Cleanup operations continue at Eaton Road homeless camp

CHICO — On day two of the city of Chico’s major cleanup operation at the Eaton Road homeless camp, forward progress was made and some residents moved camp just outside the site.

Heavy machinery once again loaded debris as well as furniture into dump trucks and trailers pulled by Chico Public Works trucks. Much like Monday, some residents were still on site cleaning their belongings.

Part of the Warren v. Chico settlement stipulated that the city must provide at least one alternate site for those rejected by the Pallet shelter and traditional shelters. The corner of Eaton and Cohasset roads was ultimately chosen to be that site. At the time, city and county staff as well as volunteers surveyed the local homeless population to determine if they were eligible for the Pallet shelter or if the alternate site would be an option. After two years, the largely unmanaged site grew in size and density, prompting the city to conduct a large-scale cleaning operation.

Rather than go through the traditional means of conducting a law enforcement-headed cleanup as it has done with unauthorized camps previously, the city opted to deem the site a public works project.

“It’s a public works operation so they got a notice on Thursday, 72 hours before and that’s all they get,” said Chico City Councilor Addison Winslow. “It’s not the required offer of shelter that we have under the settlement.”

Winslow has previously pushed to have more oversight and management of the alternate campsite. He added that he would like to see more transparency on how the camp is being managed as well as the settlement negotiations as a whole.

“It’s confusing what the city’s doing because they did not send out a press release, so the best you get is reporters showing up and talking to somebody on site,” Winslow said. “…The reason (the city) feels comfortable doing this is because it was tentatively agreed upon in this dispute resolution, which the city backed away from. But we haven’t released publically what that dispute resolution is so you can’t tell what we’re doing here, what aspects we’re implementing, what aspects we’re not, much less how we arrived at this agreement.”

Winslow continued by saying that there are often no experts on homelessness involved in the city council discussions on the matter.

“At the point we’re doing these very public operations that people are seeing and you have reporters all over the field for, we need to be transparent about what’s going on and we need to involve the public in the process,” Winslow said.

Day 2 operations

More headway was made Tuesday in leveling out the site and moving people’s belongings into designated lots for those returning after the cleanup operation.

A handful of people who were living at the camp moved their tents just outside the fenced-off area closer to Cohasset Road. Some were taken to motels to later return to the camp, though others were unable to do this mostly because of having too many pets. Winslow said those with too many cats go to the corner opposite the campsite in what some were calling the “kitty-corner.”

While the Chico Police Department is not overseeing the cleanup, officers along with deputies with the Butte County Sheriff’s Office were posted at the site to aid public works employees. Chico Police Sergeant Dave Bailey said law enforcement was there to help residents clear out belongings and support public works.

“We’re just here to assist the folks in need of assistance with moving out of the site or moving things to their storage space,” Bailey said.

Bailey said his department was also tasked with providing the notice ahead of the cleanup.

“All people work at different paces,” Bailey said. “It’s the human element. That’s the one variable you can’t really account for. But everybody here has been very cooperative. The situation’s not good but they’re willing to do what’s got to be done to make improvements to the site. I think it’s going to be a benefit once it’s cleaned up.”