Affordable housing, homeless crisis remain
CHICO » A stall on current housing options during COVID-19 shows few signs of immediate relief, as Chico’s leadership have delayed decisions despite pressure to address homelessness and a lack of affordable homes.
The struggle for affordable housing has dominated city leadership concerns for much of the year, particularly as COVID-19 has caused fears of evictions during economic collapse afterChico and all of Butte County faced an even tighter market post- Camp Fire.
The majority of candidates for Chico City Council in the 2020 election have acknowledged a need for more housing and more affordability with different approaches, yet for much of the year no report on actual strategies has been heard.
A report from the housing committee in April has been stalled six months, and Tuesday the council pushed it further out two weeks to wait until Oct. 20. This report would include recommendations for inclusionary zoning in the city. In addition, a revision of the city’s proposed Home
less Opportunities Plan to consider new locations for an emergency low barrier shelter was also postponed two weeks.
Meanwhile, the housing markethas been in a slump for months. Carl Henker with Coldwell Banker Real Estate said the September countywide housing report shows of 110 listed Chico homes, 133 are pending sales — with drops by about 50% in new listings and 35% in pending sales since August. In Oroville, there were 102 listed and 67 pending, and in Paradise 25 listed and 12 pending.
Zillow indicates the same slump in sales, while home values continue to slowly rise, currently averaging $464,000 among all homes in Chico.
Henker said this inventory is at about “half of what it was at this time a year ago.”
With concurrent “catastrophes,” he said “People are reluctant to put their house on themarket.” While interest rates at unprecedented levels bring in buyers, demand is up but there is little available to choose from while multifamily projects are under construction.
Time will tell how the market changes with more folks displaced due to wildfires or loss of jobs during COVID-19. Lumber costs and demands have gone up as fires have destroyed many homes in Northern California particularly in Butte County due to theNorth Complex.
Rehousing during fire
The outlook has shifted as more in the county were displaced due to fires, but few units are becoming available to meet the need. In Chico, a flush of government funds helped push forward seven affordable housing projects, according to Community Development Director Brendan
Vieg, these projects will take time to materialize with the available labor and materials.
Meanwhile, the county is hurrying to place folks in what existing units remain, in the statewide Project Roomkey program through a “Rapid Rehousing” effort. As of Tuesday, Butte County Housing and Homeless Administrator Don Taylor called the program“in a pretty good position now.”
So far, after about six weeks of organizing the team for referrals, there have been eight referrals, and the county has housed seven of those to date.
An increasingly tight housing market does push out the timeline for rapidly moving people into homes, he said. More folks losing homes are seeking rentals. While Taylor originally said the program would run for about 6090 days, he said Tuesday it could continue for another 60 to 90 based on thenumber of referralswhichmust be done.
Taylor added as due to the city’s homeless solutions plan, “There will be opportunity to get another large congregate shelter open shortly,” some folks may want to take advantage of the shelter instead as they may prefer while “working on barriers keeping themfromgetting
them into housing.” However, he said the county’s No. 1 goal is “to get them into housing — that is really the way to end homelessness.”
Private landlords have helped themost with placing people, particularly “mom and pop” property owners.
Taylor also acknowledged there is still “a significant number” of vulnerable people who are unsheltered and not in Project Roomkey, including some he said are helped by Safe Space who “weren’t quite ready” for Roomkey placing. The goal is to prioritize housing for as many as possible and avoid filling a new shelter with more people.
There is also concern the number of homeless will rise due to economic concerns in the pandemic. Taylor said a two week surveywas released in the north county ( primarily Chico) through North Valley Property Owners Association to assess how many are behind on rent and their concerns about evictions. The survey so far showed “minimal” numbers of people in the area did default on rent, far less than expected.
However, Taylor said not only does the survey not reflect renters and landlords who are either not on the mailing list or are in private properties, but a survey of the south county, and Paradise andOroville, is needed to really know how many renters are in danger of displacement.
To address needs that may arise in the south county, state home dollars could be used for tenant based rental assistance in non incorporated areas everywhere south of Chico. Funds of around $ 350,000 for rental assistance were already awarded to the county, but Taylor said the county must ask to use them for this purpose.
While still looking for options to place people, Taylor said the highest demand is for studios and one- bedroom units for single unaccompanied adults. However, he said at this point looking for shared housingmodels “might be the quickest way to get people in” even if coordinating roommates in a multi-family unit could be “challenging.”
Across the state, “It seems to be the only way we can get people into housing,” he said.
“We tell people this may be a temporary situation… until you find the place you would like to get,” Taylor said.
“Itmay not bewhat your preference is right now, but it’ll get you off the street into housing.”