CHICO HOUSING ACTION TEAM

July 21st, 2020: A STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF BLACK LIVES MATTER FROM CHAT ACTING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR LESLIE JOHNSON

We at Chico Housing Action Team stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and support the movement’s ongoing efforts to end police brutality against African Americans, and all forms of racism in America.

FULL STATEMENT HERE

CHICO HOUSING ACTION TEAM

From Homelessness to Housing: Making a Difference In Chico Since 2013

As of August 2020 we're housing almost 160 people at 60 locations throughout Chico!

CHAT's mission is to ensure that everyone in our community has access to housing they can afford. But the need for low-cost housing in Chico and Butte County continues to exceed availability as we receive requests for housing almost daily that we cannot meet. With your help more people in need in Chico can get housed! Find ways to donate, or volunteer with us.

July 2020: Tiny homes are coming to Chico! We are developing a tiny-home emergency shelter project, dubbed "Everhart Villlage", for County of Butte Dept of Behavioral Health clients who are un-sheltered and struggling to keep up with appointments and treatment plans. See full announcement here.

What We Do

Photo: CHAT resident Kristen and her young daughter enjoying a Chico park

We provide rental housing through master-leasing to low-income residents at rents they can afford.

We provide case managers and access to supportive services, community resources, and mentoring.

We provide maintenance for all properties we rent out with the goal that they are in as good or better condition than when we first start managing them.

We develop plans for visionary alternative housing projects and advocate to the community for the need for low-income housing.

To fund the work we get grassroots donations and grants from civic organizations, other non-profits, foundations, and public agencies.

Click here for more details about our current housing programs.

Summer 2020 CHAT News Update: Our Amazing Lifeline Food Program!

June 26, 2020: CHAT's two-year-old food program delivers bags of donated food items to each of the 60 CHAT households, up from just 15 households when we first started this project. (Video by Respectful Revolution)

Chico's housing situation is in crisis.

Even before the Camp Fire and COVID-19, the rental vacancy rate in Chico was just over 1%. Now it's even less than 1%. The Camp Fire displaced around 35,000 residents (CNBC, 5/16/2019). Chico's population increased by 20% almost overnight.

Many Section 8 voucher holders are unable to find any housing they can afford. Before the Camp Fire, only 25% of Section 8 voucher holders in Butte County were able to find housing in the allowed time frame. Since the fire, that number has dropped to 10% (Chico Enterprise-Record, 8/02/2019).

There is not enough affordable housing in Chico or Butte County for everyone who needs it. We have many applicants that we don't have space for. Unhoused seniors in Chico especially face difficulty finding affordable housing on extremely limited incomes.

CHAT'S HOUSING PROGRAMS

HOUSING NOW

Our main program where we master-lease houses and apartments from property owners and sub-let to individuals and families
We provide support with food deliveries, assist with transportation, connections with service providers