Housing & homelessness Archives - Page 4 of 8

Emergency meeting violates Brown Act "Urgency" and "emergency" different things, attorney says

by Leslie Layton
posted Jan. 11

A Jan. 6 emergency meeting held by Chico City Council appears to have been illegal – in other words, a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act that governs meeting access in California.

The Saturday meeting was called on short notice to consider matters “involving the disruption or threatened disruption of public facilities” after the winter sheltering program, Safe Space, held intake at The Hands sculpture near the Municipal Center on Jan. 5.

An attorney consulted by ChicoSol indicated he doesn’t think the nature of the disruption justified an emergency meeting under state law. “The bottom line is, I don’t think this rises to the level of emergency under the Brown Act,” said David Loy, legal director for the San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition (FAC) that works to defend open-government laws. read more

Safe Space leadership plans to meet with City officials City threat to shut down intake threatens winter sheltering program

by Leslie Layton
posted Jan. 4

Jan. 6 update: Chico City Council held an emergency meeting today after Safe Space was forced to move intake from the downtown building. (Intake today will be held at 5:30 p.m. at 285 East 5th St.) A meeting will be held Tuesday between City and Safe Space managements, and Council members Sean Morgan and Addison Winslow.

Safe Space Executive Director Hilary Crosby was encouraged today by City officials who she said have agreed to meet to discuss the intake center problem that has threatened to shut down Chico’s emergency winter sheltering program. read more

City threatens legal action against councilmember First Amendment attorney: amicus doesn't justify closed session

photo by Karen Laslo

District 4 Councilmember Addison Winslow

by Leslie Layton
posted Dec. 4

The City of Chico has issued a Cease and Desist order to Councilmember Addison Winslow, accusing him of divulging confidential information from a closed session. The councilmember has responded, calling the City’s accusations “politically motivated” and its threat of an injunction “an act of political repression.”

At the heart of the problem is an amicus brief -– a legal document the City filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on the subject of homelessness -– and whether the discussion and decision to file the brief justified a closed session. The 48-page document, likely to cost almost $30,000, supports an effort in Grants Pass, Ore., to get a Supreme Court review of rulings that limit the ability of cities to enforce anti-camping ordinances. read more

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. 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. read more

Chico’s unhoused use survival strategies Extreme weather makes homelessness tougher than ever

by Leslie Layton
posted Oct. 2

The first in a two-part series on homelessness in Chico in 2023.

Donna Shepard spent some of Chico’s hottest days this past summer hunting down water.

Shepard lives at the encampment known in Chico as the “alternate site” -– the homeless campground the City established to comply with a lawsuit settlement -– and though a spigot was installed, the water it released in the middle of a hot day was itself often too hot to touch.

After collecting water elsewhere, she’d douse herself and her three small dogs. “It gets so hot out here I almost lost Dixie,” she said of her 15-year-old Chihuahua mix. Her two other dogs are service animals; she describes herself as “four times legally blind.” read more