A tent city of about 130 homeless people has sprung up along the railroad tracks near the men’s shelter on Record Street, partly due to money problems that slowed the opening of a 70-bed women’s shelter.”It’s hard to get a job when you can’t take a shower,” said Jennie Oswalt, 51.
She said her 28-year-old daughter resorts to washing her hair in a bus station bathroom.
Mayor Bob Cashell said the homeless in the tent city are “cooperating” with city and law enforcement officials and are in the best place they could be because services and food are centralized in that area. Within a block are the Health Assistance Washoe County clinic, regular lunches at Saint Vincent’s Dining Room and shelter for 190 men at the drop-in shelter 315 Record St.
“We’re going to try to help (the homeless), and we’re doing the best we can,” Cashell said. “We’re working with the county. The woman’s shelter should be able to open in the next 60 days, if not sooner.”
Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission executive director Rick Redding said the overflow winter centers that closed March 31 accommodated 60 men and 35 women. The mission only has 20 beds for single females and no showers for women.
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Sandy Isham, Catholic Community Services development and community relations manager, said Saint Vincent’s Dining Room usually serves 400 to 500 lunches a day but served 550 on Wednesday.
“The numbers do keep going up,” Isham said. “For a non-holiday that was a record for us.”
Isham attributes increases in homeless populations to rising food and fuel costs, job loses and home foreclosures. She said the Reno Area Alliance for the Homeless estimates that about 3,000 people in Washoe County are living in a temporary situation, whether they’re living in a motel, a shelter or on the street.
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HighBoldtage 
May 30, 2008 at 5:15 pm
This is a sign of the times. With fuel prices continuing to rise and few of us getting wage increases, this will become more and more prevalent. Eventually, it will cost more to drive to work than some jobs will pay. This will lead to illegal activities such as illegal drug dealing, scams, robberies and other nasty things. To start with, we need to boost the minimum wage and stop the illegal Iraq war and all of that wasted money that flows to off shore international corporations. Then we need to rebuild our infrasturcture and add more mass transit so that those of us that still have jobs, can get to them.