The Alexis Hill and Eric Brown Show: Where Results Are Optional

Commissioner Alexis Hills presentation February 5, 2025 at the Nevada Legislature.

So Washoe County keeps telling us Commission Chair Alexis Hill and County Manager Eric Brown have homelessness under control. Hill just told the Nevada Legislature’s Senate Committee on Government Affairs yesterday, February 5, 2025, that Washoe County has reduced homelessness by 40%.

Really? Let's do a reality check:

✦ The Nevada Cares Campus is bursting at the seams

✦ Tent cities are popping up faster than new coffee shops

✦ It took community activist Lily Baran to step up and open warming centers because... where was the county?

Speaking of those warming centers - isn't it interesting that it took a private citizen to make this happen? While Hill and Brown were presumably busy with whatever they're calling "solutions," Baran actually did something about people freezing on our streets. Could that be why Washoe County and Chair Hill can now take credit for “less deaths” of our unhoused population.

Let's be real: If our county leaders were really "solving" homelessness:

• Why are our homeless neighbors still sleeping in freezing temperatures?

• Why is the Cares Campus playing Tetris with bed space?

• Why did it take a community member to provide basic winter survival necessities?

Here's a wild thought: Maybe instead of patting themselves on the back about their "comprehensive approach," Hill and Brown could take notes from folks like Baran who are actually getting things done.

Thanks to Phil Tenneson for this Facebook post calling out Commissioner Alexis Hill and County Manager Eric Brown. Highlighting their presentation yesterday, it is an eye opener knowing Chair Hill has reduced homelessness in Washoe County by 40%.

Hill testified in front of the committee with this statement:

“We have a very exciting homeless program that we have been doing for the last three years. Washoe County took over the Continuum of Care and worked with our regional partners at Reno and Sparks to support a region wide shelter

Sadly, we are still experiencing an influx of homeless. Not because the county is not working on this but because rents still are continuing going up. We are looking at more creative solutions how we can deal with this. Fewer people are dying on the streets because Washoe County is making sure they’re getting an emergency shelter, and we get them the support they need.”

"Exciting Homeless Program" is Chair Hill totally tone-deaf? When did human suffering become "exciting"?

Chair Alexis Hill has once again demonstrated a startling disconnect from the reality of homelessness in Washoe County by describing the homeless program as "exciting." This isn't a new special event or restaurant opening - we're talking about people struggling to survive on our streets.

Hill commented, “400 folks who have been permanently housed” – can Washoe County back that number up? Also, can they let us know the rate of recidivism. How many of these 400 people are still permanently housed? How many are back at the Nevada CARES Campus and how many are on the streets?

County Manager Eric Brown discussed his son. Does Brown’s son live at home, thus making this a truly interesting comment: “I’ll point out the medium gross rent is $1500 bucks a month. I can tell you personally because I have a twenty-something year old single son it is hard to find a one bedroom apartment in Washoe county for under $1600 a month which is a key challenge we will talk about.”

Brown moved here in 2019 and his 20+ year old son was attending college, per Brown’s profile when he was hired. Is he living at home after five years? Hill and Brown used Brown’s son as an example of what is happening with the homeless and are indicating people are homeless because of the cost of rents in Washoe County. Really, rent only? We thought Washoe County keeps telling us the paramount problem of the homeless is mental health.

Other interesting tidbits from the presentation to the legislative committee is a slide about Infrastructure: Roads and Stormwater – funding source for road maintenance. This is the second time Picon wrote about it and we’d urged residents to realize Hill has found an unused tax and she wants to grab those possible funds from taxpayers. Hill just needs her vote and two other commissioners (Garcia and Andriola we guess) to raise your tax.

Slide presented yesterday, February 5, 2025 at the Senate Committee on Government Affairs. We added the red arrow showing Hill’s want of a funding source, meaning she will tax Washoe County residents.

County Manager Brown weighed in on tightening the county’s belt because of C-Tax being down stating:

“Fiscal Responsibility, the C-Tax revenues situation is causing us to tighten our belts and be very careful about committing new expenditures. We want to make sure we continue to follow through on the strategic plan priorities like West Hills and our homeless services, all things we talked about earlier, our services for seniors. Try at all costs to avoid to cut services.”

We were amused that seniors were a bit of an afterthought for Brown, but he proves daily he is not a proponent of seniors in Washoe County. However, his “baby” is West Hills and while the county has received $14.5 million from the State of Nevada for the project it doesn’t mean they have to spend more taxpayer money on West Hills. It has come to light that the county should have commissioned a study of the building. They have hit roadblocks that will mean Washoe County, due to Brown’s lack of diligence, needs to throw an additional $25-$35 million to rehab the building.

This is why Brown’s statement was carefully crafted to “follow through on the strategic plan” which includes West Hills rehab, so Brown can justify spending taxpayer dollars when they are supposed to be tightening their belts. He will simply point to the strategic plan, don’t be fooled residents you can put your foot down and stop that spending, since the building/program was supposed to have been opened this summer, according to Brown, it is now slated for 2027.

Commissioner Hill highlighted a program (without a name) at Washoe County where homeless individuals are assigned a case manager, as part of this pilot program, that works with them though the housing process and this has been met with “big successes” with a 96% success rate. Could someone, anyone at the county outline what that program is?

Finally County Manager Brown talked about “community engagement” and Washoe County’s Community Advisory Boards, which a great many residents feel Brown and his management team are trying to rid themselves of. Brown commented he wanted to “turn up the engagement” so we urge residents to hold Brown accountable for continuing the CABs.

And our new favorite at the legislature is Senator Dina Neal who questioned County Manager Brown and wanted to see his C-Tax numbers. We do too.