Nevada

Homeless people have a place to go in Northern Nevada | Pat Hickey

Published

5 months ago

October 15, 2025

Homeless people have a place to go in Northern Nevada | Pat Hickey

One day when I was a little boy playing outside my Tahoe home, I spotted a red robin that didn’t fly away when I got close, as most birds did. I went inside and told my mother. She came out to see for herself and concluded the bird probably had a broken wing and couldn’t fly.

She offered a solution. My mom brought me inside and helped me prepare an old shoebox lined with soft tissues to make the bird’s home as comfortable as possible. She even gave me an old syringe the robin might drink from. She instructed me to dig up some worms and catch some insects for the bird to eat.

A temporary living quarters was prepared. The trick was to get the bird into its new surroundings. Helping the robin into its new home was left up to me as my mother went back inside — although I’m sure she was watching through the bathroom window to see how I’d handle the challenge. She left it to me to deal with my own fears of trying to pick the bird up and placing it into the home we’d prepared.

I nudged the shoebox toward where the bird was standing. After sitting nearby for close to an hour, quietly hoping the bird would just fly away, I gradually moved closer and, finally, with my eyes closed, picked up my new backyard friend and placed it into its shoebox apartment. Worms and dead red ants were procured and placed inside for a meal. I even got the bird to sip water from the syringe.

After a restless night, and to my surprise, the next morning the bird was gone. Besides the things my mother helped me with, I would grow up realizing there are a lot of human “robins” out there. Many of them with wings probably too damaged to ever fly right again, and too few “shoeboxes” to house them in the hope they gain the strength to one day go out on their own.

Northern Nevada is housing homeless people

Homelessness is more than meets the eye. The sight of human encampments — of people down and out, and drug- and alcohol-addicted — is painful to behold in American cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. There have also been the sorrowful local displays of disparity of the unsheltered along the Truckee River’s Tahoe-Pyramid Trail that I visited in their heyday and wrote about in “Tears, Trash and Transients” (RGJ, Feb. 6, 2022).

I’m relieved to see that civic and community leaders in Northern Nevada have made a significant investment in providing assistance to homeless people in the form of the Nevada Cares Campus, which provides emergency shelter for up to 600 adult individuals and couples. Run in partnership with Washoe County, clients are allowed to bring their pets and their possessions with them as they access support services. The low-barrier shelter provides meals, showers, laundry facilities and scores of paid staff and volunteers available to help people begin navigating a pathway back to normalcy, if possible.

Par Tolles is the CEO of a downtown development company. Par calls the facility a “cul-de-sac of care” that has reduced the homeless population along the Truckee River by more than 40%: “The Cares Campus stands among the largest emergency shelters in the United States by bed count. Its success reflects the remarkable collaboration between Washoe County, Volunteers of America, Karma Box and Catholic Charities — a testament to our community’s ability to unite public, private and faith-based organizations in tackling some of society’s most difficult challenges.”

Recent ordinances by the Reno and Sparks city councils have led to the removal of camps along the Truckee River and under places like the Wells Avenue bridge.

Still, a deeper problem persists beyond the optics of homelessness along downtown Reno’s streets and the Truckee River trails.

It’s better to be in a safe place

Taking a three-hour tour of the Cares Campus, I was impressed with the facility built by Reno’s landmark construction company, Q&D, near the old Governor’s Bowl baseball fields off Interstate 80. The premises were clean and well organized, with cubbies and individual “Mod Pods” for people progressing through recovery and reentry into normal life.

Grant Denton is a highly visible Reno homeless activist and service provider who came to the mission after having once been homeless, addicted to drugs, and in and out of jail. Speaking to his efforts in founding Karma Box, the nonprofit with a large staff that actively encourages homeless people to leave their encampments and come to Cares Campus, he said, “The mission should be to get homeless folks off the streets—not to try to help them by giving them handouts on the streets.” Instead he says; “support the people and the worthwhile institutions that are genuinely serving the homeless.”

The goal, though, Denton says, is not to leave the homeless housed there forever. “The end goal is proper mental health management, a life free of drugs, and then self-sufficiency.”

