Council increases security, code enforcement at Alternative Camping Site

The Chico City Council voted Oct. 21 to increase visits by Jesus Center staff to the Alternative Camping Site from twice a week to seven days a week, and to have Armed Guard Private Security patrol not only the site, but also the nearby neighborhood.

The plan will be implemented for two months at the north Chico homeless encampment, after which time City staff will return to the Council with an assessment.

Meanwhile, the City will incorporate several new rules into the site’s code of conduct, require that residents who are now eligible for the Genesis pallet shelter relocate there, and provide pallet pads to help raise existing tents off the ground.

The updated Code of Conduct for unhoused people living on a corner lot at Eaton and Cohasset roads will prohibit the addition of any structure of any kind to an assigned space; will ban certain items — including generators, full or empty gas cans, electrical cords and propane tanks of any size; and will permit animal fencing but only with prior approval.

Additionally, at the meeting, a few community members and councilmembers also raised concerns about dumpster capacity, access for emergency responders to the locked gate, and living conditions at the site.

Public Works Director Erik Gustafson presented at the meeting before the vote. He said there are six people eligible for Genesis and that requiring their departure will also enhance livability at the site for the remaining residents. 

Lynn Overholzer, a Chico resident who first raised concerns about the site at a previous Council meeting, expressed dissatisfaction that the site will not be relocated and said she hopes that enforcement against those camping outside the designated area will occur more frequently.

Lori Mason, a member of the North State Shelter Team, spoke during the public comment session. She first addressed Councilmember Tom van Overbeek regarding what she described as his wrong impressions of the site’s residents.

“You said the camp was full of 290s — registered sex offenders,” Mason said. “There are two. There are two people there. One of them committed a crime in 1996, (and) has not committed a crime since then. He was about 18 or 19 when that happened.

“One of the things that’s happened is that you all want the trash to be taken care of while the two big trash dumpsters are gone,” she continued. “There were two really huge ones, people could throw their couches in and there was a door. That’s gone. All we’ve got is an apartment-sized one. We don’t have the big ones.”

She also expressed her concern about EMS vehicles including ambulances not being able to unlock the gate when a medical crisis at the site occurs.

“One of the things I worry about, being a nurse, is that what if the EMS doesn’t have a new code? What if Chico PD does not have a new code? They need to be able to get in. They can’t just get in necessarily by the small gate. You can’t get a gurney through that small gate.”

Councilmember Addison Winslow later suggested that the City should consider increasing dumpster capacity and assure access to the gate for every vendor who might need it, including an ambulance service.

Currently, the vehicular exit gate at the site is locked, but the small pedestrian gate remains open and has no lock, which has raised other safety concerns. 

Winslow asked Gustafson if the City could add a lock to the small gate and give keys to residents so that some of the emergencies that have occurred overnight in the past could be addressed in the future.

“It would be really hard to manage the key scenario,” Gustafson responded. “They would be lost, handed out, duplicated, pretty consistently. So I would be concerned with the risk and liability.”

Under Gustafson’s proposal, if Jesus Center operations staff increased site visits to five days a week, it would cost the City $9,500 per month. Considering financial constraints, he recommended that the City expand Jesus Center staffing incrementally and monitor the results over several months.

Councilmember Michael O’Brien made a motion that accepted most Public Works recommendations; however, the motion called for expanding Jesus Center site visits to seven days a week, as well as having AG security patrol the neighborhood, and directed City staff to report back in two months after implementing the new measures.

The Council passed the motion unanimously.

Mary Kay Benson, manager of the Chico CA Shelter for All Facebook group, commented today that there could be “glitches,” but there is reason for optimism.

“As with any proposed improvements, we shelter advocates are cautiously optimistic,” Benson wrote to ChicoSol. “Other human rights advocates in Chico Shelter for All are concerned, and hope that the security guards will treat the authorized campers kindly and with respect due to any human.”

Councilmember Bryce Goldstein proposed improving livability at the Alternative Site at the Oct. 4 Council meeting, and called what the Council did at this most recent meeting, in terms of livability, “minor .”

“We just approved the pallet pads that help raise the tents up to make sure there is no flooding from the ground,” she noted today. “The emphasis of what we approved is mainly on safety. I think that’s a very important first step towards making the site more livable in general.

“But in the future, I will come back to [livability] when we do our review to see if there are more things that we can improve on.”

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