A City of Reno Municipal Court Specialty Court and program, Community Court, will close its doors at the end of the month.
Community Court started in 2019 and was designed to serve the homeless community. It holds its sessions at the Downtown Reno Public Library every Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the court quickly closed, but reopened in 2021.
Since then, people would be referred to the court by police officers after committing low-level crimes to get better connected with resources in the community.
The court would also act as a one-stop shop for resources. Many organizations would set up tables and booths so people could get the help they needed.
Now, it's all coming to an end. The court's judge, Chris Hazlett-Stevens, said simply that he felt the program was not successful.
2 News Nevada reached out for an interview, but the judge said he was not talking. Instead, we received the letter the judge wrote to Reno City Manager, Jackie Bryant, about why he decided to end the program.
In part of the letter, the judge said: "Our most recent data reveal that the program is not having the intended impact we hoped it would on the population we’ve attempted to reach. While we have poured tremendous resources and energy into this program over the 5 years it has been in operation, our success rate reflects that it is not working in a meaningful way. While we were able to help a small portion of the population, especially those recently rendered homeless and/or those truly ready to change, we were unable to have a robust impact on the chronically homeless in our community."
Looking at the 2024 stats from the program in terms of discharges from the program, only 35 percent were successful.
The Washoe County Sheriff's Office Homeless Outreach Proactive Engagement or HOPE team said they felt Community Court was a great resource for them, especially the team's two case managers.
We did a ride-along with them at the end of last year.
"So, we attend every Wednesday," said Sergeant Sonia Butler, Washoe County Sheriff's Office HOPE Team. "We offer resources to individuals because it's open to the public. What we do is we make connections and start working on what we need to do or how we can start getting stable housing for the individuals."
With the closure, the team says they will still be operating business as usual, but will look toward other avenues.
"We want to continue to have one area, a date and time that people can expect to go to and be able to find all the resources in one general area, which has been very successful," Sgt. Butler said.
The HOPE Team says they are seeing more and more people who are homeless who have jobs, and currently, they say the biggest hurdle is access to affordable housing.
The court was not open last week but will be open this Wednesday as it finishes its cases load before it shuts its doors.
Here is the full letter the judge wrote to the Reno City Manager:
Dear Jackie,
I want to inform you that we have made the difficult decision to shut down Community Court. Our most recent data reveal that the program is not having the intended impact we hoped it would on the population we’ve attempted to reach. While we have poured tremendous resources and energy into this program over the 5 years it has been in operation, our success rate reflects that it is not working in a meaningful way. While we were able to help a small portion of the population, especially those recently rendered homeless and/or those truly ready to change, we were unable to have a robust impact on the chronically homeless in our community. Many of them, categorically refusing the services offered, and others, refusing by way of not following through and ultimately resulting in warrants that caused their cases to be closed while they were in custody.
Similar courts confronted with the same hurdles have simply redefined success in ways that demonstrate proof of concept. We are not willing to do this. While it is important for a participant to meet small milestones as part of their case, such as making progress toward obtaining ID documents, those milestones should be seen as progress toward a successful outcome, not success itself. Through this programmatic philosophy, we have maintained that success must include identifiable progress toward sustainable solutions to end the cycle of chronic homelessness beyond an individual’s immediate needs, such as treatment in mental health and addiction. Yet, meaningful engagement in those areas has proved elusive.
This decision did not come easily. Community Court was staffed with individuals who care passionately about the people served. For years, we have worked tirelessly to remove any and all barriers to treatment, employment and housing. Yet, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to demonstrate lasting success that justifies the ongoing commitment of resources to this approach. The timing of this decision also coincides with several resource providers losing federal and local funding, preventing them from committing staff to Community Court. Consequently, we have only a small portion of community resource providers prepared to deliver on-site services consistent with the community court model. Much of what we do now is handled off-site, which serves as another barrier in servicing this population.
We are very grateful that we have been able to touch the lives we have through Community Court. I want to personally thank you, the City Council, the Mayor, the City Attorney and the Reno Police Department for the ongoing commitment to this forward-leaning court concept. Closing this Court is not for want of support or effort. It simply reflects a recognition that this program, with all its attributes, was unable to address the profound needs of this population.
