Chico city council reconsiders two alternate locations for homeless

CHICO, Calif. — It was not on the agenda, but several Chico community members attended Tuesday's city council meeting to express their concern about one of the city's designated alternative locations for the homeless population.

On Friday, the city announced three locations the homeless population can use to avoid enforcement for at least 60 days. But, not anyone is allowed to utilize the locations. They are for those who do not qualify to stay at the Torres Shelter or the newly built pallet shelter.

There is one designated site, in particular, that community members are not happy about.

It's a two-acre plot of land located on the corner of Bruce and Humboldt Roads. People are concerned it is located too close to a school.

Standing at the proposed site, Concerned Citizen and City Council Candidate Tom van Overbeek said, "The kind of people who are going to be here are people who are particularly problematic. They're people they won't allow at the pallet shelter because they have violent felony convictions or they are severely mentally ill and, on top of that, usually their drug-addicted, so this is not a place you want to put those people this close to a junior high."

Many parents reiterated the same sentiment to the city council Tuesday night.

The city council announced they directed staff to only move forward with the proposed site atCohasset and Eaton Roads during closed session. The other two sites are agendized for additional discussion at the June 7 city council meeting.

"None of us are happy about having to make any of these decisions," said Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds, speaking to those who attended the meeting. "This is by far the hardest thing we have ever been through as a community...You've been heard. It's been reconsidered, and we look forward to having a conversation out here in a couple of weeks."

However, City Manager Paul Hahn and Mayor Andrew Coolidge noted that finding a location will be difficult.

According to the settlement, the sites must be within a half-mile of the transportation line and within a half-mile to a mile of food.

"When you start looking at the number of sites that the city has under its control, which is very limited, we just don't own land that we're not utilizing very much," said Hahn. "This is an extremely difficult process to find sites that are not going to create some kind of issue with the schools, a community, and neighborhood. We just don't have a site that's out somewhere far away from communities or schools that has access to food, water, shelter, those kinds of issues. So that's the task is before the council and before the community."

Coolidge added that the city might look at private properties, but without these additional sites, the city will not be able to enforce its anti-camping ordinances.

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