In a sad and heart-breaking scene in Chico on Tuesday, January 12th, dozens of homeless folks camping in the city parks were evicted by city personnel. It is an unfortunate truth that there is nowhere for the campers to go as all of the emergency shelters in town are either full or not accepting new clients due to COVID. This area continues to experience an enormous shortage of affordable housing due to the loss of thousands of units in the Camp Fire and due to the fact that no affordable housing has been built in Chico in over two years.
Chico Housing Action Team (CHAT) would very much like to get every homeless person in Chico housed, and we are currently housing over 170 formerly homeless folks, but our residences are 100% full and we have a list of over a hundred people who have applied and are waiting for housing. CHAT is moving forward on some projects that will create more affordable housing in Chico this year, and we're optimistic that if we all work together, we can find solutions that work for everyone.