Category: Housing & homelessness

Activist shops for empathy at Saturday market Changemaker: Charles Withuhn rolls the boulder uphill

photo by Yucheng Tang
Charles Withuhn is president of the North State Shelter Team.

by Yucheng Tang
posted Jan. 28

Editor’s note: This is the first story in a series called “Changemakers” that ChicoSol will run monthly in an effort to highlight some of the remarkable work underway in our community.

Standing in front of his booth at the Chico Certified Farmers Market, Charles Withuhn greets passersby on this winter Saturday.

He shakes hands with some and passes out newsletters or fliers produced by the North State Shelter Team (NSST). Some people stop to listen and some barely show interest. Even though some people ignore him, Withuhn — like the mythological Sisyphus who relentlessly rolled a boulder up to a mountain top only to have the boulder roll down — just keeps making attempts at conversation.

As NSST president, Withuhn appears at the market almost every Saturday at 6:30 a.m., erecting his booth and ready to talk to any passersby about the shelter crisis facing Chico. read more

Controversial Tuscan Ridge rolls forward County supes vote in favor of Skyway housing project

photo by Yucheng Tang
Butte County’s Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to move forward with Tuscan Ridge, but developer Mark West still has to meet conditions of approval.

by Yucheng Tang
posted Jan. 3

Butte County’s supervisors have approved the controversial Tuscan Ridge housing project on the south side of Skyway, but the developer must still jump hurdles related to water, sewer and drainage.

The supervisors voted 4-1 Dec. 10 to move a project forward that will plant 165 single-family homes where the Tuscan Ridge Golf Course was once located between Chico and Paradise. After the Camp Fire, the site housed the PG&E base camp. The entire 163-acre project area will include six commercial lots and houses that are between 3,000 and 20,000 square feet in size.

Almost 16 acres of commercial lots will house facilities including a gas station, convenience store and a mini-storage facility.

Some of the people who filled the board’s chambers for last month’s meeting – including a few supervisors – were concerned about water and sewer service for the project. Some members of the public, speaking during the public hearing, opposed it because of fire hazard, effects on Paradise reconstruction or other impacts. read more

Deaths of unsheltered people continue in 2024 Safe Space opens winter sheltering

photo by Yucheng Tang
The mural on Park Avenue commemorates Chico-area residents who are usually homeless and have died on the streets or in other public spaces.

by Yucheng Tang & Leslie Layton
posted Dec. 16

A march to commemorate the unhoused who have passed away in a public space will begin at Children’s Park at 4:40 p.m. Dec 21 and conclude at the Our Hands sculpture where a memorial will take place. And Safe Space, the nonprofit that operates seasonal nighttime sheltering, restarted its winter program Dec. 15.

Dec. 21 — the day that has the longest night in a year — is nationwide Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. The first Annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day was commemorated in 1990, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless, in order to remember those who have died while experiencing homelessness. There have been between 10 and 18 such deaths in Chico in 2024.

In Chico, Safe Space was able to open an office in a rented building on the Esplanade and shuttle about 18 unhoused people to a church for the night, said Executive Director Hilary Crosby. Crosby said the previous night had been, in a sense, heartbreaking. read more

Blue trailer delivers to the homeless: Hot showers, clean clothes, hope The Oroville-based Haven of Hope on Wheels now has five trailer units

photo by Karen Laslo
Earl Lewis, who runs on-site operations at the shower-and-laundry unit Haven of Hope on Wheels, discussed his work in a recent November interview.

by Yucheng Tang
posted Dec. 2

“135?” someone calls out from in front of the blue trailer.

“Here,” says a man in a green jacket and blue jeans, who then takes charge of his freshly-packed laundry bag labelled “135.”

The man puts the bag in his arm and walks toward the shopping cart filled with his other belongings.

Suddenly, he lowers his head and leans toward the plastic bag, smelling his freshly washed and dried clothes as if he was smelling the fragrance of flowers. Then, he smiles, illuminated by warm sunlight.

He had taken a hot shower and received his laundered clothes at the truck-trailer “Haven of Hope on Wheels.” The Haven is a mobile hygiene unit that offers shower and laundry services to vulnerable individuals in need, most of whom are homeless. read more

Safe Space works to overcome hurdles to intake Unhoused people may be stranded during storm

photo by Karen Laslo
Safe Space volunteers checked in people who needed shelter during an intake held near the municipal center last winter.

by Leslie Layton & Natalie Hanson
posted Nov. 20

The nonprofit organization Safe Space is working to get emergency night-time sheltering available by Christmas Day as unhoused people struggle with this week’s downpour.

Forecasts were indicating that up to 10 inches of rain were possible in Chico between today and the end of the week, as well as localized flooding. Safe Space Executive Director Hilary Crosby said outreach teams were on the streets handing out tarps and making sure homeless community members “knew about the storm coming through.”

“I don’t have anything [at this point] to provide people so they can get warm or dry off,” Crosby said early today. “We’re checking on people to make sure they have what they need.”

Safe Space wants to open an office at 1909 Esplanade but faces hurdles. The office would be used for intake during the winter, with people gathering in the parking lot for about two and a half hours each evening. After volunteers check in unhoused people, they would be shuttled to one of five participating churches for the night. Crosby said there would likely be between 35 to 50 homeless people seeking shelter, and a half dozen volunteers. read more

The race between two Mikes Two candidates vie for the Chico City Council's District 1 seat

District 1 is an L-shaped area located west of the Esplanade and extending north to Fannie Drive and south to West 8th Avenue.

by Yucheng Tang
posted Oct. 1

Editor: ChicoSol will cover the races for four City Council seats that voters will decide in the Nov. 5 General Election. The first in our series is District 1, where candidate Michael O’Brien has outspent opponent Michael Johnson by almost nine times. (See graphic below.)

Candidate Mike O’Brien is the head of Butte County Interagency Narcotics Task Force and a former Chico police chief; his opponent, Mike Johnson, is a businessman running an IT consulting business and a U.S. Navy officer.

ChicoSol interviewed and photographed Johnson on Sept. 17. O’Brien did not respond to requests for an interview that were delivered in texts, emails and phone calls. The two Mikes have both focused on homelessness, public safety and infrastructure improvements in their campaigns. But ChicoSol found their approaches quite different. read more