CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM FOR BMX SHELTER SITE
CHICO » The city of Chico is looking to open 177 pallet shelters at the Silver Dollar BMX Race Track at Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to suit the needs of homeless individuals.
On Monday, the city announced and released a request for proposals on the site which was identified as a day and night operation to provide integrated and emergency housing.
As of Monday, $600,000 had been secured by the city and on Tuesday, the Butte County Board of Supervisors pledged an additional $1.7 million to the project via federal funding.
Various community members and key players in the Chico homelessness discussion gave their reactions to the release of the RFP sharing both hope and concerns on the project and how it might come to fruition as the plan takes form.
Laura Cootsona, executive director of the Jesus Center, said she was hopeful for the project and the combined effort to put it together.
“I think what’s encouraging is to see the city and the county working together to set up this opportunity both in terms of funding it and imagining it,” Cootsona said. “That can never be overvalued. It’s not something we’ve had, to date, from them.”
The RFP is still an early document for the project meaning there is still a series of meetings, discussions and planning to be done. Cootsona said because of the nature of the project, it would be a fresh start.
“I think it’s also really an opportunity for providers to really come together and make collective contributions and create something new,” Cootsona said. “I’m eager to be in that conversation and see how it plays out.”
The road to the shelter has been a rocky and curved one. There has been existing litigation against the city since June in the form of Warren vs. Chico which made the case that the city, by not allowing for homeless people to stay in parks all while not providing shelter spaces, was violating Martin vs. Boise.
Angela McLaughlin of Stand Up For Chico expressed frustration over the path to creating the shelter.
“In April, the City Council voted to direct city staff to stop working on the BMX track as a potential location and voted against renewing the Shelter Crisis Declaration,” McLaughlin said. “It’s a shame the council had to be forced by a federal judge to do the right thing. I would have rather said ‘thank you’ for doing it right the first time instead of ‘I told you so’ now, but here we are.”
McLaughlin added that she was still somewhat optimistic, though carefully so, about the project.
“The use of pallet shelters, in particular, is a big positive,” McLaughlin said. “It provides people a small space with a lockable door to store their property, and the ability to control the temperature inside. It also affords them a modicum of privacy, which has been a major barrier for people with regards to traditional congregate shelters.”
Not everyone shared this optimism, however.
Teri DuBose, head of Citizens for a Safe Chico, said she was not happy with the process as a whole.
“It’s incredibly frustrating that the safety of our community is being held hostage by a small handful of misguided homeless advocates who are using a broken legal system to block the will of the voters,” DuBose said. “The new City Council wants to enforce our laws and create a safe Chico. They were doing just that up until this lawsuit was filed.”
Due to the litigation, the city itself has few options in the matter and must go with the directive.
“Unfortunately, it appears that the only path back to enforcing our laws requires the city to build new shelter beds that will probably go unused,” DuBose said of the proposed shelter site. “I reluctantly support this effort if it will resolve the lawsuit, restore Chico’s quality of life and make our parks and public spaces safe.”
Nichole Nava of One Chico was also displeased with the outcome resulting in planning for the shelter.
Nava said she though the city, Mayor Andrew Coolidge and the City Council lied about the matter.
“What happened to it being a temporary site?” Nava said. “What happened to not locating it in District 7? What happened to telling the truth? What happened to transparency so that citizens have a say in how and where our taxpayer dollars are spent?”
Nava said she would be in favor of a plan for a resting site at the edge of the city but disagreed with the plan in place as it is. She added that she believed the RFP had some issues in it she did not agree with.
“The RFP has big holes in it,” Nava said. “For security, it should mandate that it be provided 24/7 by experienced security personnel. For county responsibilities it notes that they ‘may’ provide various key services, not that they ‘will’ do so as it should — and it talks about renewing, future year annual operational costs, etc.”
Nov. 17 is the deadline for proposals. The city said it hoped to reach a recommendation by Dec. 3.