the game of homeless ping pong between reno and sparks

[NO] Camping?...one of the encampments along the Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway As I've been riding to school more regularly you can see the ongoing battle over where the homeless encampments are located along the Truckee River Bike Path.  One week they are on the Sparks side, the next they reside on the Reno side.  I rarely witness any law enforcement ousting them from one jurisdiction or the other (or any law enforcement at all unless it is in the downtown area of the path where tourists are likely to be) but it must be happening because it used to be that an encampment would stake out territory for months. There are so many issues and layers to address when it comes to the homeless situation in many communities.  Economics, mental illness, drugs, crime, providing basic human services, etc....  I've written about this all before on this blog.  Yet I still ride the path because I like the river and I would love to see this connector being used by more residents for commuting by bike and recreation. As it is, the Tahoe Pyramid bikeway is feeling increasingly less safe to ride on in the 4 mile stretch that I regularly commute on.  And it should be noted I'm riding on it around 3 in the afternoon, not late at night or in the early morning hours when I take an on street route to school.  In the mid afternoon I've witnessed public exposure, drug deals, and physically threatening behavior, along with altercations between different homeless people.  I don't mean to portray this as some scene out of the film Escape From New York.  More often than not I exchange a polite nod or wave with several of the residents along the river that I've seen there for years.  But it does seem to feel increasingly sketchy in particular stretches and some of what I will call body language has increasingly felt more threatening as I've ridden home.  Particular the woman cracking a bullwhip and a man swinging a golf club to and fro.   Like I said, there are many complexities to the issue of homelessness in our communities.  And it's easy to ignore it if you don't navigate the same urban space with the homeless in our communities on a regular basis.  But one thing I know is that there is very little in the way of systemic problem solving.  It mostly seems like band-aids no matter how many Reno Works photo ops I see posted on social media, as well meaning as the program is.  The Tahoe Pyramid path should be a jewel of an urban space shared by all of the residents of Reno and Sparks.  There seems to be mounting evidence that "housing first" approaches are actually much better, more cost effective, and frankly, more humane than many band-aid programs we often see in towns like ours.  For more on that check out this article:   The most cost-effective way to help the homeless is to give them homes