Chico is not red. Chico is not blue. Chico is very much PURPLE!

We have different beliefs, different priorities, and different ideas about how this city should operate. But we all live here, and we all have a stake in what happens next.

Our City Council doesn’t always reflect the needs of our entire community. But here’s the thing … WE elected them! Or we didn’t bother voting at all.

The turnout was encouraging, but there is still room for improvement. Those who voted sent a loud message.

Now what?

If we don’t demand accountability, attend meetings, ask questions, and exercise our right to vote, then we shouldn’t be surprised when decisions are made without us.

YOU ARE ALL ON NOTICE!

And to the political influencers, developers, nonprofit contractors, police leadership, and everyone else who has enjoyed influence over how this city operates …

YOU ARE ALL ON NOTICE!

Not because I’m accusing every one of you of wrongdoing, but because the days of conducting public business without serious public scrutiny need to end.

The spending, the contracts, the political contributions, the relationships between City officials and service providers, the decisions made behind closed doors where the law permits it … ALL OF IT DESERVES PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY!

The Jesus Center, the Police Department, developers, and every organization receiving public money should be able to answer some pretty basic questions.

Where is the money going? Who is benefiting? And what are the measurable results?

I could start pointing fingers and screaming at the top of my lungs … but what would that accomplish?

I’ve already written hundreds of pages researching Chico’s housing history, documenting decades of unmet affordable-housing needs, and questioning the policies that got us here.

And hardly anyone reads them.

I’m organizing the Chico Campout for Compassion on November 14, a citywide awareness event intended to get people talking about homelessness, housing, and the people affected by both.

And the interest has been disappointing, to say the least.

I’m not asking people for money. I’m asking them to pay attention, get involved, and have a conversation.

Why is that so difficult?

A longtime Chico neighbor had to leave

And while all of this is going on, something happened this week that really bothers me.

A woman I’ve been helping find housing boarded a bus and left Chico.

She could no longer afford to stay here.

But there’s something you should know about this woman.

She came to Chico in the early 1980s to help The Beatitudes.

For more than 40 years, she has been part of this community. She became a staple of this town, a familiar face, and a welcoming presence … especially for women who were new to Chico.

She loved spending time in coffee shops, striking up conversations, meeting people, and sharing the wisdom and knowledge she’d gained over a lifetime.

She was warm and welcoming to everyone she met.

And she’s not finished contributing, either!

She still wants to be a student, continue learning, and help with research. She’s curious, interested, and has plenty more to offer.

And knowing her, she’ll probably outlive every damn one of us!

That’s the kind of person we’re talking about.

And now she’s gone.

Not because she stopped loving Chico.

Not because she had nothing left to contribute.

She simply couldn’t afford to stay.

Think about that for a minute.

A woman who came here more than four decades ago to help others, who spent those years contributing to this community and making people feel welcome … couldn’t find an affordable place to call home.

We didn’t solve her housing problem … she had to leave town!

And we’re losing more than a resident when that happens.

We’re losing our history. We’re losing our community connections. We’re losing people who make newcomers feel welcome and longtime residents feel at home.

We’re losing the very people who helped make Chico what it is.

And I can’t help feeling that, little by little, we’re watching part of this town die.

How many more people have quietly left for the same reason?

How many seniors, working people, and longtime residents have been priced out of the community they helped build?

And how many are next?

This is what we’re not talking about!

Too many people are comfortable looking the other way, pretending the problem doesn’t exist.

And others would rather have us angry at people experiencing homelessness than examine the housing policies that helped create the conditions we’re living with today.

HOUSING! HOUSING! HOUSING!

That’s the issue.

HOMELESSNESS IS THE OUTCOME!

For decades, Chico has known it needed more affordable housing. We have the planning documents, the housing targets, and the historical results.

Yet somehow, the conversation keeps coming back to camping ordinances, citations, enforcement, and moving people from one place to another.

Meanwhile, we’re spending public money on temporary fencing, encampment removals, shelter operations, contractors, and managing homelessness.

I’m not suggesting that every dollar is wasted or that shelter services don’t help people. They do.

But at what point do we stop measuring how much we’re spending and start measuring how many people are actually getting housed?

How much longer are we willing to pay to manage homelessness instead of investing in ending it?

How much are we willing to spend enforcing ordinances against people whose only alternative is sleeping outside?

And how many more people have to leave Chico because they can no longer afford to live here?

YOU CANNOT ORDINANCE YOUR WAY OUT OF A HOUSING CRISIS!

The election is over … our responsibility isn’t

And here’s where I challenge the rest of Chico … including myself.

We can’t keep expecting government to change while the rest of us sit back and complain.

Show up. Ask questions. Read the budgets. Follow the contracts. Demand measurable results. Listen to people whose lives are affected by these decisions.

And when someone tries to make this a Republican-versus-Democrat argument, remind them that homelessness doesn’t give a damn about political parties.

We don’t need everyone to agree.

We need everyone to participate.

The election is over … but our responsibility to this community isn’t.

Let’s stop managing the consequences and start fixing the problem.

HOUSING IS THE ISSUE … HOMELESSNESS IS THE OUTCOME!