Supervisors to discuss plan with city of Chico for homeless funding
OROVILLE » On Tuesday, the Butte County Board of Supervisors will return to once again discuss its memorandum of understanding with the city of Chico on homelessness funding.
During its Oct. 12 meeting, the board committed $1.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to go toward Chico’s purchase of 177 pallet shelters to be placed at what was once a BMX park near the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds.
The board will vote on whether to make the final approval of the memorandum and if it succeeds, Chairman and Supervisor Bill Connelly will sign the document.
“While the Board already approved the project and the related budget adjustment, an MOU is needed to make the actual payment to the City,” the related agenda item said.
According to the same agenda item, the point of having the memorandum of understanding is to “establish the roles and responsibilities of the parties as they collaborate to further develop the concept and is an expression of the parties’ good faith intent to enter into an agreement regarding the city’s use of the funds for the concept.”
Should either the city or the county claim the other involved party violated the MOU, it can be terminated given 30 days notice.
Other business
In October, a discussion was had among the board on whether to extend an emergency ordinance in response to the Camp Fire in 2018 that allowed for temporary and transitory housing.
The board came to a consensus to have staff return with a written extension for those in temporary housing even though transitory housing remained up in the air.
This ordinance is returning to the board matters Tuesday and if the extension is approved, temporary housing will be extended to Dec. 31, 2022 while transitory housing will be allowed to expire March 31, 2022.
“Although the Camp Fire occurred three years ago, the process of rebuilding the thousands of residences that were damaged or destroyed and reestablishing the lives of those who lost their residences and possessions has taken much longer than anticipated,” the related agenda report said. “There remains an immediate need for housing to accommodate persons who have been displaced by the Camp Fire.”
An updated draft of the proposed district map will be presented before the board with a request for direction for staff involved with the mapping.
Every 10 years, the county must redraw its district map with the use of the released census. This process was held off some due to the pandemic but is now back in full swing.
In a previous board meeting, publically drawn maps were presented before the board to consider with a more concrete map to be drawn up and shown at the upcoming November meeting.
The map will likely be dramatically different than it has been historically due to the extreme population changes as a result of the Camp Fire.
The Butte County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. every second and third Tuesday of the month at its chambers located at 25 County Center Drive, Suite 205 in Oroville. Meetings are free and open to the public. Those who are not fully vaccinated are required to wear a mask while in the building.