Homeless, not hopeless - we see them every day

See the faces.

They're like walking shadows in our community, and most of us are only too happy to pass them by and let someone else care for them.

Carson City's homeless aren't invisible, though. We see them every day.

Some camp in the lot across Carson Street from Mills Park, in Brunswick Canyon, in a gully on C Hill.

But so many others are living day to day. A job this week, none the next. A place to stay tonight, but nowhere to turn tomorrow.

The best estimates say perhaps 200 people are homeless in Carson City on any given night, although maybe only a couple dozen are without a warm place to sleep. They have some options, such as the 32 beds at Focus House.

Carson City in winter may not have the sheer numbers of a place like San Francisco, where the count of homeless people runs as high as 12,500 people, but the problems they face in cold weather may be more severe.

There is no estimate for the homeless in Nevada, and only the vaguest numbers nationwide. We do know that some 36 million people in America live below the poverty line ($8,310 for an individual, $13,884 for a family of three).

They are the vulnerable. They are on the edge of homelessness, if the next paycheck doesn't arrive.

The Carson City School District counts 400 children whose parents can't support them. They are considered to be homeless, although many at least have a motel room, car or a spot in someone else's house in which to sleep.

In this series, Nevada Appeal reporters and photographers sought to put a face on the issue of homelessness in Carson City. They found the questions were easy but the answers sometimes impossible.

They found homeless people who were struggling each day to get by, and they found some who have chosen a vagabond way of life.

They found many people in Carson City who lend a hand daily to those who want help.

And they found homeless doesn't have to mean hopeless.

- Barry Smith, managing editor