People experiencing homelessness in Chico will have at least two places to legally camp if it’s determined certain shelters are not appropriate for them.
The lots are in north Chico at the northwest and southeast corners of Cohasset and Eaton roads.
The City Council approved the campsites Tuesday in a contentious meeting where multiple lots throughout the city were under consideration. City residents attended in force, opposing many of the options.
Interim City Manager Paul Hahn explained that under the city’s settlement agreement in the Warren v. City of Chico homelessness lawsuit, the campsites are needed for people who are deemed ineligible for both the city’s Pallet shelter site and the Torres Community Shelter, which is another emergency shelter. Otherwise, he said, the city could not enforce its anti-camping ordinances against those individuals in places like parks, waterways and outside city hall.
“If the city wants to enforce its ordinance and move that person from wherever they’re camping illegally, they must provide — basically — that person a choice of three sites where they can go to camp for up to 60 days,” Hahn said.
The council cut the number of sites to two following extensive public comment and consultation with the city attorney. According to the settlement agreement – which was approved in January and negotiated after a federal judge found the city’s enforcement last year of its anti-camping laws against the homeless likely violated the constitution because the city did not have enough available shelter – the city “may provide, or cause to be provided, to the Homeless Person a list of at least three Public Property locations where the City will not Enforce its Anti-Camping Ordinances and Regulations for at least 60 days and may require the Homeless Person to relocate to one of those three sites.”
Under questioning by Councilmember Mike O’Brien about the language in the settlement agreement, City Attorney Vincent Ewing told the council the use of the word “may” means the panel “can identify – at this time – a site or more than one site.”
Ewing said if the council did not identify any sites, “then you have a situation where you have persons who are not eligible for the Pallet shelter, are not eligible for the Torres Shelter, but you cannot enforce against those individuals because you have nowhere to tell them to go.”
Outreach and engagement staff meet with and evaluate people experiencing homeless to determine if there is appropriate shelter space available to them, according to the agreement.
Hahn said city officials estimate a low number of people – about 10 – will use the campsites. He added that the sites at the north end of the city are not open to everyone, and those who don’t meet the requirements to stay there would be told “to move.”
“This is a very small population that we’re required to find places to go, but (we’re) not sanctioning the broader, basically illegal campers to go to these sites,” he said. “I think that’s really important to stress.”
Toilets, trash bins and water stations will be offered at the alternative campsites, Hahn said.
Tuesday’s discussion followed the city’s May 13 announcement that it had designated three places for certain homeless individuals to camp: the aforementioned site at the northwest corner of Cohasset and Eaton roads; a site near the intersection of Fair Street and Country Drive; and a site at Bruce and Humboldt roads. The city did not move forward with the Fair Street and Bruce Road sites following public displeasure.
Eaton Road resident Cody Miller was one of more than two dozen community members who provided public comment on the topic at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. He told the panel he opposed the designation of two sites in the north Chico neighborhood.
“You’re talking five individuals; we know that’s not an accurate number,” Miller said. “That’s not what it’s going to stay. They’re going to be coming right through everyone’s yards that live on Eaton Road. There’s a lot more residences there than what people realize. There’s children. There’s pets. It’s not safe, and it’s not a good area to be putting these camps.”
Jamye Rodriguez, a homeowner on Eaton Road, was opposed to any locations in the neighborhood.
“I have been a victim to homeless flashing, theft, car theft, packages stolen, profanities yelled directly at me and people intimidating me; as well as my dog going to the vet for eating something that a homeless left,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez further criticized the council for what she described as its lack of transparency on the issue.
“I had to find out about this through Facebook posts,” Rodriguez said. “That’s absolutely unacceptable. I believe you guys need to be more vocal and really hear the citizens of Chico, because it’s absolutely appalling the way you guys are going about this.”
The decision
The City Council approved the two campsites in a 5-2 vote. The panel further specified the site at the southeast corner of Cohasset and Eaton roads would not be opened until needed. Councilmember Alex Brown and Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds were the two no votes.
“I think we’ve been pretty freakin’ generous as a council,” Reynolds said during discussion about how many alternative campsites the city is or is not required to offer. “I think we’ve spent close to $5 million. We’ve … designated one (Cohasset) site already – which is in my district, so I will be watching it very closely – and I would say that we should see how that one site goes. If somebody doesn’t want to go there, I’m not sure really that that’s our problem until it gets full to a capacity that we have to choose a second.”
Following a motion by Councilmember Dale Bennett designating the second site at Cohasset and Eaton roads, Reynolds said, “You already got one in District 2. We don’t need two.”
Brown – the sole progressive member on the panel – lamented the city’s yearslong posture toward the problem of homelessness.
“Our anti-camping and anti-homelessness ordinances – and how we have enforced them – have been in violation of the constitution,” Brown said. “That’s the basis for the lawsuit, and an entire lawsuit may have been avoided if we’d heeded the public’s and the laws’ advice in the first place. For years, folks showed up here, said we were headed for litigation and asked for sustainable solutions. And for years, we ignored them.”
Brown said if enforcement was the answer, the problem of homelessness would have been solved “a long time ago,” adding that the crisis has “escalated to a breaking point here in Chico, because we’re not willing to face it, and we’re not willing to try something new on our own volition; we have to be forced to do it.”
Brown added: “I have sympathy for the public. The folks that are here, and the folks that are not here. It’s scary to feel like you don’t have a choice in what happens in your neighborhoods or around your homes. That’s real. I wish I could reassure you, but I can’t. This is where we are.”
Brown said up to three campsites are required, and “none of them are good,” adding “perhaps most disappointingly for me, I don’t see a lot of learning.”
The settlement agreement set the rules the city must follow to enforce its anti-camping laws against the homeless, and the city has resumed that enforcement. The newly identified campsites meet certain requirements. Another requirement was the establishment of the city’s Pallet shelter site on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
The Pallet shelter site comprises 177 individual, climate-controlled shelter units. Hahn said Tuesday the site is “half-full.”
Brown asked Hahn what the outcome would be if the shelter reaches capacity.
“I think that is something that this council – and this community – is going to have to deal with,” Hahn answered. “Because when it’s full and we don’t have anywhere to go, we’ll probably have to stop enforcement.”
