In the midst of a statewide homeless crisis, last night the Chico City Council rescinded its shelter crisis declaration. Even close observers, and some elected officials were surprised by this breakneck speed of shifting focusing.
As far as we can tell, the change in the narrative around homelessness started with a press conference by Mayor Andrew Coolidge and Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds a month ago, when these two elected officials used the Housing Inventory County, or the HIC, to argue that the available shelter beds outnumbered the number of currently unhoused people desiring services. The problem with using the Housing Inventory Count is that is includes organizations like the Esplanade House and Chico Housing Action Team, two organizations that only provide permanent or semi-permanent housing.
Soon after that press conference, the public learned that regular meetings had been taking place between City of Chico and Butte County officials and their staff to discuss the housing crisis. Then, last week, it was announced that a newly formed non-profit, only in existence for a month, received a grant from the County to conduct a survey of unhoused people in Chico to determine whether or not they wanted services. Given the fact that this organization, called Point of Contact Chico, has no track record of conducting this kind of data collection, and the founding members organization have made public statements about their belief and desire for unhoused people to leaving Chico… Given these facts, many people are skeptical that this organization will produce any objective findings. And most concerning to many is the fact that public policy will be decided by their findings. Well, actually, with the rescinding of the Shelter Crisis declaration, it seems that the data will be gathered in order to provide political cover to the decisions around the shift in public policy.
Because this is in some ways a complicated, and often confusing situation, I encourage you to listen to the entire program tonight. We will first talk with Butte County Supervisor Tami Ritter, who has been a member of that City/County working group that issued its determination that more shelter beds are services are not necessary. And then we will talk with City City Councilmember Alex Brown, who holds a Masters degree in social work, about why she is skeptical of this work of this group that has been charged this data collection to be used to set public policy.
