Emergency shelter program shuts down

Unexplained closure moves some people to the streets
by Leslie Layton | Posted December 1, 2021

photo by Leslie Layton
ChicoSol’s editor was greeted by a True North staffer and a security guard.

A Chico nonprofit shut down an emergency hotel-based shelter program today, and this reporter was told to leave the property at Town House Motel where residents had been staying.

The program, funded by the CARES Act, placed unhoused people at high risk for COVID or COVID-related complications in motels and hotels. The shelter program was expected to stay in place until the end of January 2022, but was ended Nov. 30 after participants were given two weeks notice.

About half of the people using the program, described as a “Project Roomkey” extension but funded in another way, had nowhere to go, ChicoSol has learned. A total of 40 people had been staying there through the shelter program. read more