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CHICO HOUSING ACTION TEAM
From Homelessness to Housing:
Making a Difference In Chico Since 2013
Chico Housing Action Team's mission is to ensure that everyone in our community has access to housing they can afford.

CHAT resident Kristen and her young daughter enjoying a Chico park
NEWS AND CURRENT EVENTS
January 2023
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Our office hours have changed! We're now open Monday-Friday, 9 am to 12 noon and 1 pm to 4 pm. We are gratefully accepting bedlinens in full and twin sizes during our open office hours.
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We're pleased to announce that we are the "Round Up" partner at Chico Natural Foods for the month of January! Whenever you shop there in January, tell them to "round it up for CHAT". They'll round up your total to the nearest dollar and donate the extra change to CHAT. It's an easy way to show love for our work!
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We would love your gently-used furniture and housewares! See our furniture warehouse page for information on how to donate.
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We no longer take direct applications for housing. If you or someone you know are homeless and in need of housing, we recommend you call 211 and ask to be entered into their Coordinated Entry system,. This is a county-wide database that we and other nonprofits in the county draw on when we have vacancies.
LATEST VIDEO!
1/4/2023:
Always housing more people!
To celebrate the year in CHAT, we want to share this new video we've created: "CHAT: Always Housing More People!" Listen to what "SUPERBOB" (Trausch) has to say about what was accomplished in 2022 and what's slated to happen in 2023. The community that's formed around CHAT's mission - its donors, founders, board members, employees, volunteers, and community advocates - is working hard every day to help folks who were already on the street or at severe risk of becoming homeless. Thank you for your support this past year!
OUR five major programs to help fulfill our mission
Housing Now program
Through our Housing Now program, we master-lease or own approximately 70 residences in multi-bedroom homes and apartment buildings. We sub-lease the rooms to individuals, and we lease entire homes to families in crisis, all at market-rate rents.
This program includes:
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the HUSH program for families in crisis that need a hand up;
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Redwood Housing for college students;
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Veterans Houses for veterans;
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Mercy House for folks with serious chronic illness,
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Harmony House and Wildflower House for folks with mental illness.
CHAMP program
Our CHAMP program provides incentives to landlords to rent to Camp Fire survivors, who may not have the credit or income needed to rent from traditional landlords. We've helped over a hundred Camp Fire survivor households get into housing they can afford.
Food distribution program
Every Saturday, our food program crew takes in food donations from local businesses and food banks, then sorts, bags, and delivers items to CHAT residences. This program is completely volunteer-run.
Furniture program
Our furniture warehouse program takes in donations of furniture, appliances, and housewares from local supporters and businesses at our warehouse, and we deliver them to residences as needed, and sometimes to other housing agencies in Butte County. This program is needed because many incoming residents to CHAT homes have little or no furniture or housewares of their own.
EVERHART VILLAGE - opening SPRING 2023
Everhart Village is a planned emergency-shelter project that is being developed in collaboration with Butte County Dept. of Behavioral Health. The project will consist of 20 sleeping cabins outiftted with electricity, plumbing, and insulation, on county property located within the city limits of Chico, near several essential service agencies. Residents will be clients of Butte County Behavioral Health and will be selected by that agency.

All the news that's fit to link!
News from Chico, Butte County, and California
1/2/26/2022, Sacramento News & Review:
Sacramento city officials eye the “missing middle” in housing
12/12/2022, KRCR:
Building code changes could change your ADU options in Chico
12/7/2022, Chico ER:
Building homes in “God’s backyard”
11/28/2022, Chico News and Review:
Shelter Storm: Structural barriers to homeownership have multigenerational impact
11/24/2022, Chico Enterprise-Record:
Thanksgiving celebrated at Chico’s Pallet Shelters
11/23/2022, Chico Enterprise-Record:
11/17/2022, Chico Enterprise-Record:
Campground for unhoused needs proper permits, city says
11/16/2022, Action News Now:
Back to the drawing board for proposed Chico apartment complex
11/8/2022, KRCR:
Camp Fire 4th year anniversary: what is, what was, and what’s next
11/3/2022, Bay Area News Group:
Gov. Newsom calls out cities, holds back California homelessness funds
11/1/2022, Chico ER:
At long last, progress on actual housing solution | California Focus
11/1/2022, Chico ER:
CHIP completes first single-family home in Paradise
10/31/2022, Bay Area News Group:
Gov. Newsom’s spending to clear homeless encampments: what’s he done so far?
The CHAT Blog
CHAT in the community
CHAT board vice president and co-founder Bob Trausch, former board member Alan Mittman, board member Charles Withuhn, and board president and co-founder Leslie Johnson work on finding another property for a CHAT house.

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