The city of Chico is continuing to attempt to close the intake center of an emergency winter shelter for unhoused residents in the city’s downtown.
Safe Space’s intake center was open for two days at the former 7-Eleven building on Main Street before the nonprofit received a cease-and-desist letter from the city earlier this week.
The notice said the nonprofit violated zoning laws, but Safe Space says it thought it was in compliance.
Today the city denied an application for a temporary use permit that the nonprofit said it submitted yesterday.
In an interview this evening, Safe Space Program Director Lauren Kennedy, said the organization believed it was functioning under part of the city’s code that allows for temporary use by right.
“We'll be operating for less than 90 days,” Kennedy said. “And one of those uses by right is for just general emergency services or public health emergencies.”
She said the city did not see what Safe Space outlined in their application as an emergency.
“Though the city has declared a shelter crisis,” Kennedy said. “Because it's been declared for five years. They don't consider it an emergent issue.”
Today’s news came as unhoused advocates were holding a memorial for at least 27 people who died while experiencing homelessness in the city this year.
Housing advocates in Chico have said this is the highest rate of homeless deaths that they’ve seen in years.
Since 2020, Mary Kay Benson has kept an unofficial running list tracking the number of homeless deaths in the city. She said she worries the oncoming cold weather will only lengthen it.
“We’re the only ones that try to keep this list going because [neither] the city, the county, the coroner, nor the police department keep any track of how many homeless deaths there are,” Benson said.
Benson compiles the list through case workers, volunteers, and on-the-ground interviews at encampments.
Charles Withuhn, president of the North State Shelter Team, spoke at the event. He said the rate of people dying on the street has been increasing.
Withuhn said that’s an indication of the local “shelter crisis”.
“The problem is lack of shelter, and lack of the use of best practices,” Withuhn said.
Those providing services for unhoused residents in Chico say there’s a need for more shelter, even when beds are available.
Withuhn recently told NSPR that one of the issues is that shelters in the city don’t accommodate the different needs of residents. Additionally, in previous reporting, those experiencing homelessness have told NSPR they have struggled to get into the city’s Pallet shelter, “Genesis.”
The city of Chico and Butte County Board of Supervisors each renewed a declaration of a shelter crisis two years ago.
“This is the first time in my life that the county and the city both have declared shelter crises that they don't address effectively enough for me,” Withuhn said.
Lauren Kennedy said the current moment should constitute an emergency.
When Safe Space was created ten years ago, Kennedy said, an “emergency” situation constituted a single homeless death on the street in another town in Butte County. Now, she said, dozens are dying every year.
“I don't know at what point in the last five [or] six years, we started to take for granted that so many people will just die outside,” Kennedy said. “This is an emergency. This isn’t normal.”
Local groups across the nation are hosting homeless death memorial events this week to bring awareness to homeless death rates in their communities. At another memorial for homeless deaths in Redding held yesterday, a nonprofit said about 40 unhoused residents died in Shasta County this past year.
Winter shelters like Safe Space operate to reduce those deaths by keeping people inside during the extreme cold. Kennedy said the organization is going through the appeal process and continuing to operate the intake center from its current location.
“If we do end up having to move, we'll find another spot and we'll make sure all the guests are informed,” Kennedy said. “At this point we’re hoping to work it out.”
City officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
