The following letter was sent to all the Chico City Council members on December 19 2020. This was in response to the new conservative Council voting to force the homeless from City parks.
Dear <council member title & last name>,
The Butte County Democratic Party urges the Chico City Council to halt any efforts to evict unsheltered people from their current homesites and focus its attention on identifying a safe space for these folks to relocate.
In October 2018, the Chico City Council declared a ‘shelter emergency’ because of rising homelessness in our community. A month later the Camp Fire destroyed over 14,000 homes. Today, the problem of homelessness has grown to catastrophic levels due to the complete lack of shelter space during the pandemic. Many of our community members have taken refuge in our parks.
A majority of the current council ran on the position that the last council did not address the housing and homeless crisis. We are alarmed and deeply saddened that the first order of business of the new council has been to empower the police to further penalize the most vulnerable of our community members, many of whom are Camp Fire survivors.
By evicting people from their makeshift housing without providing proper shelter or a sanctioned campground, death by exposure to cold and wet winter weather is a possible outcome. Evictions also will result in the dispersion of homeless communities—further traumatizing its members—and making the work of service providers even more difficult.
We call upon you, the Chico City Council, to find safe shelter for our unhoused residents before evicting them from their current encampments.
Respectfully,
James Aram
Butte County Democratic Central Committee, Interim Chairperson
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BCDCC Officers:
James Aram Interim Chairperson; Kim Morris Controller;
David Welch Recording Secretary; Bill Monroe Corresponding Secretary
Mailing address: 1692 Mangrove Ave., #502, Chico, CA 95926​