Homelessness in Northern Nevada - A Big Economic Development Issue
This post by Fred Steinmann
About a year and a half ago, the NSBDC, along with several colleagues from the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Business, Orvis School of Nursing, Department of Geography, School of Medicine, College of Agriculture and the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies began a “regional homeless” study for Washoe County. Nearly 800 plus pages of research and findings later, the University published its findings. Our main conclusion is that homelessness in Northern Nevada costs our community approximately $15.5 million a year in various services ranging from first responders to medical care providers to mental health providers to detention facility providers to judicial providers to housing service providers. But that’s only where the storey begins.
As it relates to economic development in Northern Nevada, homelessness represents one of our greatest obstacles and hurdles to overcome. It would be very easy to give every homeless person in Northern Nevada a one-way ticket out of town and let some other jurisdiction deal with it. But many of the homeless in Northern Nevada are Nevadan citizens. Like it or not, they are members of our community and all great societies and communities are judged by how they treat those in most need of our help and support. The homeless in Northern Nevada are not just single male inebriates (although single male inebriates do make up a significant portion of the Northern Nevada homeless population). The homeless in Northern Nevada are also families with young children. They are children themselves either abandoned by their parents or runaways with no one to turn to. They are single women who have been victims of domestic abuse and have no home to go to. They are the elderly living on fixed incomes. They are the mentally ill and they are those that suffer from physical disabilities that make them unable to secure meaningful, long-term employment.
So what do we do? As long as there is mental illness, physical disabilities and substance dependency, it is unlikely that there will ever be a solution to homelessness – either in Northern Nevada or anywhere else for that matter. So the focus turns to management. How do we best “manage” this hurdle and obstacle to economic development? The first step is in realizing that the problem is vast and complex and that the “one-size-fits-all” magic bullet solution many so often seek out simply will not work and may not even exist. The final step involves developing delivery systems that provide a wide range of personalized services to the homeless in Northern Nevada in a cost-effective way that emphasizes outputs and performance while not sacrificing in quality of care and treatment. The intermediate steps? Steps 2 through 200? Well, that’s a little trickier.
I would have to say that Northern Nevada however is making impressive strides in tackling this cumbersome issue. What is most surprising to me is that many different people from many different walks of life have become interested in this issue. At the monthly meetings of the Reno Area Alliance for the Homeless (RAAH), a wide variety of different people from different organizations meet to discuss the current situation and how more effective service delivery systems can be developed. At these monthly meetings it is common to find representatives from the State Legislature, the City of Reno, City of Sparks and Washoe County. Next to government officials you can also find community mental health providers, providers of physical health care services, law enforcement officials, representatives of the various courts and incarceration facilities in Northern Nevada and even representatives from the Washoe County School District. And now, even private business owners have shown an increased interest in tackling the “homeless” issue in Northern Nevada.
On January 3rd, the Downtown Improvement Association (DIA) will host a presentation by some of the University’s study authors. For those of you not familiar with the DIA, it is a private organization of downtown business interests – largely downtown Reno property owners, business owners, bankers, lawyers, retired CEO’s, representatives from downtown hotel-casino properties and others. What is particularly interesting is that this organization, and its members, has come to realize that homelessness in Northern Nevada has direct impact on their bottom line. Granted, there is some concern over how large portions of public resources are spent in regards to the Northern Nevada homeless population. $15.5 million a year is, after all, a lot of money! But there is a greater, more direct, impact. Having homeless people walk the streets of downtown Reno, in front of major businesses that cater primarily to tourists, is not good for business. It is also not good for the City that is trying to redevelop its downtown and encourage citizens and visitors alike to come back to downtown Reno.
But the emphasis is not on how to “hide” the problem, but how to develop longer-term and lasting solutions that benefit businesses and the homeless alike. This is an important step in developing solutions that have wide range positive impacts on as many Northern Nevadans as possible. It is simply exciting to see so many different points of view represented. Having police officers speaking with and listening to mental health providers. Having mental health providers speaking with and listening to business owners. Having business owners speaking with and listening to court officers. If you had said that such a thing was possible 20 years ago you would’ve been laughed out of the room!
Admittedly, this process has not been smooth. There has been a lot of conflict! The development of new policies and programs has been slow! But that’s okay because through this process a general level of mutual understanding across a wide range of interests has been developing. I have no doubt that as this sense of mutual understanding grows and builds, the solutions, programs and policies that are developed will have a much greater chance of success than any other attempt in history to truly deal with this concern.
Homelessness in Northern Nevada remains one of our largest collective economic development concerns. What we at the University could not determine is whether or not an annual cost of $15.5 million a year is sustainable. Not wanting to speak for my colleagues at the University who worked on this study, I can however suggest that many of us feel it is not and unless new innovative and cost-effective solutions are developed and implemented, it is likely that the cost will grow larger and larger. That said, there is reason to be optimistic. An important role for those of us in Northern Nevada concerned with economic development is simply not to “ignore” the problem but to confront it head on. Accept that homelessness in Northern Nevada exists. Once we can do that, we can begin the larger process of developing delivery service systems that are effective and add value to our community and for our collective future.
Check back on the NSBDC’s website in the next couple of days for the complete study available for download in PDF at http://www.nsbdc.org/what/data_statistics/bber/reports/washoehomelessstudy/.
Congratulations on completing this study. It sounds like an important contribution to our understanding of root causes of homelessness and the relationship to economic development. I’ll look forward to hearing more about how we can apply the lessons you’ve learned here in Austin, especially in the area of leveraging participation from local businesses.
Thank you for your study about homelessness, tackling this issue has continued to be supported by the community at large, and stopping the cycle in younger generations might provide the most direct way to reduce future homelessness issues. Providing better plans in our lower income education systems to help students in this cycle know how to get out. Mentor programs like Hug High School are beneficial to future generation. Some children just don’t have the role models they need consistantly guiding them through all the different system. Role models are vital, like in a twelve step program you have a sponcer. Washoe County has continued to try to make a difference and has made tremendous improvements over the past ten years in providing for the increasing levels of poverty. How do establish rent control, health care reform, and human dignity to those that hit bottom? Mentors,,role models and success stories seem to sometimes help with inspiration and motivation. Better mental health services, implementing nutrition, sleep, and proper medication- halfway houses for transitions mental health.
More youth directed activites to break the cycle might be our biggest hope for twenty years down the road. Though the effort to improve the life needs of the homeless is a well blessed and appreciated endeavor that Reno should be proud of.
I also believe that using energy efficency, and redirecting the saving towards the homelessness might provide a cost effect way to pay for some health, and home care issues. Since we know how to save money in using reducing the use of energy, the redirection should be towards helping those who use the less amount of energy. Just my thoughts.
FYI- At time I watch were the homeless are sleeping, and once outside a car dealership in the cold I thought about the man sleeping in the grass. Here are all these nice warm cars, no one using them. Here is a man sleeping outside the dealership. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense where we invest our money. Thanks for listening.