The Chico nonprofit Safe Space is facing more hurdles to providing emergency weather services to unhoused residents.
The agency had hoped to use a building on Esplanade as its intake center during the winter, as well as a cooling center during the summer, and as offices for administration and case management.
But city officials told Safe Space it needs to apply for a specific land use permit first — one that costs thousands of dollars and could take months to be approved. This comes less than a month after the city renewed its contract with Safe Space to provide emergency weather sheltering.
In a letter to the city, Safe Space has requested that the permitting process be expedited and that the lengthy permit approval process would jeopardize the group's ability to provide overnight shelter during winter months.
"As soon as this location became available and was identified as a viable option, we and our partners immediately began discussions with city staff," Safe Space Executive Director Hilary Crosby said. "It’s crucial that we move forward quickly to open this shelter for the upcoming winter season.”
The city’s permitting process
In an email provided to NSPR by city staff, Chico's Director of Community Development Brendan Vieg told Safe Space last week that its proposal would fall under a Community Social Services land use category. Chico municipal code defines Community Social Services as "Facilities which provide meals, showers and laundry facilities, and related programs and services at little or no cost to the participants as a community service."
Vieg told Safe Space the application fee for the permit is $14,391 and that prior to the application, municipal code requires the applicant to hold a neighborhood meeting to discuss the impacts the new development would have on its neighbors.
"I want to temper your expectations on the timing of this effort," Vieg said in the email. "The use permit process can take several months to complete even for projects that generate little controversy. We will do our best to process an application in an expedited manner, but as we discussed last year, significant lead time is paramount to thoughtfully shepherd this type of use through a discretionary decision-making process."
Chico City Manager Mark Sorensen said in an email to NSPR that the non-profit should have started the process months ago.
"On multiple occasions we stressed to Safe Space that just like the Catalyst facility, Jesus Center, and others, a conditional use permit process was likely to be required and made them aware of the timeline for the public engagement the decision-making process [sic]," Sorensen continued. "There is a legally required public process for allowing such uses in close proximity to other businesses, residences, a path students take to school and so on."
Barriers to providing care
This isn't the first time Safe Space said it has faced administrative barriers when trying to provide services. Last December, the city closed down Safe Space's intake center downtown over zoning violations. For the rest of the season, Safe Space moved its intake center to a nearby church parking lot.
Chico City Council member Addison Winslow said he's frustrated by the roadblocks many community aid programs face in the city.
"It's been a pattern that's been consistently frustrating to me. Simple offers of help, mutual aid — volunteers working together to do what really is a service to the city and all the people within the city. [And] we find new ways to frustrate it with bureaucracy."
Winslow points to a community fridge that was closed by the city in recent years, also over use permits. But, he said, Safe Space has options to proceed.
"One [option] is they can try to pare down the activity, to say that we are something simpler than what [the city is] determining," Winslow said. By removing plans for services like laundry and showers, the building could classify for a different land use category.
The other options, Winslow said, is for Safe Space to add more services, and turn the site into a Low Barrier Navigation Center. Those projects are protected under a recently signed state law, SB 1395, which expands exemptions for navigation centers in areas in a declared shelter crisis.
