Tag: unhoused

North State Shelter Team hits landmark 2000th shower

At City's Alternate Site for the homeless, volunteers provide relief
by ChicoSol staff | Posted May 25, 2024

photo by Karen Laslo
Alternate Site residents Robert and Brenda Sallee.

Every Friday, the North State Shelter Team (NSST) hauls its shower trailer out to the homeless camp on the corner of Eaton and Cohasset roads.

Along with a team of caring volunteers, NSST founder Charles Withuhn attempts to relieve some of the misery of living unhoused by offering hot showers. Withuhn built the shower trailer two years ago. On this Friday (May 24) the team was celebrating the marker of providing some 2,000 showers with cupcakes and coffee for the residents.

Withuhn calculated that each shower costs the organization $25.

Safe Space leadership plans to meet with City officials

City threat to shut down intake threatens winter sheltering program
by Leslie Layton | Posted January 4, 2024

photo by Leslie Layton
Safe Space’s shuttle takes clients to a local church where they can sleep for the night.

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.

In a Dec. 21 letter from Community Development Director Brandon Vieg, the City denies the request from Safe Space for a zoning verification that would allow it to continue operating intake at 101 Main St., the site of the former 7-Eleven store. read more

Pallet shelters offer refuge, future

Evictions are ongoing as City faces persistent homelessness
by Leslie Layton | Posted November 9, 2023

photo by Karen Laslo
Pallet shelters now comprise “Genesis.”

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

State will help California cities prepare for heat

Cities like Chico are under pressure to protect the unhoused
by Natalie Hanson | Posted September 12, 2023

photo courtesy of City of Chico
Chico’s tree canopy provides relief on hot days.

Cities like Chico are under growing pressure to protect people from harm and death as waves of extreme heat become more commonplace — and after California faced its hottest month on record.

The state, meanwhile, says it is launching a new program to help vulnerable communities — particularly the unhoused and aging populations — face increasingly hot seasons. Several experts on a recent Ethnic Media Services panel said cities must look for ways to manage extreme heat waves that will last longer and pose more risk than ever before.

In Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, the state is launching a grant-based community resilience program to help counties and nonprofits across the state face this new reality, said program manager Braden Kay. read more

How City sidelined the “quickest and simplest option” for unhoused people

Winslow: "the government owes safety and security to everyone"
by Addison Winslow | Posted September 3, 2023

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

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
by Natalie Hanson | Posted July 24, 2023

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

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.

Panel experts at a recent Ethnic Media Services briefing said that cities need to be prepared to face extreme heat, both in city planning and with emergency public health measures. read more