unhoused Archives - Page 3 of 4

City must open more alternate camping space prior to evicting

Pallet shelter admittance procedures cause confusion

by Natalie Hanson and Leslie Layton | Posted February 24, 2023

photo by Manuel Ortiz, EMS

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

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.

The campsite at the corner of Eaton and Cohasset roads in north Chico was also opened last year in response to the settlement. It was designated by the City as the alternative location where unhoused people who aren’t eligible to enter the pallet shelters or the Torres Community Shelter can camp for a limited time with a referral. read more

Homeless people in Chico victimized

Should violent acts targeting unhoused be treated as hate crimes?

by Peter Schurmann | Posted February 7, 2023

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

Bill Mash always had a project going

Chico loses an activist and story-teller who gave the unhoused a voice

by Natalie Hanson | Posted December 6, 2022

photo by Karen Laslo

Mash at KZFR radio station where he produced programs.

Eric Mash remembers how his father, Bill “Guillermo” Mash, always had projects underway. So when his father told the family that he had decided to move to Chico and write about homelessness, no one was surprised.

“He fell in love with Chico,” Eric said. “He just had this passion and fire within him to help others, and to always love and care about everybody. He did everything on a bicycle … helping the homeless, helping all the causes.”

Chico writer, radio personality and tireless advocate Bill Mash is being remembered by the Chico community as many friends and loved ones mourn his sudden death last week after a heart attack on Nov. 19. read more

Shootings at Teichert Ponds encampment alarm activists

DA: Self defense "difficult thing" to overcome

by Natalie Hanson | Posted November 5, 2022

photo by Natalie Hanson

A tent at the Teichert Ponds site.

Shootings at Chico’s Teichert Ponds has some residents worried that unhoused people are facing increasing violence -– perhaps linked to rising levels of “dehumanizing” speech targeting them.

A shooting at the Ponds killed an unhoused man and left another seriously injured last year, and a shooting last month in the same preserve nearly killed another unhoused man. Both shootings involved people entering the Teichert Ponds encampment with the likely intent to “start a fight,” in District Attorney Mike Ramsey’s opinion.

In September 2021, around 2:30 in the morning, a teenage boy shot two unhoused men in Teichert Ponds after entering the site with a group of friends heading home from a nearby party, according to the district attorney’s office. The teen, whose name has not been disclosed because he is a minor, was accused of killing 53-year-old Guy Vanzant. read more

Final steps underway for pallet shelter site

Advocates: Management style may affect outcomes

by Natalie Hanson | Posted April 4, 2022

The city’s court-ordered pallet shelter project is close to completion, and advocates for unhoused people are hopeful but cautious about its chance for success.

The proposed code of conduct and the operating standards for the site are now being finalized. The city, plaintiffs and the judge must agree on these standards in order to finalize insurance and open the site on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, said Jesus Center Executive Director Amber Abney-Bass.

Advocates for the unhoused are cautiously optimistic, but have concerns about how the management style will affect use of the site. One question some have is whether there will be armed security. read more

Settlement ends lawsuit against City of Chico

Vice mayor makes 11th-hour bid to postpone settlement

by Leslie Layton | Posted January 16, 2022

photo by Karen Laslo

Evicted campers leave their site after a sweep.

A settlement agreement in the lawsuit related to the city’s treatment of unhoused people, signed Friday by a federal judge, could end the spectacle of chaotic mass evictions that stranded campers who had nowhere to go.

Early last year, a newly-installed City Council began a series of sweeps in parks, near waterways and on patches of grass on public land.

Journalists watched as workers came in atop tractors, rumbling through encampments where displaced people had pitched tents and had failed to move their few belongings to who knows where – until we weren’t allowed to watch.

I remember the woman standing outside her tent under the Highway 99 overpass in Lower Bidwell Park, barefoot, politely putting up with my interview, who then asked me if there was any way I could get her a new pair of socks. read more