Reno Gazette Journal: Federal cuts close Reno mental health crisis center — Mayor Hillary Schieve wants answers
- Apr 11
- 4 min read
Reno Gazette Journal
Updated April 11, 2025 4:26 p.m. PT
Updated to add comment from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.
Services at Reno’s only dedicated mental health crisis center have been suspended in the wake of federal cuts.
“After thoughtful consideration and a careful review of current circumstances, services have been suspended at the Renown Crisis Care Center,” Renown Health announced the evening of April 10.
The crisis center was a place where law enforcement officers, paramedics and other first responders could bring someone experiencing serious mental health issues.
It opened in February on Galletti Way in Sparks on the Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health campus.
During the center’s ramp-up phase, it assessed and treated 80 adults for mental health or substance abuse issues or both, Renown said. It’d been projected to serve more than 7,000 adults annually, or 134 patients a week.
Reno mayor angry at crisis center closure
“I am irate,” Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve told the Reno Gazette Journal. “I worked seven years on this project. This was something that we needed so desperately in the community. This was not an easy lift.”
Schieve worked with Nevada Govs. Steve Sisolak and Joe Lombardo, Washoe County Behavioral Health Administrator Julia Ratti, Nevada Health and Human Services Director Richard Whitley and Renown’s Steve Shell to make it happen.
Upon learning of the news the morning of April 11, she fired off a letter to Renown.
“This development is particularly disheartening given the significant efforts and resources invested over the past seven years to establish this vital facility,” she wrote.
“Closing the Crisis Care Center undermines the efforts of state and local leaders, while leaving a void in our mental health services.”
Schieve told the RGJ that first responders will feel the closure’s effects because they will have to return to a revolving-door system of repeatedly taking people to emergency rooms and the Washoe County jail instead of getting them the targeted services they need.
“We spend a lot of money on that revolving door,” she said. “And guess where they get treated instead? Jail. We are treating some of our country’s sickest patients in our jails, and it's an enormous amount of resources to the community and taxpayers when all we're doing is trying to arrest our way out of this mental healthcare crisis.”
Why did the state of Nevada not use all mental health funds?
Schieve said she planned to reach out to Lombardo’s office to ask why federal funds for mental health programs weren’t secured before the cuts were announced.
“We all knew there was a possibility of ARPA funds being sent back,” she said, referring to the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Joe Biden in 2021. Its funds were used for the Renown Crisis Care Center and other Nevada mental health programs.
“I would like to know why the money wasn’t out the door knowing that this initiative to suspend everything was there?”
The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services said there's an ongoing federal lawsuit by multiple states against COVID-era grants being rescinded.
The department has requested a federal administrative hearing with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which provided the crisis center grant funding.
Its Division of Public and Behavioral Health "is currently examining other available funding sources to identify if any funding unaffected by the COVID-era grant rescission could be used to support the Renown Crisis Care Center," said Nathan Orme, Nevada HHS spokesperson.
Sen. Cortez Masto seeks answers about federal cuts to mental health funding
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto sent a letter on April 11 to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, expressing concern over “the sudden termination of the block grants for Community Mental Health Services.”
The reason given for cuts to federal funds is that they were linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has long been declared over.
“The reach of this funding goes far beyond pandemic recovery,” Cortez Masto wrote.
“Federal mental health dollars serve as a lifeline, helping state and local agencies deliver essential services, particularly in rural and underserved areas.”
About 474,000 Nevadans experience mental health conditions, and the state ranks among the nation’s worst for access to care.
Sen. Cortez Masto asked Kennedy why the mental health funding was terminated before its scheduled expiration in September and how people who relied on programs dependent on federal funds will avoid gaps in their care.
Asked by the RGJ about Renown, a spokesperson said the senator is following the crisis center’s closure and pressing for answers from Health and Human Services.
"Senator Cortez Masto is deeply disappointed that this administration's federal funding chaos has caused so much uncertainty in Nevada,” the spokesperson added.
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.
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