats by over half (58%) through a cost-effective quick-build tent.
RENO, Nev.—The “Biggest Little City in the World” is earning a new distinction: one of the few cities in the West to get large numbers of homeless off its streets.
The city teamed with Sparks, a neighboring city, and surrounding Washoe County to build a Nevada Cares Campus in 2021 that could accommodate more than 600 people in a giant tent and satellite sleeping pods. Since that year, the number of homeless living on the street has plummeted to 329 this year from 780, according to annual point-in-time counts.
The 58% drop is striking when compared with many other Western cities which have seen their unsheltered homeless populations grow or stagnate since the pandemic, amid soaring drug addiction and a federal appeals-court order that prevents cities in the region from clearing streets without providing enough beds. California has spent about $20 billion over the last five years to combat the problem, yet still has half the nation’s unsheltered homeless.
Once people are off the street and in the tent, the other part of Reno’s approach kicks in: helping them find a job, access other services and move them into permanent housing. Other cities are taking notice.
“The Reno model is a good model,” said Mayor Dave Bronson of Anchorage, Alaska, which is struggling to get hundreds of people out of the cold, following a deluge of snowstorms. The Republican mayor tried to get such a tent in 2021, but it was shot down by the Democratic assembly on concerns such as it would be too prisonlike.
“We need a building that can be stood up as cheap as possible,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Read the whole thing here.
Related:
Perspective: Short-term financial assistance outshines PSH/quick-build approaches to homelessness
SJ CMs Doan and Batra take staff to task on “unsustainable” housing plan
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