Oroville is close to having a new 65-bed homeless shelter site by the winter. The Oroville Rescue Mission is overseeing construction of the Esperanza Village. It will include a congregate shelter and micro shelters built by the company Pallet, similar to Chico’s Genesis site.
Allan Dikes, executive director at Oroville Rescue Mission, said the living units should be finished by the end of this month.
Dikes said the focus right now is taking care of infrastructure work like preparing the ground, plumbing and electrical.
Along with the 30 double-occupancy micro shelters the site will include five ADA single-occupancy micro shelters, and another 40 temporary congregate beds that will be part of a “navigation center.”
That center will provide low-barrier, night-to-night housing focused on the individual needs of unhoused residents. The shelter also has an outreach group.
“That's where it starts, is right there,” Dikes said. “Once we determine what they need and where they're going, then we will begin to direct into the Pallet shelters.”
Along with the shelter and the navigation center, Esperanza Village will also include an area for residents to set up tents and park RVs. There will also be space on the property for healthcare providers and county organizations to provide services at the shelter — something Dikes said is an important part of Esperanza’s aim.
“That's the key to this whole project,” Dikes said, “the wraparound services. We have to be able to have a good pool of partners and other organizations that are willing to work with us to be able to complete this.”
Esperanza Village is funded with state Encampment Resolution Funds, which are designed to help communities transition unhoused residents from encampments to temporary shelters, and eventually to permanent housing. Applicants must identify a specific encampment in their community to focus on.
The shelter is set to have its soft opening this winter. The RV and tent areas, Dikes said, will likely open during the spring.
According to Butte County’s latest count of people experiencing homelessness, Oroville had 277 unhoused residents. That’s the second highest number in the county following Chico which had 925 unhoused residents. Of those who were experiencing homelessness in Oroville, 65% were unsheltered.
The site comes as — like other local governments in the state — the Oroville City Council has been discussing the state of homelessness in the city after a recent Supreme Court ruling gave cities the authority to enforce anti-camping laws on unhoused residents. The discussion also comes after a recent executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom for local governments to address encampments.
