Low income resource center planned for Oddie and Sullivan

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) -The large sign at Oddie Boulevard and Sullivan Lane says there is space available. And backers of a resource center for low-income families hope it stays that way.

There are plans to transform the former supermarket and strip mall into a place for families to get the help they need. With medical care, support services, a food bank and childcare.

The project involves the Children’s Cabinet, The Food Bank of Northern Nevada, The Community Health Alliance, and the Boys and Girls Club.

“The best way to provide services is to get them all together so that people aren’t having to bounce from one agency to another throughout town,” says Kim Young CEO of the Children’s Cabinet. “So, we are reducing a lot of barriers by combining services under one roof.”

The project will cost money to both buy the land and rehabilitate the building.

That’s where State Senator Heidi Seevers Gansert comes in. She’s introduced Senate Bill 263 which would provide state funds to the tune of $12-million dollars to help pay for the project.

“So, it will be a hub for one of the poorest and most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Reno, you know on Oddie Boulevard,” says Senator Seevers Gansert. “So, I am really excited, and I hope we can find the funding for it.”

While the senator may be able to find the state funding for the project. The Children’s Cabinet and the Food Bank of Northern Nevada will have to come up with matching funds to the tune of four-million dollars.

“We’ve created a non-profit corporation for the purposes of obtaining the parcel and the buildings,” says Nicole Lambolei, CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. “And then we will be tenants operating services and programs within the parcel and the buildings on the parcel.”

If all goes as planned the facility could be up and running by 2024.

But it first must make it through the 2023 Legislature which is scheduled to adjourn on Monday. The senate minority leader hopes to have her bill out of Senate Finance by tonight.

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