Community Development Director Brendan Vieg talks about the Housing Element.
Chico’s City Council has adopted an eight-year housing plan after finally winning approval from the state with its fourth draft of the required document.
The Sept. 19 City Council unanimous vote sealed the eight-year plan, the Housing Element, that outlines the development strategy for long-term residential growth and includes an assessment of current housing stock and available funding.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) had rejected previous drafts and required revisions to meet the state’s complex requirements. The Housing Element was required to cover the period from 2022 to June 2030, ensuring that the City would comply with new legislation by developing a comprehensive strategy to promote “safe, decent and affordable housing.”read more
Butte County Housing Authority Executive Director Ed Mayer at the play area of North Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex.
Affordable housing for low-income renters is growing increasingly available across Butte County -– even as the population of unhoused people grows.
There has been progress on the housing gap as new affordable housing developments come on line, and more expensive homes free up units for those qualifying for low-income units, said Butte County Housing Authority Executive Director Ed Mayer.
However, Mayer’s skeptical that the 3,056 new, affordable homes that are planned, under construction or recently opened can put more than a dent in demand in this county of about 200,000 residents.
The region’s housing crisis has been exacerbated by wildfires, as well as the huge discrepancy between average incomes and rents and home prices. Two years ago, in an interview with ChicoSol, Mayer estimated that 6,000 units were needed.read more
Housing Authority Executive Director Ed Mayer looks out at the community room at the North Creek Crossings Apartments that opened in June and were built in partnership with the agency he leads.
When the Butte County Housing Authority opened its Section 8 waitlist for low-income housing early this year, it was flooded with 8,368 applications from this county and beyond.
A portion of those applicants entered a lottery for a Section 8 housing voucher. Each year, only 1,500 win the lottery. And even more alarming is the fact that only about half of the lottery “winners” -– the 750 who had been selected by lottery for a voucher -– find and rent an affordable unit in Butte County in the time frame they’re given.
For thousands of Butte County residents -– and in fact, for millions of Americans -– winning the lottery means, literally, landing in a housing unit they can afford, or even just landing a chance at said housing unit.read more
Cities like Chico are under pressure to protect the unhoused
By Natalie Hanson | Posted September 12, 2023
photo courtesy of City of Chico
Chico’s tree canopy provides relief on hot days.
Cities like Chico are under growing pressure to protect people from harm and death as waves of extreme heat become more commonplace — and after California faced its hottest month on record.
The state, meanwhile, says it is launching a new program to help vulnerable communities — particularly the unhoused and aging populations — face increasingly hot seasons. Several experts on a recent Ethnic Media Services panel said cities must look for ways to manage extreme heat waves that will last longer and pose more risk than ever before.
In Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, the state is launching a grant-based community resilience program to help counties and nonprofits across the state face this new reality, said program manager Braden Kay.read more
As Chico’s Juan Flores speaks with random Americans in Northern California, he learns that from fast food to national parks and diversity, people love the country and worry about it. Video produced by Juan Flores.
Winslow: "the government owes safety and security to everyone"
By Addison Winslow | Posted September 3, 2023
photo by Karen Laslo
City staff cleared Depot Park Aug. 31, evicting people from what had become the last large encampment.
The Warren v Chico settlement forced Chico into a reckoning with homelessness; such a reckoning that city policy now has the effect of a boulder rolling down a hill. Not once since I was sworn into office last December has the City Council been asked for or given direction on homelessness.
Taking the settlement forced on us by a federal court as the entirety of our City’s policy to address homelessness puts Chico in a rut. Because the court decided that a shelter bed only qualifies as a token for eviction if it is indoors, we have sidelined the quickest and simplest option to improve conditions of people camping in public spaces: managed camping in an environmentally responsible location. The biggest absurdity of this is that, as part of the settlement agreement, we have sanctioned campgrounds (three of them, technically, though all at the same intersection), and regulation is just piecemeal or nonexistent.read more
