Safe Space in Chico, a nonprofit that provides the unhoused a guaranteed dinner and a place to sleep during the winter months, began intake work on Sunday.
People waited in line — some for days in advance — to sign up.
Last week, Kelly Wayne Boyer was living out of his tent on the street next to what used to be a 7-Eleven on the corner of Main Street and E. 1st Avenue. He said he wanted to be the first to put his name on Safe Space’s intake form.
“I want to be number one,” Boyer said. “I’ll go take my memory foam mattress and put it in front of the door and camp out the night before.”
He and a friend in a neighboring tent waited for nearly two weeks before Safe Space opened its intake center there.
Boyer stayed with Safe Space last winter. He said it’s hard to be homeless during the winter months. Normally, he has to dodge the cold and the wet, as well as thieves.
Boyer said a friend of his was murdered this year, one of several recent homeless deaths that have marred this population’s sense of safety.
“You know, I was threatened to get shot by going to Depot Park for a shower,” he said.
Boyer has trauma from the Camp Fire that killed 85 people in his hometown and made him homeless. It’s one reason he said he can’t stay at the congregate Torres Community Shelter, which is where the city of Chico previously directed him.
Safe Space board director Rick Narad said the city still hasn’t recovered from the impacts of the Camp Fire.
“We have people, not just people who lost their homes in Paradise, but people who were bumped out of housing,” Narad said.
Narad’s concerned about this winter. He said Safe Space has been seeing more vulnerable clients than before, including women and older people.
“We expect that by opening up, we're going to be able to keep people safe and hopefully keep people alive,” he said.
Safe Space expects to provide a meal and a night’s rest to around 30 to 60 people each night.
For now, Boyer waits in his camp for the intake center to open.
He said he admires the volunteers at Safe Space and wants to thank a few for the way they helped him. He’s looking forward to reconnecting with them this winter.
