CHICO — The state of homelessness in Chico has been riddled with complications and while the Warren v. Chico settlement plotted out a path for the city, new hurdles have appeared.
With funding from Butte County, Chico built the Genesis shelter with Pallet-brand housing which offered 177 units for those who qualified. But for those who didn’t meet the requirements for the Pallet shelter or for the other shelters in Chico, a site was created at the northern edge of the city at Eaton and Cohasset roads. Roughly 35 people received approval to live at this camp, but in the two years since it was established, the small site became densely populated.
Chico’s Public Works Department began a large-scale cleanup of the site Monday morning in an effort that is expected to take days.
An excavator picks up debris at the Eaton Road homeless camp on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 in Chico, California. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record)
“We’re initiating a clause of the settlement agreement identifying this alternate site as a public works project in order to get it cleaned up and clear,” said Chico Public Works Director Erik Gustafson. “It’s obviously gotten to the point where it’s a pretty significant public safety hazard.”
Gustafson said the city has been in discussions with the plaintiffs’ representatives in the Warren v. Chico case to come to an agreement on rules to keep the site in order. Part of that effort is to designate the camp as a public works site.
“(We’re going to) get in here, get it cleaned up, and get it reset if you will,” Gustafson said. “We will assign some spots for the individuals that are assessed to be here and then get those people back in and layer in some rules to manage it a little more effectively in the future.”
Residents of the site who have gone through the assessment process to stay there have been put in motels within the city while the cleanup occurs.
Heavy machinery is used to clean up the homeless camp at Eaton Road in Chico, California on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record)
Though 35 people were granted that assessment, Gustafson said the city determined that there were at least 60 people living at the Eaton Road camp and of those, only 15 were of the assessed population.
“There’s a very high amount of unauthorized people that are here,” Gustafson said. “I think the word is out that this is a city-sanctioned campground, and that is not the case at all. It’s the alternate site strictly for those who have gone through the assessment process during an enforcement or cleanup operation and were deemed through the assessment process to not be suitable for sheltering.”
Cleanup operations
By 1:30 p.m. Monday, heavy machinery such as a claw excavator had cleared out some of the entryways to the site and continued to pick up debris and pile it into dump trucks.
Most of the population had already been taken elsewhere, though some remained and were cleaning out their tents of belongings. Public works employees and law enforcement officers walked the premises speaking with the residents who were left.
At the northwest corner of the site, chain-link fences portioned off an area that Gustafson said was meant to hold the belongings of assessed residents.
Gustafson said the operation wasn’t a traditional cleanup as the city has seen before with countless other camps.
A fenced of section of the Eaton Road homeless camp where belongings are being kept Monday, Aug 5, 2024 in Chico, California. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record)
“We started educating people at the beginning of last week and started talking to the folks that are assessed to be here and those folks who are unauthorized to be here, letting them know what was going to take place,” Gustafson said. “On Thursday last week we gave an official 72-hour notification.”
Gustafson said residents will likely be able to return to the site later in the week.
Chico City Councilor Addison Winslow has been vocal in his support for better management of the Eaton Road alternate site. Winslow called Monday’s operation “the biggest step the city has yet taken in that direction.”
“It’s not using best practices for managed camping,” Winslow said. “It’s not a collaboration with social service providers. But it is the biggest expression of responsibility for conditions on the site that the city has ever taken and I have some hope that the site will be safer, cleaner and more workable for everyone as a result of this.”
The cleanup is expected to continue through at least Wednesday. Once finished, residents are expected to be moved back in and each given a designated 20-by-20 foot space to live on.
Those who remained
While some Chico residents have complained about the increasingly unsanitary and unsightly conditions at the camp, most who have lived there have reported issues with safety from outsiders.
From early on, residents within the Eaton Road site reported being shot at with airsoft guns and the like, having fireworks set off at the entranceways and having projectiles such as golf balls launched at people, animals and tents. Others have reported being robbed on multiple occasions.
A partial view of the homeless camp located at Eaton and Cohasset roads in Chico, California during a cleanup on Monday, Aug 5, 2024. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record)
One common misconception about the site is that it is specifically for people who have histories of violent and sex-related crimes. While those do deem some ineligible for the city’s other shelters, there is a list of other criteria for denial such as having more than one pet or specific mental health issues.
Timothy Shelley has been living at the camp for about 18 months. Shelley said he just couldn’t make the shelter option work.
“I just couldn’t do that Pallet place,” Shelley said. “It just wasn’t right for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy here. I feel like we’re being violated.”
Shelley said those living at the Eaton Road site have been targeted based on a stigma stemming from the posted shelter criteria.
“When we came here, they labeled this as something and I’m not that,” Shelley said. “And I felt like I got labeled. People drive by here and shoot at us, throw golf balls at us, that kind of stuff. Not everyone in here is what they’ve labeled us as. It sucks.”
Shelley said the next step for him is to be reassessed to determine if he can return at the end of the week once the cleanup is completed.
“I’m not exactly sure,” Shelley said when asked about his next step. “Something’s gotta change.”
Michael Morgan and Tobrena Crockett have lived at the site for about a year. On Monday afternoon the two could be found cleaning out their tent at the north end of the camp. Crockett said she had injuries and was struggling to move things adding that she was hit in the arm with a baseball bat during a recent robbery.
Tobrena Crockett cleans her tent Monday, Aug 5, 2024 in Chico, California. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record)
“It hurts to lift,” Crockett said. “I can’t move things. And now they want me to move all of my stuff.”
Both Crockett and Morgan echoed Shelley’s concerns regarding cars driving by in the night and shooting at the site’s residents.
“They’ve lit fireworks like an M80, and it actually blew up somebody’s tent,” Crockett said. “They killed our dogs; they drive by and swerve to hit them. We lost two dogs last week.”
Morgan said he’s seen multiple overdoses, often as a result of Fentanyl.
“We’ve had more than 20 O.D.s,” Morgan said. “We’ve had to fend for ourselves and that is emotionally damaging. I’m very grateful that nobody has died from those 20 O.D.s”
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