Currently in Chico, emergency warm space is made available when overnight lows are expected to dip below freezing for two consecutive nights. At a hastily called press conference Monday morning, Mayor Randall Stone said that wasn’t enough.
“The problem is we have is that we have people who are precariously housed and homeless in our community, and they’re dying in the streets.” Stone said.
Stone said he’d like to see more space made available, in less extreme weather. He said he didn’t have a specific proposal.
“That’s going to have to be the dance between what we can afford, what staff is able to, to mitigate, and what the temperatures are in the impact from those, those extra days.” he said.
Stone said he called the special meeting to discuss the issue promptly, avoiding weeks of delay. The meeting will get underway at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. It will be held just before a regularly scheduled council meeting where a proposed reorganization of the police department and district elections are on the agenda.
At the press conference, Stone called for revamping official council procedures to allow proposals to be discussed more promptly. Currently, proposals can only get a swift review by calling a special meeting.
Stone also called on his colleagues to endorse a proposal being pushed by the mayor of San Jose to convert Pacific Gas & Electric Company into a customer-owned cooperative. The proposal has emerged as attorneys representing bond-holders battle attorneys representing shareholders over PG&E’s future in bankruptcy court.