On a recent late summer afternoon, people were walking, jogging, and playing with their kids around Virginia Lake. Christian Thomas was there, but not to enjoy the sunshine… he was showing KUNR where he used to stay.
“If I was to stay here, I'd leave early, even though it's a park. Seems weird, but I’d just go to another park,” he said.
Thomas sleeps in his SUV, but he said it’s easy enough to avoid attention as long as you’re smart about it. He keeps his belongings out of sight, for instance, and moves around frequently.
He didn’t always live this way, though. Until about five years ago, Thomas was working in medical sales, but 60-hour weeks were making him miserable. So he quit — and started traveling around the country, going wherever he could find a place to stay.
“I was going to stop here for a couple nights and then go see my buddy in Vegas,” he said. “That was two years ago.”
Thomas relies on his car for gig work like DoorDash and Instacart, but it started having problems. Then, his phone broke. He eventually got those issues sorted out, but they set him back.
For a while, he was staying next to a park across from the lake with some friends. Eventually, they drew too much attention and had to move on.
“It's harder now, for sure,” he said. “There's really very few places to go, especially if you are not smart about what you're doing.”
That’s because, early last year, Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County all started cracking down on homelessness. Officials say they’re trying to get more unhoused people into shelters, not jail. But public records suggest, as the new ordinances were taking effect, more of them were already ending up behind bars.
Studies show that when housing prices go up, so does homelessness. That’s the case in Reno-Sparks, where according to appraisal firm Johnson Perkins Griffin, the average rent rose from $1,341 in early 2020 to $1,681 this year.
Meanwhile, Washoe County recorded 1,760 people experiencing homelessness during its 2024 Point in Time count — a record high at the time. Regional authorities also maintain a public dashboard showing monthly data going back to June 2024.
Last month, it reported there were 2,187 unhoused people in the county.
In March of 2024, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam successfully pushed for a ban on camping near the Truckee River and living in vehicles.
“The way the ordinance is written and how the team operates is, we make contact, they establish that rapport… and then they say, ‘Okay, let's take you to wherever those resources are,’” he said.
Deputies have only issued one citation under the new ordinance, because Balaam’s office was working on a deal to refer them to the City of Reno’s community court, where they could have been connected to services like substance recovery, housing, and Medicaid.
But last week, court officials announced it would cease operations.
“The coming closure of Community Court is unfortunate news,” Balaam said in a statement. “The weekly gathering of services in one place has been a powerful tool and our team is already in discussions with stakeholders to ensure that this resource continues.”
But while Balaam was pushing for a camping ban, his jail was holding a growing number of people with unknown addresses. In 2020, jail staff booked 2,159 of them into custody. Last year, there were 3,049. At the same time, overall bookings have been trending slightly down.
Law enforcement agencies from around the region take arrestees to the Washoe County Detention Facility, which Balaam’s office oversees.
However, his staff doesn’t record an inmate’s housing status at booking, so having an unknown address doesn’t necessarily mean they’re homeless.
“Most likely, without digging into it more, [it’s] the way our booking system is built,” Balaam said. “That's not in there.”
However, Leah Wang with the national nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative said there could be another reason they’re not collecting that information.
“I think ultimately, jail authorities don't really want to admit how much they are jailing unhoused people,” she said.
Wang analyzed national data that shows unhoused people are more likely to return to jail than other groups, and on average, spend longer behind bars.
In her research, Wang only looked at jails that clearly identify inmates as unhoused. But there aren’t many of those. Instead, she says, Washoe County’s approach is much more common.
“Unfortunately, most jails just aren't recording it,” she said. “And they probably won't for some time.”
Meanwhile, community advocate Alanah Fanning said the new ordinances are making people less likely to accept services. Last winter, she helped run warming centers for unhoused women in Reno.
“I think that maybe there's this fear, probably, that they're going to go to jail, and that everything, it might be kind of a trick,” she said. “I get it, I would be scared, too.”
If authorities really want fewer people in the streets, Fanning said, they should support rent caps and affordable housing, not criminal penalties.