One of the hopeful things I observed at the Cares Campus was the number of committed staff and volunteers providing services to many homeless people. Many were once in the same predicament themselves. Part of their own recovery from the conditions that left them in loneliness and abandonment — is to help others. They seem to understand better than anyone that human needs are best met by other human beings, not by bureaucracies.

The root causes of homelessness

It’s unfair to assume all homeless individuals actively and consciously chose homelessness. Most of the biggest risk factors for homelessness (such as mental illness, substance abuse, high health care costs, domestic violence, poverty and lack of affordable housing) are outside of individuals’ control and are the symptoms of more fundamental societal problems.

Mother Teresa experienced the problem firsthand along the streets of Calcutta. Serving the poorest of the poor, she described a kind of “poverty” that’s greater than any government agency will ever effectively address, saying, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless,” the Catholic nun reflected, “The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

On the subject of social policy, American Enterprise Institute’s Charles Murray writes, “The error of contemporary policy is not that it spends too much or too little to help the poor and homeless, but that it is fundamentally out of touch with the meaning of those needs. The problems of American social policy are not defined by economics or inequality, but by the needs of the human spirit.”

My mother taught me a valuable lesson about serving the needs of those with “broken wings” around me. She and my father taught me an even greater one by all the things they did that resulted in me never ending up homeless.

I’m pleased that Washoe County has built such a clean and well-staffed place for Nevada’s homeless population.

However, the best thing we could do is to follow Mother Teresa’s advice and remedy the things in our own families and surroundings that have produced such a need for all the shoe boxes and wounded birds to occupy them.

Your thoughts? At: tahoeboy68@gmail.com.

“Memo from the Middle” is an opinion column written by RGJ columnist Pat Hickey, a member of the Nevada Legislature from 1996 to 2016.

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Nevada

EDITORIAL: Nevada still vulnerable as tourist downturn continues

Published

12 minutes ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

EDITORIAL: Nevada still vulnerable as tourist downturn continues

Strip gaming executives can put their best spin on the numbers, but local tourism indicators remain a major concern. Casino operators seeking to draw more people through the door still have much work to do.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board released January gaming numbers Friday. The news was underwhelming. The state gaming win was down 6.6 percent from a year earlier. The Strip took the largest hit, an 11 percent drop. But the gloomy returns were spread throughout Clark County: Downtown Las Vegas was off 5.2 percent, Laughlin suffered a 3.3 percent decline and the Boulder Strip dipped by 7 percent.

For the current fiscal year, gaming tax collections are up a paltry
2.1 percent, below budget projections.

The red flags include more than gaming numbers. Recently released figures for 2025 reveal that visitation to Las Vegas fell nearly 8 percent from 2024, which represented the lowest total since the pandemic in 2021. Traffic at Reid International Airport fell more than 10 percent in December and was down 6 percent for the year. Strip occupancy rates fell 3 percent in 2025.

To be fair, this is not just a Las Vegas problem. International travel to the United States was down
4.8 percent in January, Forbes reported, the ninth straight month of decline. Travel from Europe fell 5.2 percent, and passenger counts from Asia fell 7.5 percent. Canadian tourism cratered by 22 percent.

No doubt that President Donald Trump’s blustery rhetoric has played a role in the decline, but there’s more at work. International tourism has been largely flat since Barack Obama’s last few years in office. But domestic travel has held relatively steady although it is “starting to cool,” according to the U.S. Travel Association. Las Vegas hasn’t been helped by high-profile complaints last year about exorbitant Strip prices for parking, bottled water and other staples. Casino operators responded by offering discounts, particularly for locals, and they’ll need to continue those policies into 2026.

The tourism downturn has ramifications for the state budget, which relies primarily on sales and gaming tax revenues to support spending plans. “Nevada’s employment and economic challenges reflect deep structural factors that extend beyond cyclical economic fluctuations,” noted a recent report by economic analyst John Restrepo. “The state’s extreme concentration in tourism and gaming creates unique vulnerabilities.”

The irony is that state and local politicians have been talking for the past half century about “diversifying” the state economy. In recent years, that effort has primarily consisted of handing out millions in tax breaks and other incentives to attract businesses to the state. A dispassionate observer might ask whether that approach has brought an adequate return on investment.

