East 4th Street just west of the overpass has changed a lot in the last few days. The area now houses a new temporary homeless shelter, replacing the one at the Reno Events Center. Just under 200 homeless are moving in tonight. At noon today, a large storage trailer to hold their belongings was installed by crane. There are porta-potties and tents for shade and meals. There are 3 huge tents totaling 20,000 square feet for sleeping, with mattresses spaced 6-feet for social distancing. Reno Acting Assistant City Manager Arlo Stockham knows it’s not ideal in these pandemic times, “But it’s kind of the best we have at this point."

There’s also a trailer for showers with water and electricity hooked up. It took a judge's ruling to get this all done…a neighboring shop stopped the city from building all this, saying it would hurt their business. That court order was temporarily lifted last week, and since then it's been fast work here. Stockham says, “This all went from an idea to being constructed in 10 days."

Homeless shelters were overcrowded before Covid-19. Now with social distancing , this won't house them all. The city says 600 homeless have sought shelter, while 3 to 400 more have not. Reno's homeless population is estimated at around 1,200. Pat Cashell, Regional Director of the Volunteers of America told me, "I just think there's a lack of shelter and there's more people choosing to live out on the streets and out on the river."

Those are the people they want to bring inside. Here, there's shelter from the hot sun. Fans will be installed, and the sides of the tents can open up for air. Cashell says, "Here we'll have it all. We're serving breakfast lunch and dinner."

But it’s all temporary. The city needs another permanent shelter. Stockham says they have to have that, "Or else winterize this facility if we don't have a longer term site ready to go."

The city has its eye on nearby Governor's Bowl Park for a permanent structure. It’s not a sure thing yet. They plan on a decision by October. It won't be easy. Stockham says, "Nobody wants a homeless center used near them. That's just fundamental human nature. But it’s an important use and an important service and it has to go somewhere."

Cashell adds, "As long as we can get the square footage and the people inside, you know that's what I'm here to do, to run the shelters. And shelter as many people as we can."