From camp to camp: Chico acknowledges homeless are evading anti-park camping enforcement

CHICO, Calif. — The City of Chico is beginning to tackle its largest homeless encampment, Comanche Creek. From one encampment to the next, however, homeowners and the city say those already enforced upon are attempting to evade city shelter by moving into locations that have not seen enforcement yet.

Since the city was given legal permission to enforce its anti-park camping ordinancesin late April, those living in several homeless encampments across town have been given the option to either move into one of the city’s shelters, alternate and temporary camping sites or find shelter outside of city-owned property. Homeowners living around Windchime Park along Humboldt Avenue report that many of them have since moved in.

For nearly the past 15 years, Curt Jones has grown accustomed to hearing the soothing sounds of the giant windchime in the park across the street from his house. Now, he says the sounds from the park are anything but.

"It's gotten nothing but worse,” says Jones outside his home. “The crime and the ambulance and firetruck calls at all hours of the night. A lot of fighting and things like that. It's just not good.”

The park has not yet been enforced by the city, meaning those choosing to set up camp there will likely not be moved for weeks at the minimum. The settlement agreement that Chico and plaintiffs in the Warren v. Chico lawsuit entered into earlier this year is the reason why.

It dictates when and how enforcement can commence: either one full encampment at a time or multiple encampments that collectively contain 50 or fewer people at a time. The process included a seven-day notice to the plaintiffs, a separate seven-day notice to those residing in an encampment and another 72-hour notice to the people who remain at the encampment before the city can physically move people refusing to comply along.

Areas such as the Downtown core, Lower Bidwell Park, Annie’s Glenn and West Lindo Channel have already seen this enforcement. Comanche Creek, the city’s largest encampment, is expected to see enforcement by mid-July. It means homeowners like Jones will have to live with their new neighbors a bit longer.

“There's little kids in the neighborhood having to listen to this,” says Jones. “People don't even use the park anymore, take their dogs or walk their kids through the park anymore ever since all of this has happened."

KRCR took these concerns to Interim City Manager Paul Hahn who says legally, their hands are tied. However, he cites the settlement agreement that gives the city authority to remove someone from an encampment that has yet to see enforcement if that person previously resided at an encampment that was enforced upon, was assessed by a member of city staff to enter into city shelter, refused that shelter and instead moved there. He did not mention how frequently police are deployed to make checks of this kind.

He also adds code enforcement personnel are frequently deployed to the street lining the park to address RVs and vehicles that are illegally parked there.

"We're very aware of how impacted it has been,” says Hahn during a virtual interview. “We’re going to be enforcing (the settlement agreement) to make sure that they just don’t move over to the Windchime area. We know that’s been happening. Our teams are on it and they’re working that area too for other types of code violations.”

In the meantime, he asks for patience from the public as the city makes its way through the abundance of encampments scattered throughout the city as they follow the guidelines of the settlement agreement. Homeowners, on the other hand, seem to be losing that patience.