Too many excuses and not enough action

Our city government is incredibly cruel. If I understand correctly the lead story in the Chico E-R (1/24/2023), the city intentionally failed to offer some open 25 pallet shelters and some 25 Torres Shelter spaces to the homeless campers at Teichert Ponds before Christmas. They failed to make these open beds available despite the knowledge that weeks of life-threatening storms lay ahead and Teichert is particularly vulnerable to flooding: wet plus winter cold kills. The settlement allows the city to keep beds vacant if an enforcement (clearing of a homeless encampment) sequence has started which the city wanted to start before Christmas. However, there was a problem.

There were not enough shelter options for all the folks at Teichert. So, Magistrate Judge Kendall Newman ruled that the city could not proceed with enforcement of the total area but could clear a portion. Incredibly the city, for over a month, refused to make any of the vacant beds available or accept the partial clearing option. Their excuses included: it’s more expensive to clear just a part of an encampment rather than all at once; city staff were on vacation; people might relocate their tents into the enforcement area to get into a shelter or they could steal. Finally and only now, have they accepted the partial clearing option and made beds available. How is it that we Chico citizens allow our elected city council and city bureaucracy to be so cruel, stubborn and stupid. For God’s sake, we can do better.

— Julian Zener, Chico