Housing & homelessness Archives - Page 5 of 7

How City sidelined the “quickest and simplest option” for unhoused people Winslow: "the government owes safety and security to everyone"

photo by Karen Laslo

City staff cleared Depot Park Aug. 31, evicting people from what had become the last large encampment.

by Addison Winslow
guest commentary posted Sept. 3

The Warren v Chico settlement forced Chico into a reckoning with homelessness; such a reckoning that city policy now has the effect of a boulder rolling down a hill. Not once since I was sworn into office last December has the City Council been asked for or given direction on homelessness.

Taking the settlement forced on us by a federal court as the entirety of our City’s policy to address homelessness puts Chico in a rut. Because the court decided that a shelter bed only qualifies as a token for eviction if it is indoors, we have sidelined the quickest and simplest option to improve conditions of people camping in public spaces: managed camping in an environmentally responsible location. The biggest absurdity of this is that, as part of the settlement agreement, we have sanctioned campgrounds (three of them, technically, though all at the same intersection), and regulation is just piecemeal or nonexistent. read more

Cities advised to prepare for extreme heat, climate crisis With no plan in place, heat waves become another threat to Chico's homeless

photo by Karen Laslo

On a recent 100-degree day, residents of the City-sanctioned encampment were sweating it out.

by Natalie Hanson
posted July 24

With no city-wide plan for extreme heat in place, Chicoans have few resources to fall back on during dangerous heat waves like the one last week. Like much of California, the City now often faces stretches of days with high temperatures topping 100 or even 110 degrees.

Extreme heat threatens vulnerable residents across the state — including thousands of farm workers toiling in the heat, low-income residents in poor-quality housing and thousands of unhoused people with few options for safe shelter. But Chico does not have a long term plan for managing extreme temperatures. read more

State sends Chico back to the drawing board – again Revisions underway on City's eight-year housing plan

photo by Karen Laslo

Creekside Place Apartments are opening to senior citizens who need affordable housing.

by Natalie Hanson
posted June 21

Chico city officials say that after nearly a year, the City’s plan for building new housing under state law — the Housing Element — could be approved this summer. But the process is already far behind schedule, as the state just slapped the latest draft with demands for more revisions for the second time in one year.

The City’s Housing Element has been under scrutiny since almost a year ago when it went before the public and City Council in August. A Housing Element, required of each city in California, must cover the eight-year period from 2022 to June 2030 to ensure that the City complies with state legislation, creating a comprehensive strategy to promote safe, decent and affordable housing. It assesses current and projected housing needs, constraints to housing production, and resources. It then establishes housing goals, policies and actions to meet housing needs over the Housing Element planning period. read more

An open letter to Chico City Council Eileen Robinson comments on City's new campsites for unhoused people

photo by Karen Laslo

The City is marking 20×20-foot spaces for each unhoused individual who occupies this site.

Editor’s note: Chico resident Eileen Robinson shared a March 13 letter she sent to the Chico City Council regarding the City’s newly-designated campsites at Eaton and Cohasset roads. The city has set up two new sites for unhoused people to comply with a judge’s order.

Honorable Council Members and Mr. Sorenson,
I saw the televised account of Target Team members visiting designated campsite one and issuing citations because some folks didn’t have permission to be there.

The news report said two additional campsites were being prepared across Cohasset Road for the people being cited to move to. Saturday morning I drove out to take a look at sites 2-3. There are two areas with green fencing that is difficult to see through around them. What I was able to see were flagged stakes that appear to have designated the 20/20 foot area each person will be allowed to occupy. read more

City must open more alternate camping space prior to evicting Pallet shelter admittance procedures cause confusion

photo by Manuel Ortiz, EMS

The Eaton-Cohasset encampment where some 45 people are camped.

by Natalie Hanson & Leslie Layton
posted Feb. 22, updated Feb. 23

The City has been halted from evicting nearly 40 people living unhoused at the encampment it opened in north Chico until it can create two new additional campsites.

The City announced plans to open the sites quickly following a Feb. 22 meeting with Magistrate Judge Kendall Newman regarding terms of the settlement agreement in the lawsuit filed by Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC).

Meanwhile, some unhoused people and their advocates say it’s a struggle to access the city’s new pallet shelters, erected as part of the settlement agreement. read more

Homeless people in Chico victimized Should violent acts targeting unhoused be treated as hate crimes?

by Peter Schurmann, Ethnic Media Services
posted Feb. 7

The Eaton-Cohasset homeless encampment sits on Chico’s northern edge, a motley assortment of weathered tents, a couple of dumpsters and a port-o-potty that juts up from the muddy gravel.

With hate crimes targeting racial, religious, and sexual minorities on the rise nationwide, residents here say they’re being targeted for another reason: because they’re homeless.

“There’s some guy who drives around with a loudspeaker and a mask on saying, ‘Get out of Chico or get killed,’” says Jimbo Slice, 29. A native of Paradise, about 12 miles east of Chico, Jimbo -— he declined to give his last name -— is among the thousands who were left homeless by the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the region. “He drove by three times yesterday.” read more