If your like me driving around town a lot between Reno and Sparks NV you see many people out holding up a variety of interesting signs. They all have one thing in common they are asking for money.
My family firm believers in giving and helping people in need and at first we gave. We use to hold some money in the car for a while giving 1 or 2 dollars out every-time we saw someone and it was safe to do so we gave.
We even at one point made little gift sets that had some basic essentials and we even gave gift cards to the dollar store sometimes. However after a while out pockets began depleting because it seemed we gave at every corner in town. It was really out of control.
After that we slowed down our giving and only picking a few that seemed in need more than others but a question came up on how do we really tell what the people need or if they need at all?
Today we rarely give to people holding signs anymore we devoted our donations to other causes.
On Saturday June 24th we stopped to get gas on Clear Acre and Maccaren at Jackson's gas station. My family was approached by a lady riding a bike and asked for .50 cents, when my wife handed her the fifty cents she demanded she said .75 cents. We left but sat in the parking lot watching her go to each car and each person entering the gas station. We saw her collect from several people. We have no idea how much she collected but this when on for a least 10 minutes before she entered the gas station store.
We see people often at our local shopping center I even noticed an entire tent city in the lower half hidden in the trees. People sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags, and even there late into the night standing in the rain snow or hot weather.
When you go to most major shopping centers where there are major roads you find people holding signs. We see often people on the exits of the Freeway how safe is that right!
So here is the thing PANHANDLING is not illegal matter of fact is has been argued it falls under Constitutional Rights. While a business may ask a person to leave the property often they are in area that is considered public property. If they are on a sidewalk, street corner or in an area that is considered public there really is nothing a business can do about it. Sure if the person is being unsafe or creating issues the police can be called and most likely they will be asked to leave.
How many estimated HOMELESS are in RENO and SPARKS?
According to several reports from various government agencies around 1000 people are considered Homeless in this Area. I actually do not believe you can really get an accurate count I mean how do you really determine it. There are places people can go like Saint Vincent's and Salvation Army that provide meals and some shelter assistance. These types of places also provide food banks, clothing assistance, job assistance, and other services. However from my understanding and a little bit of research they seem to be difficult for some people who are homeless. They have a lot of rules and regulations is what I am told by people I have talked to.
The last two years I took time to study the issue and by no means do I consider myself an expert but during my studies we found several homeless camps around town, several people who had made homes under freeway bridges, a park that had over 10 tents and homeless camps in it. I documented by photos people with signs, took an actual count of how many we saw everyday we went somewhere. I even got rave enough to talk to people who wanted to talk to me off the record.
Some areas of town seem worse downtown where the RENO Sign is one area. This is because this area often has tourist and there are a lot of casino employees. Just walking up and down the street a few blocks and its not hard to find someone with a sign or even someone who will ask for money or other things, It really is a big turn off for this area in my opinion.
When my family goes out of the area it seems we look to see if other places are having similar issues. Reno recently added some major companies and employment looks better than ever so why is thee such a big issue in the area?
I will close with saying I am not sure why Reno and Sparks seem to have such issues but maybe it needs to be addressed in a way to try to resolve the issue.
Written June 2017 by Micheal TomsiK
