About fifty makeshift tents and pop-up awnings fill a dirt and gravel lot that encompasses the city of Chico’s alternative campsite on Eaton and Cohasset roads.
“There is human shit all over the camp pretty much, no one can hold their bowels at all."— Cassandra, unhoused resident at city of Chico's sanctioned encampment
The encampment is for homeless residents who aren’t eligible to go to other shelters. The area was set up by the city as a result of Warren v. Chico, a settlement intended to increase shelter options after unhoused residents sued the city in 2021 for enforcing anti-camping ordinances when shelter beds weren't available.
The sanctioned encampment is full of dug out trenches to keep it from flooding during winter storms. Now, in the triple-digit heat of summer, it’s filled with piles of garbage and old clothing. A tall chain link fence divides the site from the main roadway. There’s no shade. Outside of the fence stand a handful of portable toilets. In one corner is a water spigot with several hoses attached.
The spigot is the site’s only water source — and those living at the encampment have been scared to drink from it because they’re afraid of getting sick.
Residents report stomach illness, concern about water
For nearly a month, unhoused residents say most people staying at the encampment have been very ill with diarrhea.
“There is human shit all over the camp pretty much, no one can hold their bowels at all,” said unhoused resident Cassandra, who has lived at the site for about six months. She asked that NSPR not use her last name given the sensitive information she shared about her illness.
“I've caught it like three or four times now,” she said. “I go like a couple of days where I'm okay and then I'm back to being really sick.”
Cassandra said she went to the hospital when she first got ill. She was told she’d been exposed to Shigella, which is a bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea.
Homeless advocates say a lack of oversight at the encampment has created a health crisis. Those trying to help, like David Chapla, a registered nurse with the North State Shelter Team, are concerned.
“It's a hot day today. [We’re] just trying to keep people safe and hydrated. And there's a lot of suffering going on. We're just trying to keep on top of it,” he said.
Chapla comes to the encampment at least once a week to do health evaluations, education and minor wound care. He’s been worried the spigot is the source of the circulating stomach illness.
“Conditions after the spigot are likely the cause of any alleged contamination."— Mark Sorensen, Chico City Manager
“There were a few people that had gone to the hospital and they had been tested for and had been found positive for E. coli and Shigella,” Chapla said.
Both types of bacteria are very contagious and are spread by contact with surfaces and other people. Chapla said facilities at the encampment are lacking.
“Keeping the latrines free of clutter and really just kind of clean would help limit the source of infection,” Chapla said.
City's water test comes back clean
Concerns from unhoused residents about the water at the site led community member Dorian Vale to test the water with three at-home kits. Vale said the tests came back for coliform bacteria, which is an indicator of fecal water contamination.
The results were sent to the city with a request that it investigate the matter further.
The city of Chico contracted with a third party company, Fruit Growers Laboratory, to test the water.
Lisa Almaguer, a spokesperson for the Butte County Public Health Department confirmed with NSPR on Monday that the results of the city’s test came back negative for both E. Coli and total coliform bacteria.
Before the city’s lab results came back, City Manager Mark Sorensen replied in an email to NSPR that “conditions after the spigot are likely the cause of any alleged contamination.” In other words, contamination on the spigot itself could be what was detected in Vale’s at-home water tests.
In a press release yesterday, the city said it posted instructions on how to collect drinking water safely at the site. The instructions include leaving a gap between the spigot and water containers and not attaching hoses to the spigot.
“... the city has failed to provide the people living there with the necessary infrastructure to maintain sanitary conditions, making the camp an incubator for infectious disease.”— Dorian Vale, Chico resident
Health risks at the site
Amid a record-breaking heat wave in the region, the North State Shelter Team has been passing out bottled water to people camping at the site and giving them instructions on how to purify the water from the spigot.
“Since we've been advising people to stop drinking the water here. The instances of stomach borne illness have decreased,” registered nurse David Chapla said.
Whether contamination is coming from the water or the spigot itself, community member Dorian Vale — who conducted the original at-home water tests — said the severity of the problem remains, “the fact is that the city has failed to provide the people living there with the necessary infrastructure to maintain sanitary conditions, making the camp an incubator for infectious disease.”
Unhoused residents like Michele feel local public agencies aren’t serving those experiencing homelessness in the same way they do other residents. She wishes more was being done to stop the people living at the encampment from getting ill.
Michele said she was one of the first to get the illness.
“I was sick for seven days,” she said.
Michele also asked NSPR not to use her last name. She said she was seen at a local hospital for her sickness and told that Shigella was the culprit.
“The day after I got out of the hospital, I woke up throwing up [and] shitting again and I was sick for two more days,” she said.
Michele said just before people started getting sick at the Chico site, law enforcement stopped by and passed out hand sanitizer.
“When they came out they said that they had people … the homeless in Oroville had gotten it," she said. "But they knew that it was coming to the homeless here."
Response from the city, public health
In May, a Shigella outbreak was reported at a homeless encampment in Oroville by the Butte County Public Health Department. Spokesperson Lisa Almaguer told NSPR in an email last week that there was one confirmed case of Shigella at the Chico encampment, but said there have been no reported outbreaks.
The department says it relies on reports from hospitals, laboratories and other healthcare providers to determine that there has been an outbreak.
People experiencing homelessness are at high risk for Shigella infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency says health departments and local governments can work together to prevent outbreaks by providing handwashing stations, increasing accessibility to public restrooms, ensuring public restrooms are maintained and hygienic, and providing information.
Four portable toilets are at the Chico encampment, which were put in by the city. Volunteers with the North State Shelter Team say they aren’t clean. At least one had feces and toilet paper covering the floor.
City Manager Mark Sorensen did not respond to a request for comment on whether the city cleans the portable toilets or if it’s responsible for doing so. In the description of the campsite on the city’s website, the city says the site is managed by the Public Works Operations and Maintenance Department and that dumpsters and toilets at the site will be emptied twice a week.
“If this happened at Chico State or Cali[fornia] Park, it would already have been done with. But no, we've had literally … every person in this camp has been sick.”— Michele, unhoused resident at city of Chico's sanctioned encampment
Unhoused residents like Michele feel local public agencies aren’t serving those experiencing homelessness in the same way they do other residents. She wishes more was being done to keep people living at the encampment from getting ill.
“If this happened at Chico State or Cali[fornia] Park, it would already have been done with,” Michele said. “But no, we've had literally … every person in this camp has been sick.”
When asked in an email what agencies manage health conditions at the encampment, Almaguer said that Butte County Public Health is the local public health agency for the entire county, but she wrote, “public health agencies do not ‘manage public health conditions’ they respond if/when there is a threat to the population’s health. This typically involves a public health threat which is not the same as a public health nuisance or concerns caused by individual choices.”
The city owns the property where the encampment is located. Sorensen did not respond to a request for comment on what agency is responsible for managing health conditions at the site.
