By Tom van Overbeek

Every day I get a phone call or e-mail from an exasperated citizen wanting to know why the city isn’t doing more to deal with the homeless campers squatting on public property. The problem is the “Settlement Agreement” which governs what Chico can do to deal with homeless camping.

The agreement was entered into in January 2022 as the result of a lawsuit brought by Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC) in the case of Warren et al v. Chico and expires in January of 2027. The Settlement Agreement has made it extremely difficult and costly for Chico to enforce its no-camping laws.

The law underlying the agreement was Boise V. Martin which was overturned by the Supreme Court in June of ’24. As a result, Chico filed a Motion for Relief from the Settlement Agreement citing as a reason that the underlying law was no longer valid. The Court 9th District Court disagreed. We thought the Supreme Court was the highest law in the land, guess not.

A little history: in 2020 the citizens of Chico were fed up with homeless people degrading our public spaces and elected a conservative city council pledged to deal with the problem. The new council did what it promised and started clearing homeless camps. The plaintiffs, represented by LSNC filed a lawsuit and cited the Martin v. Boise case which states that there must be shelter for homeless people to go to if they are camped and asked to move.

The judge in the case issued an injunction and instructed thecCity and LSNC to come to an agreement on how the city could enforce its no-camping laws. The result was the “Settlement Agreement” which the city had little choice but to sign as homeless camps and the associated chaos and squalor were proliferating. The agreement required the city to build the Genesis (Pallet) Shelter which now houses around 200 people who would otherwise be homeless.

Among other terms of the Agreement, the city can clear only three camp sites at a time and must provide a 17-day noticing period to campers during which time other sites may not be cleared. Once campers are cleared from a site they can (and do) return.

What happens next? For the next 20 months the city is stuck. However, the city must take steps to insure that homeless people are not camped in areas that put the city in danger, for instance, areas with flammable vegetation.

What’s the end game? It’s clear that homeless camping is a disaster for the city and for the people stuck in addiction slowly dying in their tents. We can learn from other states that have done better than California in dealing with the homeless. No camping, period. We must go back to enforcing our no-camping laws. Those that are able to must avail themselves of available shelter beds. The addicted and mentally ill must use available services. Habitual criminals need to be in jail.

Until January ’27 please be assured that the city is doing everything legally allowed to deal with this problem. We’re counting the days.

I want to note that neither councilor Winslow or I were on the City Council when the Agreement was negotiated and signed.

Tom van Overbeek is Chico’s city councilor for District 6.