Homeless....Part II....

So here we are Chico. Tomorrow night, all the cats are going to gather in the City Council Chambers, and shit is gonna get real. There will be lots of angry people, lots of nervous people, a disjointed attempt at herding the cats, lots of choreographed attempts at having meaningful discussion (but no real decisions), perhaps a bunch of intimidating guys in red berets, Council members who will (again) fail to assert ANY leadership, and when the evening ends, many will be wondering what the heck just happened.

So Chico, what are we going to do? What should we do?

Well, I have my own opinion (surprise!)....here it is:

To deal with all the crap that is going on with the miscreants Downtown, there needs to be a two prong approach. Prong #1 is the short term. In the short term, key agencies need to come together, form a multi-disciplinary team, and hit the street making personal contact with the problem citizens. The teams should be comprised of police, behavioral health, VA, perhaps the Jesus Center and/or Torres reps who know the citizens, other activist/advocates, and some kind of direct liaison to the DA's Office. These folks need to start working with street people one at a time, establishing relationships quickly, determining the nature of their challenges or anti-social problems, and referring/urging/compelling them as appropriate based on the circumstances. Prong #2 is based on re-establishing a culture of relative safety in the community. To do this, a well staffed, robust police department will be essential. As there is no money to pay for more police, there needs to be a firm plan to enhance the City revenue while preserving what is currently allocated to policing. In short, the best way to do this is a dedicated sales tax. Foes will argue all the reasons this won't work, but the bottom line is that it will if the citizens really value policing.

I, of course, have lots to say in elaborating on Prong #1 and Prong #2. I will be there tomorrow night, and may or may not speak. But either way, I hope there will be folks among us who can really look at our situation strategically, realize that whatever we do as a community must have a realistic immediate action component, and then it must be sustained. Its time for the talk to stop. For anyone to suggest that the City Council needs more citizen input by way of a herding cats meeting to determine the exact nature of the current problem is asinine! If they don't know at this point, they are truly blind and absolute idiots. Everyone can see what is going on. Lets make something happen Chico!

Chico Homeless and Orchard Church

Have you ever heard someone talk about herding cats? Usually, the conversation is referencing a chaotic situation, and the herding piece alludes to a point person trying to bring order to the chaos. The reason I bring it up now is that the cats are running amuck in Chico right now, but there isn't anyone who has asserted any effort to establish any sort of order.

To be a little more specific, I'm talking about what is going on with the homeless and crime problem in Chico and the disjointed attempted responses. For a few weeks a group called Clean and Safe Chico, who seems to have really good intentions, has been having meeting after meeting, but they haven't accomplished anything in relation to addressing the problem. Another group, who has been laying low thus far, will be introducing their quasi-vigilante approach. This seems to be a group of people who have strong financial backing, who are not used to be told "NO," and who apparently intend to force the (ones they decide are) miscreants to leave Downtown Chico. This group, who calls itself R Town, has even had conversations with the famous Guardian Angels, who accomplish much of what they do through threats and intimidation.  Then there are others who speak boldly about what they are getting ready to do....but again, they have really done nothing. Tuesday night there will be more talk at another community meeting at the City Council Chambers. It is already agendized in such a way as to almost guarantee nothing will come out of it but more talk. Clean and Safe will talk about all the people they have talked to and how everyone is mad about what is happening, R Town will assertively list their demands, City Council and the Police reps will sit there quietly, a few cat callers will throw out there own one liner editorial criticisms. But that’s all that gonna happen, talk.

In the meantime, the Police Department continues to be gutted. They have virtually checked out of anything and everything that requires extra effort or money. In doing so, they are disintegrating what ties they have had with the community....not because they want to, but because they have to and they are getting their butts kicked by the team of three outsiders who are currently running the City (who, by the way, will likely be gone in 1.5-2 years). The DA's Office has asserted that they will not waste time prosecuting the low level crimes typically committed by the homeless (trespass, unlawful lodging, etc.). There is nobody from Behavioral Health to deal with the street level people who are in need of services, the VA has established that they are like any other Federal agency: bureaucracy first, and helping clients is way down on the list. And while this is all going on, the City Council endeavors perpetually to ignore the problems that are so obvious to everyone else, to keep their heads buried in the sand, and to avoid at all costs making any decisions or asserting any leadership that is even the least bit suggestive of a plan to address community concerns. Sadly, the City Council is the only thing in this mess we can count on as a community…we can count on them Not making a decision and NOT taking any action!

