On The Street Where You Live
Picon has been talking to seniors about Washoe County Government. Seniors are getting fed up with all the homeless being driven from the Nevada Care Campus to the 9th Street Senior Center by county and VOA employes.
Due to this a number of seniors who normally would be at 9th Street have moved to the Sparks Senior Center on Richards Way. They can’t play cards at 9th Street, work on a jigsaw puzzle because the homeless panhandle them, sit with them, and they won’t get up or leave when asked. Seniors are afraid to ask for assistance because county staff at the 9th Street Center are not trained enough to handle altercations, and do not know how to defuse situations. Some of the homeless have mental health issues and the seniors say “it’s not our job” to care for them. They’re right.
We find it interesting that Washoe County Government Human Services Agency are causing taxpaying seniors to abandon their 9th Street Center because Cares Campus homeless are driven over daily. The Human Services Agency points out homeless seniors deserve the same respect and need a place to go, isn’t their place to go the Cares Campus. Is HSA putting homeless seniors needs before taxpaying seniors, it sure seems like it. Picon has learned that HSA is diving homeless seniors at 9th Street to avoid problems at the Cares Campus and we are attempting to get access to public records.
During one of our trips to the Sparks Senior Center we ran into a group who gather for lunch, they use to go to 9th Street but due to the homeless they have moved to Sparks. It turned out several of the seniors are residents of Ponderosa Drive in Sparks.
The Ponderosa residents are doubly upset, that 9th Street has been removed as a safe place for them to lunch, but thanks to Washoe County their street they live on is not safe. Remember County Manager Eric Brown announced the address of Safe Embrace at the commission meeting, so why not give this neighborhood some extra patrols. These seniors just can’t seem to get a break.
On November 28, 2023, Agenda Item 12, a Public Hearing for Safe Embrace. This was an appeal of the Washoe County Board of Adjustment’s inability to approve a special use permit.
Safe Embrace requested a special use permit to expand their group care facility up to 25 occupants if connected to a city sewer, or up to 18 occupants if they utilize the existing septic system. The proposal also asked to modify the parking requirements in the Washoe County Development Code by not requiring any additional paved parking spaces nor any additional lighting.
The Washoe County Board of County Commissioners had before them the decision if a special use permit should be issued to Safe Embrace for the property located on Ponderosa Drive in Sparks. The question before the board was “should a special used permit be issued and will the increase in the users be an appropriate use for the property.”
The way the matter came before the county commissioners, is the City of Sparks issued permits in error, there was litigation that was concluded, the courts said it was time to have a public hearing, and it is up to the Board of County Commissioners.
Safe Embrace has been at the location for over 20 years and has had a business license as a group home since 2001 for 10 residents. With the change in jurisdiction from City of Sparks to Washoe County, Safe Embrace now has their planning, business license, and building applications submitted to Washoe County for review and approval.
The residents of Ponderosa and Safe Embrace had been in litigation, and when Washoe County Staff was presenting to the commissioners, they addressed neighborhood concerns with the increase of residents by proposing to:
1. To hire an additional advocate to reside at the site during overnight hours.
2. Upgrade the cameras and security system to allow for monitoring of the exterior of the residence.
3. Along with Development Code Guidelines, Safe Embrace, is preparing a Neighborhood Response Program, to further help address neighbors’ concerns.
4. Safe Embrace will provide contact phone numbers and emails for their Executive Director and Shelter Manager.
5. Schedule weekly in-person check ins with neighborhood residents to discuss neighborhood problems.
6. Enact new pet policies, so dogs will not be allowed in the outside runs at night.
7. Vary all lightning requirements to maintain the neighborhood character of the site and to preserve the similar look of the neighboring properties.
Lobbyist/Lawyer Garrett Gordon grabbed the county microphone, and mentioned he was honored to represent a nonprofit such as Safe Embrace.
Commissioner Mike Clark was the commissioner with the most questions regarding the special use permit moving forward and he wanted his concerns about Safe Embrace on the record, so people can look at this at a later date. Deputy District Attorney Mary Kandaras reminded Clark that the question before the body is whether this use permit is appropriate for the property and all of his questions would be answered by the appropriate department.
Commissioner Mariluz Garcia, who’s the commissioner for this district, said she had listened to the concerns voiced by the neighbor’s and asked three questions of Washoe County Planner Julie Olander, regarding the dwelling unit having no kitchen, the playroom and the last the video surveillance, which she thought she had seen a new system when she toured the facility.
Garcia went on the record that she thought, “the mission of Safe Embrace is something we can all get behind and we need more beds.” She then went onto say, “there is literally an aisle between the two parties now. This has been a messy situation.”
Garcia had said Safe Embraces neighbors “deserve their voices to be heard” and called Garrett Gordon back up to offer more helpful comments about how much Safe Embrace wants to work with the neighbors. He pointed out there was newly installed landscaping which had been started in front and once we “get through winter and prior to any increase in occupancy we will finish up those plantings in the spring.”
Stop the presses folks Mr. Gordon said a whole lot with that statement. Key words “prior to any increase in occupancy” meaning Safe Embrace would need to file a business license in order to increase capacity, and we cannot find where they have applied. Which means all of those lovely promises made to the residents on Ponderosa at the November 2023 Washoe County Commission meeting don’t need to be met until the group home requests an expansion to 18 or 25 occupants.
On June 18, 2024, street resident Katie Knepper stepped to the podium at the Board of County Commission meeting and pointed out nothing had been done by Safe Embrace since the November 2023 meeting as was promised to be more communicative with their neighbors.
The only thing Safe Embrace seemed to have done in the last six months was to sue their neighbors for attorney fees. As Mrs. Knepper pointed out County Commissioner Jeanne Herman donated $10,000 in January 2024 to Safe Embrace, so the nonprofit had county money available to sue the neighbors for attorney fees. Isn’t there a whole lot wrong with that?
Mrs. Knepper went onto state Safe Embrace has done nothing to comply with code for the last six months per their special use permit, no barrier for trash containers, landscaping buffer, fencing hasn’t been erected, no neighborhood weekly check-in meetings, the water leak on west side of driveway has never been fixed which dates back to August 2023.
It would seem Safe Embrace only wants to be good neighbors when they need something, such as the special use permit. Again, we believe Safe Embrace needs to do nothing until they apply for 18 or 25 people hence the special use permit. When will they start the business license process, who knows, because it seems they are getting away with doing nothing, and that includes not being a good neighbor.
The biggest question, where is their County Commissioner Mariluz Garcia following up on how things are going for her constituents on Ponderosa.
Garcia made a big deal out of her elderly dad putting up signs during her 2022 campaign, and most of the residents on Ponderosa are seniors so we would think Garcia might have actually checked-in with here senior residents, guess not.
