Lazing happily on a warm concrete pad outside St. Vincent’s Dining Room, Zeus is a familiar face to the smattering of people who find themselves sitting on the sidewalk next to him with nowhere else to go.
He’s an eight-year-old golden Lab mix whose owners live homeless in Reno.
Pilar Corrigan and her brother David Bush say they’ve been on the streets for two years, spending the daylight hours at City Plaza or a local library and sleeping in alleyways at night.
"We adopted Zeus because we needed some companionship other than ourselves,” Bush said. “He's turned out to be a darn good dog."
Corrigan says he’s her baby, her alarm clock in the morning, and her emotional support animal.
"He knows when I'm not feeling good. He's right there,” she said.
The area's high cost of living is forcing some pet owners to make difficult choices.
It’s not an uncommon sight along Fourth Street in Reno, people walking grocery carts full of personal belongings from the Cares Campus homeless shelter to a dining room or nonprofit down the block, with a dog trotting happily behind them. Despite experiencing homelessness, some still choose to keep pets, even in circumstances where pet ownership may make it more difficult for them to ultimately access housing.
Bush says that, if forced to choose, he would pick Zeus over housing any day.
Others in Nevada are facing down that exact question: pet ownership or housing?
Nevada animal shelters see housing-related surrenders
Five-year-old Loki is a vocal husky who loves to play catch and will dance on his toes for visitors who take him out of the kennel and into a meeting room.
He landed in the SPCA of Northern Nevada’s shelter after his owner lost her housing.
"For this year to date, SPCA of Northern Nevada has seen 93 surrenders related to housing or lifestyle changes,” communications manager Sydney Denham said in an interview with 2 News Nevada, later adding, "That can consist of moving, eviction, loss of housing, pet restrictions related to housing - there's lots of fees and deposits associated with it."
According to Zillow, across the board, rent in Reno has increased $45 in the last year, but average prices vary significantly month-to-month and year-over-year depending on the property. The average two-bedroom apartment runs $1,800 per month right now. A three-bedroom is $2,695 on average.
Bush and Corrigan say they could no longer afford the cost of housing when their roommates moved out unexpectedly. Without someone to split the bills, they couldn’t make their $1,300-per-month payment.
Those numbers don’t even factor in the price of pet ownership. A 2026 survey by pet care company Rover put the annual cost of caring for a dog somewhere between $1,695 and $6,025 depending on the breed and level of care the dog requires, with those costs rising year-over-year too.
SPCA of Northern Nevada is left to pick up the pieces for owners priced out of the market.
Denham says that the shelter tries to intervene early to help owners keep their pets, with assistance programs that offer low-cost medical care and even free pet food.
"Keeping pets with their people is always our ultimate goal, and so if you know that you're going to be moving or a housing crisis does pop up, reach out for help as early as possible,” Denham said.
Washoe County homeless shelters near-full
While Northern Nevada’s animal shelters frequently face overcrowding, Washoe County’s homeless shelters also continue to remain near-full.
According to the county’s data dashboard, for at least the last two years, over 2,000 people have been living homeless in Washoe County at any given time.
Space in shelters is scarce. As of Thurs., Oct. 8, the county’s largest shelter, the Cares Campus, had 10 of its 549 beds available, a number that’s remained relatively consistent for the last month.
Meanwhile, some people living on the streets say they won’t go to a shelter or access the services there. The Cares Campus does allow pets as long as the owners follow certain rules, but Corrigan and Bush don’t think the conditions at the shelter are acceptable for their dog.
Living homeless with a dog
Hope is on the horizon for Zeus and his family.
With a soft smile, Bush explained that he’s gotten a job, and he isn’t worried about getting back into housing, especially with Zeus at his side.
"He's more than a dog. He's a friend that I can talk to,” he said, later adding, "He will sit like that in front of me, and just look at me like, 'Are you alright? Are you alright?' He's helped me out a lot."
Corrigan says her husband is also working now, so she’s confident they’ll be able to get a roof over their heads.
As for Zeus, he doesn’t seem to have a care in the world about where his family settles.
He has a bag of dog food riding on the back of Corrigan’s wheelchair. He naps happily in the sunshine next to her feet. He wags his tail and offers up kisses as other homeless people walk by, stopping to scratch his head or pat him on the back.
Zeus seems perfectly at home.
