Arrests, Silence, and Safe Camp Secrets

Three individuals who have worked for the Karma Box Project have been arrested since November 2025. That alone should raise serious questions about oversight and accountability.

At the same time, rumors continue to swirl that Karma Box Project has been replaced at the county’s Safe Camp by either RISE or Volunteers of America. Yet so far, no one at Washoe County seems willing to go on the record to confirm what is actually happening.

Of course, if past practice holds, someone at the county will eventually provide a very detailed explanation about why they couldn’t tell the public anything in the first place.

At this point, it’s unclear whether any change in Safe Camp leadership is temporary or permanent. The upcoming Community Homelessness Advisory Board (CHAB) meeting may help shed some light on the situation.

But one thing is becoming clear: patience in the community is running thin.

Several individuals and organizations have indicated that if the county continues to stand by Karma Box Project and its executive director, Grant Denton, pressure will shift squarely onto Kate Thomas to make a better decision than she has after the last three arrests involving Karma Box employees.

Many believe the county should simply cut the umbilical cord and put the Safe Camp contract out for an RFP — a Request for Proposals — and allow qualified organizations to compete. Washoe County can, and should, do better.

And where would that leave Denton, who is known to don a three-piece suit and head off to Washington, D.C., to press the flesh, discuss his successes and outcomes at the Safe Camp - too bad the county can’t provide any in writing, but hey Denton is having cocktails ‘on the hill’ conversations, no proof needed.

Frankly, that may not be the most important question.

The bigger one is why his own board has not held him accountable. Those board members are deeply rooted in this community, and they will likely be answering for these decisions long after the public has forgotten Grant Denton and he has moved on to another city to sell the same promises all over again.

We reached out to someone who prefers to stay out of the fray — even though Grant Denton has repeatedly pointed the finger at them in conversations around town as to a catalyst for starting conversations about his involvement. Their response was blunt:

“I prefer to let the nine women who came forward in May 2024 to confront Grant Denton speak for themselves. I believe their time has finally arrived. They were shut down by Washoe County and largely ignored by the public after Denton’s friends and board members circled the wagons to protect him in 2024, launching a campaign to humiliate and discredit those women. In the end, they succeeded — the women were silenced and the problem simply continued to simmer.

I continued to call out Denton whenever it was appropriate, but the bigger villain in this story may be the Washoe County District Attorney's Office AKA Chris Hicks. On May 28, 2024, when Kim K. stepped up to the podium — with Lily Baran standing behind her because she was afraid she might faint — the DA’s office shut her down.

That decision wasn’t made by now-retired Deputy District Attorney Mary Kandaras. The call came from the top — from District Attorney Chris Hicks. Mary worked for him.

Accountability shouldn’t stop with Denton. The District Attorney’s office should also be held accountable.

As for Denton, the writing was already on the wall when the Karma Box Project lost its nonprofit status due to unfiled paperwork — a mistake that, predictably, was blamed on an employee. That moment made it clear he was incapable of responsibly running something as serious as the Safe Camp.

What’s truly unfortunate is that it appears to have taken the county three years — and now three arrests — to catch up to what some of us already knew: this guy was always a flash in the pan.”