It was a full house at Chico’s City Council Chambers, where community members voiced a range of perspectives on a plan to respond to homelessness in Chico.
At the Nov. 4 town hall, City Manager Gillian Haen outlined new strategies for “reducing unsheltered homelessness” in a staff-developed plan with 17 recommended priorities for the first year.
The resolution to a 2021 lawsuit against the city — the Warren Settlement — created restrictions on how the City can respond to the unhoused camping in public spaces. That settlement expires Jan. 14, 2027.
“Things will look very different,” Haen said during her presentation, adding that “there’s no silver bullet.”
Community members voiced mixed responses to the presentation. Some critics said the plan doesn’t appropriately respond to what they see as the root cause, drug addiction. Some residents voiced hope and encouraged collaboration between the City and stakeholders. Others said the plan is not ambitious enough, that the benchmark goal to house only 25% of the population is insufficient.
Haen explained that she hopes to under-promise and over-deliver on goals.
The Council has been preparing for the settlement’s expiration by considering tougher anti-camping enforcement. The city’s proposed plan incorporates such enforcement.
The proposed plan would enable a cleanup system for homeless encampments that requires just a 48-hour notification period instead of 17 days. The plan also seeks to increase community partnerships with faith-based organizations and other groups.
The town hall presentation also cited the Supreme Court’s 2024 Grants Pass v. Johnson decision, which found that enforcing camping regulations on public property does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.” This suit overturned the precedent that the Warren Settlement relied on.
Some residents said implementation of the plan should be delayed until new, progressive-majority city council members take their seats in January. One audience member called the City Council as of now a “lame duck council” in the wake of the Nov. 3 local election.
“I really tried so hard to make this a balanced plan, and I feel like it could garner support on both ends of the political spectrum, so I’m not worried at all,” Haen told ChicoSol after the town hall. “I didn’t draft a conservative plan. I didn’t draft a liberal plan. I tried to draft a very balanced, human-oriented plan. And so I think that’s why it can still be successful no matter who’s the majority.”
Jennifer Lang, who works as a teacher in transitional housing, said at the meeting that unhoused people need support to have autonomy. Lang described the plan as a Band-Aid.
“You put a Band-Aid on and if it’s just small scrapes, then it’s not a problem. But we are dealing with a festering wound,” Lang said. “We need to do some extensive care to actually change things.”
The most recent Point-In-Time survey in January 2025 identified 1,065 unhoused people in Chico, and said the numbers were increasing faster than state and federal rates. The next scheduled Point-in-Time survey is Jan. 27.
As a result of the meeting, Haen said she is considering a plan section that outlines how the community can assist. The next draft will be redlined to highlight what changed as a result of the town hall.
It will be deliberated on in City Council on Nov. 17, and the public can submit written comments to un******@*****ca.gov.
1 Comment
Top down enforcement? Hmmm, hasn’t that been conservative majority’s plan all along on Chico City Council? I’m with Bruce who said – let’s wait until the new progressive city council takes the reigns. Sure glad ChicoSol covered it though. I was home sick (from working to get all the progressives elected) and I tried to watch on Zoom – the camera was pointed at the floor after Haen spoke, and the public had 1 minute each? And then the audio died and closed captions quit. So I had to leave after an hour or so. And there doesn’t seem to be any video available of it. Tech problems prevail on Granicus too – hope that will also improve with progressives who are more tech savvy.