Homelessness has always been a big topic in northern Nevada. To help spread awareness, Washoe County held a private screening event of a documentary shedding light on the issue in the area.
The documentary really digs deep to help give the audience multiple perspectives of what it's like to experience homelessness and what it's like helping people who are experiencing it in Washoe county.
With homelessness constantly on Washoe County's agenda for improvement, they have partnered with Sosu TV to help give a voice to people who have experienced homelessness and share their stories.
"If the recipients of the services don't tell the story of what we are doing and how that is helping them, or not helping them this isn't a puff piece, then somebody else will tell it for us and it won't necessarily be accurate," said Eric Brown, Washoe County Manager.
The hour-long documentary allows several individuals share how their downfall started and how they struggled through it.
"I was homeless six years ago," said Willis Dixon, Women's Shelter Manager for Our Place. "I was struggling with substance abuse, and I was actually staying outside of the record street shelter."
During this time in his life, Dixon says he lost his family.
His son was taken from him and his mother distanced herself. Then one day he woke up in a hospital bed and realized he needed to make a change.
"I just started slowly working on myself," he said. "The first thing I needed to do was stay clean."
After checking into a treatment program, Dixon says he slowly started improving his physical and mental health and beat his addiction.
Fast forward to today and now he's reunited with his family, helping the homeless community, and just bought a house with his new wife who is also a survivor, Charlotte Jo Dixon.
"Now I understand why people are starting to cry when I tell them my story," SAID Charlotte, Family Mentor for Our Place. "It was like that eye opener of like 'You survived something that most don't talk about'."
Viewers describe this documentary as fantastic, raw, and honest.
"You know it's real people giving their real stories, and it's fascinating, and it's heartbreaking, and you know kind of all the above, but we get to see how much Reno is making a change with that," said Jeanne Dawson, Family Homes Manager for Our Place.
The cofounder of Sosu TV, Mark Hatjakes, says he's hoping this film will help humanize homelessness and spread awareness of the services the community offers.
"If we can just get a little bit of that across that would be amazing, and it's also to celebrate the recovery of these folks that have lived through it," he said.
You can watch the full documentary at this link.
