To hear some tell it, Chico’s bucolic parks have become lawless and scary. But a proposal aimed at restoring civility and clamping down on homeless camps raised charges Tuesday that city leaders are criminalizing homelessness.
After hearing well over an hour of impassioned pleas from all sides in a debate that has roiled American cities large and small, Chico’s City Council approved a measure to clean up its waterways that is also likely to make life more complicated for those living at the margins.
Approved on a 6-1 vote, with Councilwoman Tami Ritter the lone outlier, the ordinance takes aim at the scores of homeless encampments along the city’s creeks and waterways. It also looks to reduce lawlessness downtown.
While pretty much all the banned behavior — camping, drinking alcohol, littering, vandalism, graffiti, urination, defecation and destroying public property — is already illegal, officials say the new ordinance will make all of those easier to curb.
“In many cases some of these folks that are coming here and look like homeless who really aren’t, they’re criminals, and they’re here to prey on our students and our citizens and everybody else,” Chico Mayor Mark Sorensen said.
Vivid discussion of bodily functions peppered the public testimony, alternating between demands for more action, and charges that the proposal persecutes the poor. Melinda Vasquez was among critics who predicted failure.
“If they can’t afford housing, how will they pay the fines?” she said. “How much will it cost the city attorney to take each case to court? How much money will we all pay for their stay in the county jail?”
Critics urged the city to provide more housing and shelter space, along with mental health, drug treatment and job training services.