And all of that represents the cats running amuck with nobody attempting to herd them.

And while all of this has been going on, very quietly, very discreetly, not looking for attention or pats on the back, the Orchard Church has been trying to make a difference through their Sunday evening Church on the Street. Unlike Clean and Safe Chico, who has meetings to talk about "those people," unlike R Town, who wants to disregard their civil rights and herd them away, and unlike the City leaders, who are doing nothing, Orchard has been connecting with the homeless for 5 years. They have established relationships, built trust and helped many of those people off the street. Orchard has helped 3 people get back to their families, 3 more into rehab and 3 more into their own homes this year alone (so far). In addition, they run a men's house with ten residents, all of whom faced homelessness, addiction or other circumstances in their past. They have helped dozens of others over the years. Orchard makes their connection with people on the street by giving them a meal....once a week...for about an hour...in the downtown Plaza. This happens Sunday evenings, and has been going on for over 5 years...right across the street from City Hall and right outside the window of the Police Substation.

Now, because the order has been issued to "crack down" on the homeless, it seems the first focus of the crackdown is Orchard Church. The Parks Commission clearly does not like what they are doing, the poor kids they have working as park rangers seem to have taken Orchard's efforts as a personal affront to them, and dozens of uninformed citizens have written angry emails to Council members, left them calls, and publicly blasted (by way of social media) the efforts of the Church. And all of this, and the current efforts to revoke the ability of the church to continue their efforts, has occurred without a single person taking a moment to ask Pastor Jim Culp or others at Orchard exactly what it is that they do. Instead, Jim has been called a "ghetto preacher" by downtown business folks. Others have angrily and hatefully labeled the church members as co-dependent pseudo do-gooders who are causing harm and perpetuating the problem.

The response to Orchard has been disturbing to say the least. Nobody else is doing anything. They are, and they are being vilified. To me, this is disgusting! If anything, the other entities could learn from the example set by Orchard, and the efforts related to helping these folks off the street could be expanded.

Don't get me wrong...its not that I'm a bleeding heart who thinks that we should leave the homeless to be. On the contrary....I'm as angry as everyone else. I was pissed as I saw the crowd of vagrants who has now set up camp on the front lawn of the Council Chambers when I drove through Downtown today. I am pissed that Council after Council has let the charming culture of our community slip away....and now, while it is staring us in the face, they still refuse to assert a position against what we have become. I'm pissed that they have disregarded the benefit of having a well staffed police department to help solve the kinds of community problems like we are now facing. We once had a department that could do that, but years of neglect have left us with a department that struggles daily to staff shifts and keep up with calls for service. In fact, as a side note, I believe a big part of the solution to the problems this community is facing is to restore and then enhance the police. I'm pissed there are those in Chico who would even for a minute consider bringing a group like the Guardian Angels here, and sad about how many high profile Chico people have gone on record as being supportive of this. I can tell you for certain: Chico IS NOT a Guardian Angel type town!

But more than anything, I am pissed that this community and its leaders would attack Orchard Church for trying to make a difference. I support what Orchard Church is doing. Until somebody else in this town steps up to the plate and takes some action (instead of talking tough about what they would like to do), Orchard Church should be left alone.

Here is the letter I sent the City Council sharing my thoughts:

October 14, 2013

Chico City Council

411 Main Street

Chico, California 95926

RE: Orchard Church, Church on the Street

Dear Council Members,

Much has been said recently about problems caused in downtown Chico by homeless vagrants. In response, different groups of citizens with good intentions have formed or attempted to form responses, which are hoped, at some level, to help mitigate the problems. Street Pastors are out there on the street actually serving citizens in need, homeless and otherwise, and making a bit of a difference as they attempt to fill a void that has increased as of late due the diminishing presence of the police in Chico. Another group, Clean and Safe Chico, seems to have some great ideas in relation to dealing with the homeless vagrants specifically, but to date they have really been unable to accomplish anything other than having lots of meetings and talking about all the great things they would like to do….if they had money….lots of money.

