GUARDEDLY OPTIMISTIC - SHELTER SOLUTIONS MAY FINALLY BE COMING
You may recall back in January, the Chico City Council instructed Chico PD to start carrying out sweeps to get rid of the homeless people in Chico - despite the fact that not one single shelter was accepting new clients at that time due to the pandemic. That wasn't a design flaw, increasing human suffering to make people so miserable they would leave Chico was an actual strategy. Councilmember Morgan went on the radio to say, "we are going to keep moving them, and moving them...until they leave [Chico]."
The lawsuit against the city for violating the civil rights of the homeless halted those evictions. It also created the situation we are now faced with, where no laws regarding camping in our city can be enforced, to the detriment of areas we would all like to protect, like our parks and waterways.
Further missteps from the council and city attorney have impeded progress, like the ridiculous shade tent on the tarmac out at the Chico airport, which the Judge said didn't "pass the straight-face test."
Against the background of all this bumbling, the city has returned to a solution advocates have recommended for years: the BMX track. In April they voted to direct staff TO STOP working on solutions at the BMX track (and against reviewing the Emergency Shelter Crisis Declaration) despite many, including us, calling for that location to be front and center. In fact, they violated the Brown Act by directing staff to stop working on that project, forcing us to send a cease and desist letter.
Nonetheless, we feel a bit hopeful that the city council is finally making some sensible choices, even if they had to be forced to do so. Last week they reversed their vote on the Emergency Shelter Crisis Declaration, and this week they released a Request for Proposal for service providers to manage a shelter site at the BMX Track. (We would have rather said "thank you" months ago than "I told you so" now, but here we are. ๐)
The proposal includes 177 Pallet Shelters. There is a lot to love about these shelters; they are non-congregate, giving people a space with a lockable door to protect their belongings. They include heating and air so people can manage the temperatures inside. They provide people with a modicum of privacy, which can be a major barrier to people being willing to enter congregate shelters. They take around an hour to set up or take down and fold virtually flat.
We also love that these shelters can be re-used. Assuming we begin to make actual progress with homelessness, these shelters can be stored and quickly assembled to house refugees from future disasters like fires or floods. Unfortunately with our warming climate, it's no longer a question of if these types of things will occur, but when, and we need to be better prepared as a community. As well, the County approved funding to purchase those shelters, which relieves to city of a substantial burden.
Some serious concerns remain, chief among them the number of people on this site. Service providers, Chico PD and County Officials have all told the city that in general, people in a camp is a good cap for keeping it manageable.
Another concern is the capacity of any local service provider to manage that number of people. The largest shelter in Chico, Torres, only houses 120. Logistically this is a huge challenge and likely beyond what any one current provider can ramp up to provide, at least in the short-term. We are hopeful that service providers will look for ways to collaborate on parts of this work.
You can check out the proposed site plan below, and review the entire RFP here.
