Month: November 2023

Unhoused people say they’re targeted, misunderstood A BB gun shooting interrupts an autumn morning

photo by Leslie Layton
Campers believe the hole was caused by gunfire aimed at them.

Sidebar to part II in ChicoSol series on homelessness in 2023.

On a Friday morning in September, North State Shelter Team (NSST) volunteers keep the mobile shower unit running during their weekly visit to the alternate site campground. Hope Commons Church has brought coffee and rolls for unhoused campers. Suddenly, a ping ping ping interrupts quiet conversations.

Then, a tide of irritation and indignant anger rolls through the encampment with the realization that there has just been a BB gun shooting aimed at the group from a passing car. No one was hit, but any of us – from the unhoused to the community volunteers to a pair of ChicoSol journalists on assignment – could have been.

Witnesses near the gate saw a purple-ish Nissan speeding west on Eaton Road. Several volunteers call the police, and soon after Chico Police Department would leave a message to report that it couldn’t locate the car. read more

Pallet shelters offer refuge, future Evictions are ongoing as City faces persistent homelessness

photo by Karen Laslo
Pallet shelters now comprise “Genesis.”

by Leslie Layton
posted Nov. 9

Part II of a two-part series. Read part I on surviving extreme conditions here.

Beyond the gate that secures southeast Chico’s “Genesis,” the little grey sleeping cabins are in orderly lines. There are suggestions that this is home, for the moment, to occupants who have planted a cactus garden, or leaned a bicycle against their pallet shelter, or left a walker by the door.

The 177 pallet shelters – the village named Genesis — provide autonomy and greater security than the occupants, who were previously unsheltered, probably had before they moved in. They’re a key piece in what success the City has had in responding to homelessness, a product of the 2022 settlement in the Warren v. Chico lawsuit.

Since that settlement, signed almost two years ago, the City has eliminated the large, sprawling encampments in public parks and along the creeks. But Genesis, other housing options and the City-sanctioned “alternate site” campground – also opened in response to the lawsuit – have not resolved the shelter crisis. read more