Women Barely Surviving on the Streets of Reno

We recently had an episode on old men on the streets of Reno, Nevada avoiding the Nevada Cares campus and trying to survive despite the cold winter we’ve gone through. We wanted to do an episode about unhoused women, why are they living on the streets, do they stay safe , what are their hopes , what is their message to the community. All of the women you’ll hear on this episode were along the Truckee River. First from our archive audio we will hear Jaime a mother of six from Winnemucca who was separated from her children and faced daily sexual assault, self medicating with drugs, and mistrustful of the world around her. In Part Two of our episode we hear from Baby Bleu who at the time of our interview was going for resources during the day at the Eddy House but sleeping outside. She started as a sex worker as teenager while going to Hug High at its former location near Sutro. She had recently got kicked out of an apartment. In Part Three of our episode, we go to Barbara Bennett Park with former Our Town Reno reporter Lucia Starbuck who met Annette there. At the time of the interview she was spending her days there with her ailing dog and staying wit a group to feel safer. In our final part to this podcast with archive audio of women living on the streets we’ll lend an ear to Joan, in her 70s, and a former Reno Gazette Journal employee. At the time of the interview she was on a waiting list for assisted senior housing, and felt harassed by police and other unhoused who tried to give her drugs.