Washoe County cut the ribbon on a new resource center with 80 emergency overflow beds in December, but those beds are now closed, and some of the homeless who were sleeping there regularly now find themselves camping on the street.
“Everybody has to sleep out here at night, and they kick everybody off the sidewalks in the morning, so they put them back on the street,” said a Cares Campus client, Craig H., sitting outside the gates to the shelter. “They built that whole new facility, and they close it down.”
A county spokesperson says shuttering overflow during the warmer months has been part of the plan all along.
“The overflow shelter was always intended to be for cold weather, you know, the really intense storms that we get here in the winter, so we close it down in the summer,” Bethany Drysdale told 2 News Nevada on Wednesday.
She added that it’s not true that those who were in overflow have no other option than to sleep outside. The main shelter has 12 available beds, and community partners have many more.
“We’ve actually identified 140 other beds in the area that were not being utilized, and so we want to work better with those partners, and get people maybe into other services that are more appropriate for them,” Drysdale said.
She added that those who want to get out of the elements, especially as it gets hotter outside, can still stop by the resource center to cool off.
For a place to sleep overnight, find a list of all the emergency shelters in Washoe County here.
