Everhart Village inches closer to completion
Project aims to open June 1
Progress to the Everhart Village emergency shelter project with the goal to house 20 unsheltered Butte County Behavioral Health clients is inching closer to completion.
Chico Housing Action Team co-founder Robert Trausch said Wednesday that the project site is currently working to install water and electricity lines for pre-built cabins and is aiming to open by June 1.
“We’ll start slowly, we’ll probably start with 5 to 7 or 8 of them so we can get adjusted to running the place. We wanna make sure it’s successful. … This is our beginning,” Trausch said.
A visit to the site Wednesday showed gas and plumbing lines installed with work being done to the site’s grading and storm drainage.
The project has been in the works for three years — being delayed by COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and more recently heavy rain — and is located adjacent to Butte County Behavioral Health in Chico.
The site itself is planned for one large community building to hold services and classes, and 20 sleeping cabins fitted with a bathroom and a kitchen.
Chico Housing Action Team Executive Director Nicole Drummond said the shelter is operational 24-hours with referrals specifically from Butte County Behavioral Health who is a partner on the project and will provide services from just across the street.
People admitted to the shelter will have access to various county services and will be provided meals, classes and other programs tailored to the population.
“They, and we, are really excited about the proximity of all the other services as well” like Ampla Health and the Department of Motor Vehicles, Drummond said. “A driver’s license is a really big deal if you want to get housed, or an ID.”
Drummond said she hasn’t seen anything yet like Everhart Village in terms of integration with wraparound services.
“Part of the interesting thing is how innovative the project is because of the collaboration. There’s certainly
tiny house villages, but the collaboration with the community is very unique.
Drummond said a potential challenge facing Everhart Village is the ability to move someone into permanent housing once they are ready to transition out of the emergency shelter because of low vacancies in the housing
market.
“We do have a lot of things in place for housing navigation to help people be successful. But when people are ready to move out, that might be the biggest challenge,” Drummond said.
Trausch said CHAT has two years of funding for the operation of Everhart Village once its doors open, but is still looking for funding for construction because the cost of building has increased
To help with costs, Cal Water awarded the nonprofit with a $200,000 grant to help fund the sewage and water system, Trausch said.
“It’s really amazing how generous they were to us to help us put in these systems we see underground,” he said.
“We are so grateful to have an unbelievable amount of support from the community helping us. We are appreciative of what this community has done for us.”