Chico Made the National News Again this Week

The widening income gap and the councils mishandling of our city are what caught the attention of national news and the ACLU

New York Times Opinion Piece References Chico City Council Mishandling of Crisis

“The A.C.L.U. report includes an eye-opening account of the city of Chico. It has a sizable homeless population that has only grown since wildfires displaced tens of thousands of people in the surrounding areas. In 2013, Chico lawmakers began passing a series of ordinances that made it illegal to sit or lie down on sidewalks between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. or to store personal property in public spaces.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, as the homeless population continued to increase, new City Council members were voted in who ran on a more aggressive stance. They have made it illegal to camp in a city park and heightened the penalty from a citation to possible jail time. Local law enforcement also began routine sweeps to try to push the unhoused out of the city.”

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐨, 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐚

Part of this is, of course, that we are a college town. Part of it is also that Chico incomes rely heavily on service industry jobs, which remain underpaid.

It also perfectly illustrates why we so desperately need more afford housing. As these income gaps continue to widen, more and more people will end up on our streets without much more affordable housing.

Scathing ACLU Report Cites the City of Chico as a Case Study in Violating the Civil Rights of Unhoused People

“Over the past year, the City of Chico has skirted around the civil rights protections established in cases like Martin to appease growing animus against unhoused people.39 While homelessness is not unique to Chico, its affordable housing crisis has been exacerbated by wildfire-induced displacement,40 like the Camp Fire that displaced about 53,000 people and destroyed almost 14,000 homes.41 As a result, hundreds of Chico residents have been staying on public property or in their vehicles every night.

…

Despite Martin, a court order, and admonishments from a federal judge, Chico’s efforts to harass people who are unhoused continue. The city now conducts homeless sweeps under the guise of maintenance. And most recently, as discussed below, the city has proposed to corral people to a barren human stockade next to the airport on the edge of the city limits.”