Photo / Bridget Tevnan
RENO, NV — Enormous dump trucks and bulldozers demolish people’s homes at the end of Commercial Row. A police officer is standing on a raised concrete slab, milling around with some others, rudely barking down to a housing activist who is frantically trying to help Mary get her belongings out of the bulldozers’ way. With a little help she manages to throw everything she owns inside the activist’s van and escape before the bulldozer turns the tiny little dirt patch she has been living on back to rubble, along with whatever she has not managed to save.
For months this scene has been playing out all over Reno and Sparks, as encampments are brutally swept and houseless residents kettled below the Wells overpass. A few blocks away, the supposed ‘solution’: the Nevada CARES Campus, a 45,000 square foot tent that can hold up to 900 people. Destroy everyone’s individual tent, which at least provides some basic level of privacy and autonomy, and dump them all into one huge, FEMA-style structure. What’s really going on?
Rents and housing prices in Reno skyrocket as the city sees an unprecedented influx of new residents and developments. Downtown, empty lots multiply as residential motels and other low-income housing options are demolished en masse — some of these lots have now sat empty for almost 5 years, with zero repercussions for those who leveled them.
The women’s and family shelter — Our Place — is full, as are others. The CARES campus tent admits single men and couples only (much of it bunk-bed prison-style). Meanwhile, the sweeps continue at a brutal pace. Where are people supposed to go?
Harassment and inhumane displacement continues: trauma piles on top of trauma, trust in agencies and “outreach” breaks down, people scatter farther and farther out, and the risk of overdoses and other tragic but avoidable outcomes increases as people trade community and any sense of stability for despair and isolation.
Local activists have started a petition with the following demands: a stop to sweeps; funded transportation to living sites; prioritizing building of transitional, affordable and low-income housing; recognition of the Reno Houseless Union in any planning around homelessness; the end of police harassment; and training and a livable wage for those staffing the proposed living sites.
[Editor’s note: see the full-length version of this article on Latest News on the People’s Tribune website.]
Stories of resistance and unity in the fight for Housing as a Right
This story is one in a series stories sent to the People’s Tribune from leaders of the homeless and housing movements in different cities. They reflect the consciousness and resistance of those fighting to keep themselves and others in their homes, now and once the national eviction moratorium ends on July 31, and against the harassment and criminalization of our brothers and sisters who have already been thrown into the streets.
People are demanding that federal Covid monies pledged to ‘help’ go into real protection and real housing, not to corporate landlords or prison-like shelters. People are organizing to resist evictions and the destruction of independent tent encampments. They are using various forms of media to share stories and strategies, as well as on-the-ground actions, linking up into a national network and movement.
Our power lies in the unity of millions in this fight. The People’s Tribune wants your stories, photos and comments, to help get out the word about this important and growing movement. Send to info@peoplestribune.org or leave comments or stories at www.peoplestribune.org. Or call 773-48-3551. Let’s connect! — Sarah Menefee, Homeless and Housing Desk, People’s Tribune
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