Chico City Council looks for alternatives to Alternative Camping Site

The City Council voted unanimously Sept. 17 to identify location and service options for the Cohasset and Eaton Roads camping site where unhoused people have lived for several years, sheltered only by tents. The Council’s motion directs staff to look at alternative locations, whether the camp could be split among smaller sites and possible collaboration with service providers.

The discussion was initiated by Councilmember Mike O’Brien after a resident living in the neighborhood brought up safety concerns at a recent meeting. 

Erik Gustafson, Chico Public Works director, addressed the Council on challenges that Public Works has with the site and recent improvements that have been made. During public comment, neighborhood residents raised safety concerns about the north Chico campground and one camper, Brenda Sallee, spoke.

Charles Withuhn, president of North State Shelter Team and a longtime advocate for the unhoused, called again for closer management at the alternative site and for more managed campgrounds.

The Warren v. Chico Settlement Agreement required the City direct homeless individuals who are ineligible for other shelter options to a designated public property where camping would be temporarily permitted. Some of those referred there have been convicted felons, sex offenders or unhoused individuals with more than two pets.

But Gustafson said that unauthorized occupants camping at the site had impacted the campground. In June, he added, the City was finally able to manage the site with the Code of Conduct. 

“A framework now exists to trespass someone off the site if needed,” Gustafson said.

He also mentioned several improvements, including installing a lock and shutting the gate, which is used to prevent unauthorized access. Gustafson admitted that it might cause inconvenience to service providers like North State Shelter Team that provide showers for the homeless weekly, but it seems “to be working in keeping the unauthorized folks out.”

Following Gustafson, Amber Abney-Bass, CEO of the Jesus Center, introduced the case management work carried out by the Jesus Center at the site. 

Abney-Bass said one of her team’s responsibilities is to identify people who have been at the site for some time and whose changed circumstances might now make them eligible for shelters that had previously denied them. 

According to her, there are nine people at the site who qualify to enter the Genesis pallet shelter, but six of them are still in the decision phase, and three of them have turned down the offer.

A two-person team has begun visiting the site on Tuesdays and Fridays, she said. 

“One of those folks is walking around addressing any code of conduct violations, getting any feedback at the sites,” Abney-Bass said. “Also, I have a case management person that goes out. We don’t ask people who are out to provide service to also be policing conduct and behavior. We really want to keep those two roles in relationships very separate.”

Abney-Bass added that there will be a doctor visiting the site. 

Lynne Overholtzer, a neighborhood resident, said at the Sept. 2 Council meeting that someone from the Alternative Site came to her door with a gunshot wound to the head and bloodied, which frightened her.

At the Sept. 16 meeting, Overholtzer noted the presence of several nearby schools, and urged the City to “come up with something more humane for the remaining categories: criminals with records of violent offenses and registered sex offenders.”

Charles Withuhn, president of North State Shelter Team, called for improved management that would help make the campground less a threat and nuisance for neighbors.

“If the camp was something that people could live in instead of just surviving in, then they would have a sense of pride,” Withuhn said. “Then they would take care of it, then they would pick up the litter.”

Reynolds pushes for a move

Mayor Kasey Reynolds, whose district includes the alternative campsite, suggested that it should be moved from its location soon.

“District 2 has endured enough,” Reynolds said. “We have had this the whole entire time. We are allowed to move this site up to two times a year. And I think every 60 days, if needed, it needs to be moved.

“I know for sure at least three leases have not been renewed, because people don’t want to have their businesses there anymore.”

Councilmember Tom van Overbeek, however, noted the limitations of available options.

“There is no other place really to put it as bad as this is,” van Overbeek said. “Reality is we’re going to be stuck with this for another 16 months. And at that point, we need to shut it down. And if those 10 people don’t want to go to the Genesis shelter, then they should try their luck in Redding.”

Councilmember Addison Winslow shook his head while hearing van Overbeek’s comments, expressed frustration with the campsite’s poor living conditions, and was critical of what he sees as the City’s unwillingness to invest in the campsite, making it an ongoing option.

“I think that we don’t want to put investment (in the campsite) – not just because it costs money,” Winslow said. “Nobody wants it [the Alternative Camping Site] to be a permanent state.

“We should always try to uphold some higher standards for health and sanitation,” Winslow added. “So if we can find another place, I’m all for looking at starting a new site. 

“I would say we start on a very different basis with a higher standard. And I say that we engage partners like North State Shelter Team, but also county Behavioral Health and such, in order to make sure that there’s serious case management and serious security, that it’s a real managed campground and not like what we have here,” Winslow continued.

Campsite residents want to voice their concerns

Brenda Sallee was the only resident who spoke at the Sept. 16 council meeting. She arrived in a wheelchair accompanied by her husband. Sallee, who has lived at the site since it opened, complained that the water supply is not “sanitary” and “safe,” and there is no place to cook. 

She said she hopes residents can be treated with dignity rather than, in her words, “like a piece of crap.”

“Everybody has a story out there–some are good, and some are bad,” Sallee said. “People don’t realize what the homeless really go through … And I never thought in a million years I would ever be one, but I am here.”  

In a June visit to the site, ChicoSol talked to a few other campers who voiced concerns. Joseph Valles, 56, has been living at the campsite since it opened in 2022. 

Valles hasn’t gone to Genesis because he has four dogs and said he didn’t want to abandon his dogs, which provide him with safety and companionship. 

He complained that a 20×20 space is too small to store his and his wife’s belongings, although he admitted some of those belongings are no longer useful. 

Valles said living at the site feels like living in a barren desert. “We don’t even have grass,” Valles said. “We don’t have shit. It would be nice to have grass instead of dust and dirt all the time.”

Pointing to the grass on the other side of the fence he was facing, Valles said, “When it rains, it’s nothing but mud puddles out here.”

Valles added that he wished there were a refrigerator for food storage, more dumpsters, and a shaded area.

O’Brien made a motion to direct staff to explore the other options, including alternative locations and splitting up the campground community. After Goldstein said “perhaps partnerships,” O’Brien added “collaboration” to the motion that was approved by all.

Yucheng Tang is a California Local News fellow reporting for ChicoSol.