CAMP CLEARING TO CONTINUE
City manager: Encampments in lower Bidwell Park given 72 hours notice
CHICO » Bidwell Park sweeps to clear encampments, which began Tuesday, will continue in other areas of the city, Chico staff said Wednesday.
Tuesday’s operation was one of a series of coming strategic moves to enforce rules about behavior in the parks such as camping, under a newly elected Chico City Council. City Manager Mark Orme clarified all encampments in lower Bidwell Park from Highway 99 ”to the lowest part of the park” were given 72 hours to leave.
More areas of the parks and greenways where encampments are seen, like Humboldt Road greenways and Comanche Creek Greenway, will be given notice next.
“Due to resource constraints … you have to be strategic; you can’t go post every single location,” Orme said.
So far, about 60 people were moved in enforcement efforts Tuesday, he added.
The Public Works Department’s Operations and Maintenance Division began a coordinated effort to remove trash and debris from Lower Bidwell Park on Tuesday and removed 6.5 tons, or 50 cubic yards, of trash and debris, according to a city release.
City staff said they identified what items could be discarded as trash and what items were to be kept as personal belongings. Trash was removed by Public Works staff and items identified as personal property that were too large to be carried out by individuals were taken to be stored at the Chico Police Department for a period of up to 90 days.
Staff did note ”significant degradation” in the area and will focus future efforts towards environmental rehabilitation. Orme said Public Works is determining whether to restrict access to some areas of the park “for a short time” in the coming week to better identify work to repair any damage in the park.
With no shelters currently open, it is not clear where people may have moved to after having
moved from encampments in the park. One area where encampments have been spotted, near Humboldt Road on a greenway between Pine and Cypress Streets (often referred to by staff as the “Triangle”) by Wednesday did not appear to have grown significantly in the past several days.
But the decision to move people out of parks and greenways into other areas of the city drew some concern and condemnation from policymakers and advocates.
Volunteers for local nonprofit Chico Housing Action Team protested Tuesday, and in a statement Wednesday called the enforcement “sad and heartbreaking,” noting all residences the organization owns are ” 100% full.” The political action committee Stand Up For Chico called the enforcements ”morally bankrupt” if people are being forced not to stay in the park ”in the midst of winter and a global pandemic, in defiance of (Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines.”
Councilor Alex Brown also posted on Facebook, ”It makes sense that we do not want to see abject poverty. But sweeping it out of sight and out of mind doesn’t make it go away. Until we deal with root causes, until we rely on evidence and effectiveness over discomfort and expediency, this will not change.”
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think they’re going to leave Chico,” Brown added Wednesday. She worries people without shelter will be moved from place to place throughout the city — adding “lots of possibility of spreading COVID-19,” and she said that people who are homeless are at high risk for contracting the virus.
She also disagreed that a list of resources given by the Chico Police Department officers to people who are unsheltered was sufficient. This list included resources like the Police Department, the Jesus Center and Torres Shelter, but she said no resources have open places to shelter.
“It’s not actually helping the folks in our community to get shelter,” Brown said. She expressed frustration that city staff have not pushed for more emergency options more quickly, while Orme has emergency powers during the COVID-19 local health emergency.
“We can look at other cities all over doing more innovative things. There’s a lot of things we can do,” she said.
“It’s really time for us to lean in and do everything we possibly can to get shelter online and stop making excuses … and particularly, stop blaming service providers for
not doing enough.”
While no city shelters are open, some county efforts are being considered, albeit with limited resources. Project Roomkey remains open, although all rooms are currently full.
The county’s Board of Supervisors this week passed an application for the state’s No Place Like Home Program funding to provide supportive housing, scheduled for completion and occupancy in summer 2023. The Department of Behavioral Health is applying for the third round of competitive funds through the California Department of Community Development to develop permanent supportive housing for individuals with severe mental health disabilities who are 18 years of age or older and are either chronically homeless, homeless or at risk of chronic homelessness.
A collaboration with Pacific West Communities is proposed to develop Prospect View Apartments, a three- acre gated affordable housing apartment complex that will serve extremely low and low-income homeless adults. It would be located off Nelson
Avenue in Oroville with 40 units.
The department will access the Butte Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care’s Coordinated Entry System for tenant referrals, document eligibility for homelessness and severe mental health disabilities and provide supportive services to eligible tenants. It is anticipated the department will apply for a total of $2,734,975 in grant funds.
However, these are not immediate solutions and no new emergency sheltering ideas have been posited in the county’s jurisdiction, or in Chico.
Orme said ” The target team has continually been engaging local nonprofits to engage folks as they go into the field.
“It’s really important these people get help,” he said. “There’s a variety of reasons why people are out there, its not a one-size-fitsall (solution) for everybody. It’s wonderful to see these nonprofit service providers step forward, and be that helping hand that many of these people need.”