Helping hands

Last December, a nasty cold snap prompted members of a then-fledgling organization, Chico Housing Action Team (CHAT), to create a temporary shelter for the homeless population not served by the Torres Community Shelter or other refuges.

For 16 days beginning last Dec. 7, CHAT partnered first with the Chico Peace and Justice Center, and then with the Jesus Center, to provide overnight housing for as many as 30 people. Midway through that effort, retired nurse Cynthia Gailey read a newspaper article about the temporary shelters and was moved to get involved.

“I’d done some cleanup in Lindo Channel and was familiar with the dangers homeless people there face—not just from the elements, but from human predators—and wanted to help,” she said.

Gailey started volunteering with CHAT right away and found the experience to be both fulfilling and exhausting, she said. Without the benefit of pre-planning and organizing volunteers before temperatures plunged, she and a bare-bones crew found themselves working long days and nights to facilitate the feeding, housing, laundry and other needs of Chico’s indigent population.

When the temporary shelters closed, Gailey continued working with CHAT, determined to streamline this year’s efforts to better serve the homeless. To that end, she researched how other groups run such programs, including the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter of Davis and the Sojourner’s House on the Ridge in Paradise, and for the last several months has been seeking volunteers and venues for the shelter program, now called Safe Space.

This year, Safe Space will provide overnight shelter for 40 people each night from Dec. 14 through at least Jan. 31 (Gailey hopes to extend the program until March).

She explained all guests will report to an intake center at Show Love Thrift on Park Avenue, and be transported to a shelter. Thus far, a few churches—Trinity Methodist, Bidwell Presbyterian, East Avenue and the Universalist Unitarian—as well as the Jesus Center, have volunteered space, though the nightly locations will not be revealed until people seeking shelter report to the intake center. Guests will be provided with a light meal and housed from 7 p.m. until 6:45 a.m.

To facilitate the plan, Gailey said CHAT needs 25 volunteers per evening to perform duties ranging from cleaning to serving six-hour shifts through the night. In some cases, the venues will provide helpers from their own congregations, but Gailey said CHAT still needs more hands on deck. CHAT is inviting interested parties to volunteer orientations on Dec. 1 and 8. The group is also seeking donations of supplies.

“Forty might just seem like a drop in the bucket, and we’re hoping it’s enough,” Gailey said. “Other shelters are telling us they’ve already been full.”

The Torres Community Shelter is not exactly full, but would be turning away guests had the building not been expanded last June, said Executive Director Brad Montgomery. The shelter’s capacity was 120 before the summer expansion, and now can house 140. He said the shelter set a record on Oct. 15 with 114 guests.

“Every day since then would be a record,” Montgomery said, explaining workers at the shelter have become accustomed to serving between 110 and 120 a night, and have now housed as many as 130, with a marked increase in the number of whole families checking in.

“We haven’t changed our policies much and this is all happening before the weather gets really bad, so we can’t really pinpoint the reason,” Montgomery said. “I’m just glad we were able to get the expansion done in time, and we haven’t been in the position to have to say we’re out of space.”

Montgomery explained it costs about $25 per person per night to house homeless individuals at the shelter, and that the organization’s resources are—as always—strained. In addition to welcoming volunteers and donations (particularly of personal hygiene items), Montgomery noted the shelter’s Christmas Tree Auction—its largest annual fundraiser—will be held Dec. 6.

Meanwhile, the Jesus Center is actively seeking materials and volunteers to assist with two of its busiest yearly events, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

Rich Young, assistant director at the Jesus Center, explained the dinners are actually served the day before each holiday, as those are the only days the center closes. Rather than buffet style, the meals are plated and served by volunteers, and afterward each diner is invited to take a gift.

To facilitate the meals and gift-giving, Young said the center is seeking donations of turkey, ham and other holiday staples, as well as toys and winter-weather gear to offer children and adults who attend.

While some service groups have seen an uptick in the number of people they serve, Tony Delgardo—a member of the local chapter of nationwide activist organization Food Not Bombs—said he’s seen fewer in recent weeks. The group, which intentionally serves food without permits to protest poverty, sets up every Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Chico’s City Plaza. Delgardo attributes the decrease to the presence of armed security guards recently hired by the Downtown Chico Business Association.

“I’ve noticed there’s fewer of my homeless brothers and sisters downtown,” Delgardo said last Saturday. “People are less likely to come down here and buy things if they see people suffering and hungry on the street, so business owners don’t want them here and are running them off.

“It’s the time of the year when it’s getting cold and people who don’t have any place to go are the most vulnerable, and now you have guys with guns running them off of public space? This is not cool.”

FNB is completely reliant on volunteers, which some members say have become fewer as longtime members focus on other obligations. Jayme Beres, who’s been with the group since it formed to feed Occupy Chico State demonstrators three years ago, said he hopes more join up to keep the group active.

“Food Not Bombs is bigger and thicker some weeks and thinner other weeks,” Delgardo said. “It kinda depends on who is able to come and help out. We’re all individuals and we all have our own personal lives and commitments.”

Both members said it’s important for the group to maintain its presence.

“We don’t just feed the homeless, but anyone who eats,” Delgardo said. “It’s about solidarity, not charity.”