No more space

The volunteers with Safe Space, the seasonal, cold-weather homeless shelter hosted at rotating locations, thought they had closed doors for the winter on Feb. 1. But heavy wind and rain prompted the shelter to open for one more night on Sunday (Feb 8).

Cynthia Gailey, who coordinated the shelters on behalf of the Chico Housing Action Team, said the group had hoped to keep the shelters open at least through February, but ran out of facilities willing to host. (On Sunday, Safe Space used the Chico Grange Hall as a makeshift shelter.)

Gailey said Safe Space provided shelter for 51 nights this season, compared with 15 a year ago when the program first started. She said the shelter housed 210 individuals this year, and an average of 50 people showed up each night in the final weeks.

She also observed more people over the age of 30 making use of the service, as well as more homeless women, though CHAT is still crunching demographic numbers.