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Nevada

2026 lunar eclipse visible in Nevada. How to watch

Published

12 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

2026 lunar eclipse visible in Nevada. How to watch

A lunar eclipse will be in Nevada skies late Monday night — or, more accurately, early Tuesday morning, March 3.

The downside is the hour: you’ll have to be up very late or very early, depending on your perspective.

Unlike a solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, a lunar eclipse happens when Earth casts its shadow on the moon, creating a rusty red hue.

If you’re looking to see the lunar eclipse, here’s everything you need to know about viewing it in Nevada.

What eclipse is in 2026?

If you live in the U.S., you will be able to see the lunar eclipse starting at 12:44 a.m. PST Tuesday, March 3, 2026, according to NASA. During the night, you’ll see the moon in a reddish hue, or a blood moon.

Totality lasts for a little more than an hour before the moon begins to emerge from behind Earth’s shadow, according to the popular site timeanddate.com. As the moon moves into Earth’s shadow, also known as the umbra, it appears red-orange or a “ghostly copper color,” hence its name: blood moon, NASA says.

“During a lunar eclipse, the moon appears red or orange because any sunlight that’s not blocked by our planet is filtered through a thick slice of Earth’s atmosphere on its way to the lunar surface,” NASA says. “It’s as if all the world’s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the moon.”

Countdown clock to the 2026 total lunar eclipse

If you live in the U.S., you will be able to see the eclipse starting at 12:44 a.m. PST Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

The entire eclipse will last about six hours. People in Nevada can see the lunar eclipse during the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 3, 2026. The total lunar eclipse will be visible in North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia and Antarctica.

Everything will be over by 6:23 a.m. PST on March 3, 2026. Below is a countdown clock for the 2026 total lunar eclipse.

Where are the best places to see the lunar eclipse near Reno?

Though the Biggest Little City has an abundance of light pollution, darker skies are less than an hour from Reno.

Fort Churchill State Park: The park provides a dark night sky ideal for evening astronomical events among the ruins of Fort Churchill. Park entrance costs $5 for Nevada residents and $10 for nonresidents.
Pyramid Lake: A popular spot for Renoites seeking a night of stargazing, the lake is less than an hour from The Biggest Little City. It offers beautiful natural wonders and dark skies that give a clear view of the lunar eclipse.
Lake Tahoe: Multiple locations around the lake are excellent for stargazing that are less than an hour from Reno.
Cold Springs or Hidden Valley still get light pollution from the Biggest Little City, but have clearer skies than the middle of town.
Driving down the road on USA Parkway will likely also give you the dark skies to see the lunar eclipse without having to make a significant drive outside of town.

Carly Sauvageau with the Reno Gazette Journal contributed to this report.

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Nevada

How the strikes on Iran could impact gas prices in northern Nevada

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

How the strikes on Iran could impact gas prices in northern Nevada

The United States and Israel launched targeted attacks on Iran on Saturday. The move brought new uncertainty into global energy markets, as northern Nevadans could be paying more at the pump in the coming weeks.

Following the strikes, oil prices increased. Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped to roughly $73 a barrel, while the national benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, traded above $67.

Much of the concern centers around the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. which carries about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

Patrick de Haan, head of petroleum analysis with GasBuddy, a price tracking company, spoke on the current questions in the region.

“The known would reduce oil prices if there becomes clarity, but it’s the unknown that is stoking fears…. If there is some sort of clarity in the days ahead, whether from Iran, the United States, or Israel, on how long this would last. We’d be able to put potentially an end date for the potential impacts that we’re seeing,” said de Haan.

Experts say for every $5 to $10 increase in oil prices, drivers could pay 15 to 25 cents more per gallon.

According to Triple-A, the average price of a gallon of gas in Nevada on Sunday comes in at $3.70, which comes in above the national average of roughly $2.98.

Over at the Rainbow Market on Vassar Street, prices sat just below four dollars a gallon on Sunday. Reno resident Abran Reyes talked about gas prices potentially going up.

“Whether it’s to work, to maybe run errands, to do stuff that helps you, gas is essential…. That gas price really hits, especially in today’s economy, where gas prices are extraordinary…. I just hope everyone’s safe. I hope our soldiers and all of our troops can be okay,” said Reyes.

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