51 people have been permanently banned from the Nevada Cares Campus
A City of Reno memo distributed this week shows that, despite ongoing efforts to reduce homelessness in the community, calls for service related to people living unsheltered continue to rise.
In April of this year, city staff responded to 250 calls for service related to unsheltered individuals and 220 reports of occupied vehicles. Three years prior — and one month before the opening of the 549-bed Nevada Cares Campus — the city responded to just 114 calls for service.
The service requests data reflect reports to the city’s Reno Direct related to homelessness and includes breakouts for general concerns and homelessness concerns related to private property, city parks and the Truckee River.
More recent memos for 2024 added the number of calls for occupied vehicles. Despite being banned in Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County, up to 253 calls per month have been made for people living or sleeping in vehicles.
The Reno Direct online reporting form shows 77 open service requests as of June 19, including 44 general concerns, 15 for camping in parks and 18 for homelessness activities near the Truckee River. There were no open requests for homeless camps on private property, but a service map showed nearly four dozen recently closed requests.
Two years ago, at a March 2022 Community Homelessness Advisory Board meeting, Assistant City Manager Cynthia Esparza said calls for service were declining after peaking at 2,022 requests for service in 2020. Calls had dropped to 1,748 for all of 2022. That’s the last year the city published data for its Clean and Safe Team online.
Data for service requests in 2023 won’t be available until later this year.
“We provided one service request monthly memo in spring 2022 but transitioned to putting those numbers in an annual report for the complete year instead,” city spokesperson Landon Miller said. “Right now, the City is putting together a comprehensive annual report, which will include the 2023 Clean and Safe data, including service requests. This report will also include other department programs and data.”
Miller said that as homelessness in the community has evolved, the city’s response has grown to include more city departments and different sources of data.
“Over the years, data reporting has increased,” he said. “For example, in February 2024 we began including service requests and Park Rangers interactions in our monthly memos to Council, while in April 2024 we began including data from Community Court. As the program continues to evolve, so does the reporting of activity related to it.”
Although the city no longer operates the emergency homeless shelter, its most recent memo on the Clean and Safe Team included data for the Nevada Cares Campus “sit-out” list.
The sit-out list counts people who have been banned from the Cares Campus for violating policies, such as having a weapon, threatening or engaging in violence or possessing or distributing illicit drugs, including recreational marijuana, or alcohol.
A total of 51 people have been permanently banned from the massive homeless shelter — the penalty for physical or sexual assault, bringing a gun on campus, selling drugs, arson or recruiting others into sex trafficking.
Shorter sit-outs are imposed for less serious violations, and the length of sit-out may be increased for multiple violations. Case managers can impose a 48-hour sit-out on campus residents who aren’t making sufficient progress to find housing or who are offered housing and refuse it.
As of June 17 when the city’s memo was published, there are 14 people expelled for one month. Two others were on a 48-hour sit-out, and one person was banned for 24 hours.
“[Cares Campus] staff meets with every participant to go over the policies and consequences of not following the rules and expectations,” Washoe County spokesperson Bethany Drysdale said. “Staff also advises every participant of the various resources in the community for other shelter or services.”
