Mean Girls ???
There was this $500 million Home Means Nevada affordable housing initiative available in 2022 and Washoe County Government sniffed the available money, much like a truffle hog, for their Cares Campus “Supportive Housing.” That $5.5 million dollar lot the county purchased from Reno Housing Authority where the county wants to build homeless housing a stark empty reminder of needing to find funds. Old fuel tanks need to be removed, the county’s ‘fairly certain’ at a cost of about $1 million dollars, which taxpayers will be paying for. The Home Means Nevada initiative was a perfect funder for Washoe County.
In April 2023, a former county employee indicated in 2022 when funding opportunities for the Home Means Nevada Initiative became available, with grant applications being a crucial aspect of this process, Washoe County all but ‘iced out’ former Human Service Agency Director Amber Howell from their strategy. Washoe County prioritized funding for the Cares Campus, aiming to address the pressing need for affordable housing for the homeless in the area. Howell wanted to gain access to funds for affordable housing to be built at Our Place, Washoe County’s low-barrier emergency shelter, specifically designed to provide women and families dealing with homelessness a nurturing shelter. Our source said the contentiousness of the meetings reminded him of the movie Mean Girls, and Howell wasn’t part of the clique.
We asked ourselves shouldn’t homeless women and children come first. Would they not be considered the most vulnerable of the homeless population. There was $500 million available due to Sisolak’s Home Means Nevada affordable housing initiative so shouldn’t all hands have been on deck at Washoe County to get housing built at Our Place? Why give the Cares Campus top priority, a no-barrier shelter in lieu of a low-barrier shelter. It is clear at Washoe County there was the ‘Care Campus team’ and the ‘Human Services Agency team’ and Howell was on the HSA team all alone. These two teams did not meet in the middle, in fact they were afraid of losing funding if they overpitched. The two teams did not align in their approach. This disconnect raises concerns about the coordination and communication within the county’s efforts to address the housing needs of the homeless community.
These records were clearly scrubbed before we got them, but the county almost always over looks one “gem” that provides all the insight into the activity, and true to form while limiting our requests, attempting to give us the bare minimum of public records they still allowed us glimpse into this disfunction. These employees work to serve the residents of Washoe County, a fact we think they have lost sight of.
What we did learn:
1 On February 24, 2022, Assistant County Manager Kate Thomas emailed she didn’t want all the money to go to S. NV. Note: Amber Howell is not copied on this email just Dana Searcy and J.D. Klippenstein (who we understand is no longer works at Washoe County), but since we not longer can access a Washoe County Employee Directory, who the heck knows. Manager Eric Brown doesn’t seem to be interested in transparency.
2. On April 8, 2022, Kate Thomas and JD Klippenstein emailed about how the Nevada Housing Division was going to administer, but there were comments about legislator’s concerns. Prompting Kate Thomas to comment “we are going to need to work on Tatro!.” Wonder what she meant by that. What kind of work?
Picon has reached out to appointed-former State Senator Don Tatro for comment, but shockingly we haven’t heard back. His pal, former Commissioner Bob Lucey led the charge to get Tatro appointed. In 2022 Tatro was actually running for the appointed State Senate seat, and he went down in flames. A thought for appointed Commission Clara Andriola that perhaps the gift of appointment isn’t working too well these days.
3. On May 12, May 13, and May 16, 2022, we learn “all 4 of our HMN Pre-Apps are due by 5PM on May 16th” and J.D. Klippenstein was submitting them. He sent the applications for review, and this is the first time we see Amber Howell copied on an email.
4. Washoe County wanted unsheltered dwelling units and, reading through the documents, they preferred them to be built at the Cares Campus. If you read the email on July 22, and July 26, 2022, between Kate Thomas, Dana Searcy, JD Klippenstein, and Dena Schmidt, Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and it becomes clear that Kate Thomas felt if they were to “submit for both projects, we won’t receive funding for either.” Our former employee informant is correct the county never intended to seriously go after monies tor the Permanent Supportive Project at Our Place Campus. Again, Amber Howell is not copied on this email.
5. The email on July 28, 2022, sums up the county’s commitment to the Cares Campus plan because it would allow the county to “operate Supportive Housing in perpetuity” and Catria Peters commented “we are going to focus on putting all our resources towards this app” and Amber Howell was not copied on the email.
6. On August 16, 2022, according to the spreadsheet Cares Campus #1 is the ‘currently unfunded and is the top priority.” Amber Howell is copied on this email and Ms. Thomas makes an interesting statement below the spreadsheet with the three projects listed, “All three projects are intended to be supporting housing and placements will be made off the community queue to serve the entire community, not each individual campus.”.
7. October 27, 2022, Kate Thomas let County Manager Eric Brown know “WE GOT CARE’S HOUSING FUNDING.” We found it questionable Brown didn’t respond.
8. Amber Howell sent an email to HSA Coordinators with a link to Home Means Nevada awards.
9. The December 6th email is interesting because Accessible Space’s funding and units are discussed. Dana Searcy comments about the SMI (Serious Mental Illness) population and comments “hopefully West Hills can help fill that need:)” More taxpayer money being spent on SMI individuals, along with the homeless populations, so how many individuals is County Manger Eric Brown expecting the taxpayers of Washoe County provide housing to.
There was something queer going on with these Home Means Nevada applications, shouldn’t homeless women and children at a law-barrier shelter come first?
How large will the Cares Campus become? Spending all these dollars it seems the county never plans to end homelessness, remembering the county is planning on operating supportive housing in perpetuity, the county seems to be turning this into an ‘all inclusive’ homeless resort funded by taxpayers.
The most telling scenario these emails reveal is Washoe County employees appear to have limited the information going to HSA’s Director Amber Howell.
The last day anyone saw Amber Howell at Washoe County was on April 11, 2023, in July 2023 she resigned. Picon learned from employees at Howell’s office at 350 South Center Street they never saw her after April 11th. With Howell’s county departure will we ever really know what happened with the Home Means Nevada applications, we think not.