Division of Welfare and Supportive Services

This office (located BEHIND the old town mall) opened up in 2013, which was a huge improvement over the previous location (at Keystone and McCarran) as it was much larger and closer to many of the people that needed it. Unfortuntely, DWSS in Nevada is a sad, overwhelmed, understaffed agency. Washoe and Clark Counties (among others) were hit hard by the recession and, when visiting an office like this, it’s clear (at best) how underprepared they were (and are) for the swelling ranks of the needy and (at worst) how little regard the (non-​) leadership at the state level has for poor people.
This low-​prioritization of the those with the least is also highly counterproductive for a state so dependent on federal aid. For example, Nevada ranks 41^st in the rate of SNAP (aka food stamp) enrollment as a proportion of the eligible population (69%, 2011 stats). For reference, enrollment is 100% in Maine, Oregon, and Washington state. When it appears a state doesn’t care as much as it could about trying to help poor folks, the feds are less likely to want to help the state with federal programs. No doubt part of the issue is NV’s archaic re-​certification process; a individual/​family has to COMPLETELY REAPPLY (filling out the entire paper application, regardless of little or no changes) every SIX months. They also give you less than a month from the notification date to return it (minus mailing times — see photo to see an example of how they waited 10 days to mail a notice due back a month later), and then, maybe, they’ll review it before your benefits expire. No doubt this discourages (or disqualifies by attrition) those challenged by long applications and fast turnaround. It’s hard not to see this as intentional. But I digress…
It’s hard to really fault the employees of this office (they have a three-​month backlog of unfiled recertifications and other applications). The priorities of this office (they handle many different programs, so it’s not first-​come first-​serve) are constantly changing, so what I critique today could change tomorrow. However, I will say that on my most recent visit I got the shit end of the stick; while I saw folks come in an out after maybe ½ hour, there was ONE worker taking care of my kind of transaction and 12 folks ahead of me when I arrived, which meant I waited 3 ½ hours to see a case worker. My previous visit (same transaction) took ½ hour. This is how a broken system looks.
Overall, visiting this office is (with few exceptions) a miserable and degrading experience. They are nearly constantly at capacity (107 persons). There is an overzealous security guard to keep you in line like the piece of trash he thinks you are, which means no food and no talking on a cell phone and never, ever using an empty counter to fill out paperwork. If you’re waiting 3 or 4 hours to talk to a case worker, this means wasted time you could be planning for something else, and misery and aggravation due to hunger.
They do, have a bathroom, so 1 star for that. Half the time your case worker will be nice, so another star for that.