While all of this attention and these different discussions and responses have been taking place, there has been something else going on that most Chico citizens are totally unaware of. In the furtherance of their mission to serve others, the Orchard Church has been conducting Church on the Street on Sunday evenings in the City Plaza for at least the last five years. In doing so, they have established relationships with many of those who are viewed as the problem in Downtown Chico, and they have, one at a time, helped many of these people out of their circumstances. In the last year alone, through contacts made and relationships established at Church on the Street, Orchard Church has helped 3 homeless people into housing, 3 more addicts into rehab and 3 more to return to their families. Chico hasn’t heard about any of this because the church is not doing it to get attention or credit, and they don’t make an announcement every time they are able to help somebody. They are just quietly working to make a difference.

As community discussion takes place in relation to the homeless, everyone seems to be full of ideas about what to do… drop-in centers, wet shelters, job training, etc. are all suggested. Unfortunately, what is missing from the community conversation is actual understanding of the variety of reasons people are homeless, an understanding of who these people are as individuals, and an inclination by the masses to come to know these people. Absent relationships with those who are actually existing in homelessness, it is likely that all the great ideas everyone has to take care of the problems will go nowhere. Well, the very things I have suggested a missing in general are not missing in relation to the works of Orchard’s Church on the Street. Jim Culp, his family and the members of Orchard Church, through Church on the Street, have helped countless people off of the streets over the years by having relationships with them, taking personal interest in their circumstances on a case by case basis and holding them accountable. They are doing exactly what this community wants done with “those people,” but does not otherwise know how to do.

Now, we are hearing that the City is attempting to stop the work of the church. This is most disturbing! We have an entire community wondering what to do, a City Council that seems to do everything it can to avoid making a decision or taking a position on community issues and nothing is being done by the City to solve the problems related to the homeless in Downtown. And at the same time, we have this apparent sudden new awareness of the work of Pastor Jim Culp, who now has downtown business people calling him “ghetto pastor” to his face, and an unexplainable desire to stop his work. He and his congregation are doing, and have been doing, what the leaders of this City have failed to do. So, why is Church on the Street being targeted? At this point, the most anyone can provide in the way of a response to the question is, “Well, what you are doing is unprecedented.” I guess that’s what we do in Chico when we are a City leader and we face unprecedented circumstances: We retreat to a bunker, bungle our own rules, and attempt to dismantle that which is unprecedented?

The Orchard Church, by the way, with the full awareness of each and every mayor for the last 5 years (whom Pastor Culp has met with personally), has implemented a solution (one of many possible) to help address the problems of homelessness in Chico. For that, they should be embraced, and the community and its elected and appointed leaders should seek to understand how Orchard has been successful. Stephen Covey spoke of the importance of seeking first to understand before seeking to be understood. Church on the Street has been happening quietly on the corner across the street from City Hall for over five years. Now, all of the sudden, in a keystone cop-like response, the Parks Commission and Park Manager are attempting to shut them down….and all of this is happening without any apparent effort whatsoever to learn about what they are doing – there has been no seeking of understanding. Rather, they appear to have become a target for blame about the problems in City Plaza. That is just wrong.

We support Orchard Church and what they are doing to make a difference. To force them to stop would be a travesty, as would allowing them to be blamed for the problems caused by homeless vagrants in Downtown Chico. They are doing exactly what this community needs (and needs more of), they are doing it on a shoestring, and they should be commended for their efforts. Please embrace their unprecedented activities, and acknowledge the benefit to our community. If they are forced to stop what they are doing, yet another void in the community response will be created, and the City will have taken a giant step backwards.

Sincerely,

Mike & Laurie Maloney

Chico, California