Carson City sheriff addresses homeless issue after man found dead near encampment
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Tue, 08/21/2018 - 9:57am
A homeless man was found dead Monday evening in a field in the area of Long and State streets. There were no signs of foul play and an autopsy is underway, said Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong.
The body was discovered at around 8:15 p.m. by homeless people who have an encampment in the area. The man had been known to be homeless in the city for at least a year or more. As procedure, the death was being investigated by detectives and those encamped in the area were interviewed.
Furlong said the sheriff’s office, the city and Mayor Bob Crowell have been looking at ways to address homeless populations within the city and residential areas like the one at Long and State among others, and the difficulty it is to remove one homeless encampment, only to have another sprout up elsewhere.
Furlong notes not all homeless individuals are alike, many have families and are in need of shelter and a helping hand upward, while there are many others who don’t want public assistance and prefer to stay in homeless camps.
“We are very engaged in the homeless issue going on, from the Mayor, to the health department to all city departments. We are hearing complaints and stepping up to the challenges,” said Furlong. “But as we saw last night, some efforts don’t pay off and people die.”
Friends in Service Helping, also known as FISH, The Bridge Church and area clergy are organizations that are working together to address both immediate and long term solutions with the homeless. Last winter, local churches opened their doors for nightly shelter stays to get people out of the extreme cold conditions, something that city has also done for years, opening up warming shelters during below freezing weather conditions. The churches intend to open the shelters again this winter.
At the sheriff's office, law enforcement training and its MOST program are also working to address the homeless and those associated with severe mental illness.
“There are many classifications with homeless and the city’s health department is addressing this. We, from the law enforcement side, see the most extreme environments of mental health, drug addiction and people without any desire to help themselves,” said Furlong.
“But there is a large group of people who are homeless and are looking for help getting out of it. Not all those who are homeless fit into one category. There are several levels and we are trying to address those levels in Carson City,” said Furlong.
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