Homeless drop-in center on brink of closing

Saturday, Oct. 11, 1997 | 2:04 a.m.

Mike Stickler, executive director, said many homeless people may be forced to stay on the streets as cold weather sets in unless funding is found.

"We've been operating for 10 months on our own resources, but they've run out," Stickler said.

"The county has funded us since 1994, but we didn't get anything this year," he said. "We've been talking to the city, and they say they'll get back to us. But the clock is ticking."

Washoe County officials said the drop-in center did not receive money this year because mission operators did not ask for it.

"Last year Center Street Mission did not submit a proposal," said Mike McMann, director of the Washoe County Consortium, a committee that determines funding for social service organizations in the county, Reno and Sparks.

"They needed to make a formal request," McMann said.

The drop-in center has run at its capacity of 82 several times over the past three weeks, Stickler said.

Clients must check in by 8 p.m. and are required to receive evaluations and counseling. There are no cots or beds. Those who spend the night do so sitting up around tables.

"It's a shelter, not a flophouse," Stickler said.

Besides refuge from the weather, the shelter also gives homeless people a place to receive mail and phone messages. Job-search assistance and document services also are offered.

Stickler said the center needs $17,100 to remain open for 90 days.

Washoe County and the city of Reno are working on a proposal to open a building on Fourth Street for use as a homeless services center.

If that proposal pans out, Stickler said the drop-in center could relocate there along with other homeless services.

The center gives homeless people a place to go and reduces the number who end up in jail or at hospitals, Stickler said, adding that the cost of running the shelter amounts to pennies in comparison.