Since 2020, the City of Reno has been keeping track of what services have been most needed and provided to the unhoused community.
Tuesday saw the first release of the city’s Clean and Safe Program report, which highlights what happened in 2022 for those experiencing homelessness in Reno.
The program was built around the idea of outreach and explaining the existing services which the city offers.
“The clean and safe program is a program that was established in 2020 in response to providing outreach and resources to our unsheltered community while also creating clean and safe and accessible spaces for the public,” said Cynthia Esparza, the city’s equity and community relations officer. “Over time the team has grown, it is an interdepartmental team including numerous departments from code enforcement to housing neighborhood development. 
“A key piece and I can’t stress that enough is our outreach and that includes City of Reno staff as well as contracted providers the Karma Box Project and the Reno Initiative for Shelter Inequality.”
Some of the components highlighted in the report were housing arrangements that totaled 244 with 49 of those finding permanent housing. Another service that was shown was the replacement of identification, which included 180 driver’s licenses, ID’s and social security cards.
“This was a pilot program,” said Esparza. “We came together as a team and developed a model that has really expanded from the original concept. All members of the community deserve to have that ability to access services and everything else that includes shelter.”
One issue that was explained was that there are many people experiencing homelessness who are service resistant. That’s where the team has been working with partners in the community to better communicate the idea behind the help offered.
In addition to helping people get housing and documentation, there have also been 60 family and friend reunifications last year as well as 96 resources accessed like Medicaid, SNAP, and mental health services.
The annual report also uses the numbers from the Washoe County Point in Time count that took place in January of this year and showed that there was a 21 percent decrease of unhoused individuals from the same time the year before.
The total county homeless population continues to rise, however, according to Washoe County data.
