Jeffery Goodwin watched as heavy machinery tore through tents at the city of Chico’s homeless encampment on Eaton and Cohasset roads on Monday. He’d been camping at this site for just over a year, but the city is conducting an “encampment cleanup” and will no longer allow unauthorized campers to stay there.
Goodwin pointed to an empty area where his neighbor’s tent used to be.
“It was a camp there,” he said. “They come in with this loader and just scoop it up and throw it out. It goes into garbage.”
Goodwin and other campers received 72-hour notices that the city would be doing maintenance at the site. Everything that wasn’t removed by Monday is getting thrown away. About 60 people have been living at the encampment. Now only 15 who are authorized to be there can return.
Goodwin is not one of those people and says he doesn’t know what he’s going to do.
“We're not legally supposed to be out here, but we're out here because there is no other place to go for homeless people in Butte County,” he said.
Who is allowed to be at Eaton and Cohasset
Before moving to the encampment, Goodwin was camping at Comanche Creek in Chico. That area was cleared during what the city calls an “enforcement action” by law enforcement due Chico’s anti-camping ordinances. Goodwin was a part of a group of unhoused people who sued the city in 2021 over its policy of clearing encampments on public property when there weren’t adequate shelter options available.
The lawsuit, called Warren v. Chico, resulted in the city signing a settlement agreement with unhoused residents that stipulated new conditions for when it could clear encampments. Under the agreement, the city created Genesis — which contains more than 170 microshelters — and designed the sanctioned campground on Eaton and Cohasset roads for homeless people who couldn’t go to other shelters.
In order to be approved to camp at Eaton and Cohasset, you have to be assessed for shelter options during an enforcement action and not qualify for shelter. Some reasons for disqualification include having a felony conviction or owning too many pets.
But too many unauthorized people had moved to the encampment, said Erik Gustafson, public works director for the city of Chico. As of his most recent count, he said there were around 60 people camping at the site. Only 15 of them were approved to be there. He said the site has become a risk to those living there and the city hasn’t been able to effectively manage it or enforce rules.
“This is inhumane and unsanitary. I mean, there's folks living on four or five feet of garbage,” he said.
The city is calling the cleanup a public works operation, which it says is different than an enforcement action.
“There's a clause in the settlement agreement that allows for a public works project to take place … We've designated this a public works project and then we could issue that 72 hour notice to move people along while we conduct the public works project.”
As a public works operation, the city doesn’t have to give as much advance notice to campers or assess them for other available shelter options as typically required under the settlement agreement.
In a few days, only those who’ve been approved at the site will be allowed to return. The approximately 45 others, like Goodwin, are on their own for where to go next.
Calls for the city to better manage Eaton and Cohasset
The cleanup at the encampment comes after calls for better city management of the site. The latest investigation by the Butte County Grand Jury found conditions at the site “appalling.” The report found that the city had failed to empty the dumpsters all of April and that the portable toilets were poorly maintained.
The jury further said the city of Chico was responsible for poor conditions due to neglect.
Numerous people camping at the site also reported getting sick with Shigellosis in July, which can cause bloody diarrhea. The bacteria that leads to the illness thrives in environments with unsanitary conditions.
Gustafson blamed the settlement agreement and rules in clearing encampments for general challenges in managing the site.
Legal Services of Northern California — the law firm representing the unhoused residents involved in the Warren v. Chico lawsuit — said in a statement to NSPR that they’re continuing to assess the legal rights of their clients at the alternative camping site. They said they were aware that the city is reorganizing the site to add amenities and safety features that they’ve been discussing with the city for months.
Goodwin, who said he is one of the plaintiffs in that lawsuit, feels the city’s cleanup is violating his rights because he has nowhere else to go.
He said he can’t get into Genesis and he won’t go to the congregate Torres Community Shelter because of his previous treatment there and prior bed bug infestations. The Torres Shelter has told NSPR it has made changes and is working to make its services more accessible.
“I have to vacate the premises, and if I get caught out here I could get arrested,” he said. “I'm standing up for what's right, not what's wrong. And I feel what they're doing is wrong.”
Authorized campers skeptical about changes
Unhoused residents who are approved to camp at the site were offered a hotel room or told to camp at a property on the other side of the street during the ongoing maintenance. Mike, who didn’t want to share his last name with NSPR, said he was approved to live at the encampment because he has too many dogs to go to a shelter. He said some of the people at the encampment who aren’t approved do cause problems, but others are good neighbors.
“A lot of them are good people, and they should be allowed to be out here and be reassessed and allowed to be out here,” he said. “They do help the environment. They help that village aspect.”
He said he wants to be optimistic about the changes coming to the site, but he has a hard time believing the city after having been homeless in Chico for around a decade.
“I can't put my trust, full trust and faith into what they're saying about us coming back after this,” he said.
Gustafson said approved residents will be able to move back to the site once the city finishes its cleanup in a few days.
But questions remain about the long term plan of the site.
After a recent supreme court decision allowing cities to remove people camping in public even if there is no other option, the city of Chico announced it wanted some conditions changed in the settlement agreement. One of those changes is to close the alternative camping site earlier than agreed upon in the settlement agreement. The city said if a new agreement can’t be reached, it will seek to get out of the agreement entirely.
The city has had several closed sessions about the agreement, including one last night.
In an email to NSPR, city manager Mark Sorensen wrote “the City intends to manage the site similar to management of the Genesis (Pallet) Shelter site, in terms of authorized occupancy and reasonable on-site operational rules.”
He said that includes installing a security lighting system at the site, limiting campsite space for each person to a 20 foot by 20 foot space, limiting access to authorized individuals and professional social service providers, disallowing off-leash dogs and enforcing a period of quiet hours, among other rules.
