Some have said, “What about, ‘If you build it, they will come’”? Spoken by some apparently unaware of the preponderance of data on the issue of our Shelter Crisis. For example, data from the Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS), shows that over a 3-year time span, very few people [less than 5%] experiencing homelessness accessed services in more than one California Continuum of Care (COC). COC’s are county wide groups of service providers. So this data means over 95% of homeless do not move to get services somewhere else. The idea of “professional transients” is not supported by the facts.
If this were a real issue, we would see Chico’s homeless people moving to Medford, Eugene, and Marysville to get into Hope Village, Opportunity Village, or 14 Forward. If you’re so poor you can’t afford rent, moving is a huge and expensive job. First of all, you have to give up everything you own except what you can carry, then buy a bus ticket and leave the community you know well, and go to a new place with many unknowns, for a slim chance at a shelter bed? The risk, the work, and the sacrifice of leaving your friends to move to a new, unfamiliar, place, are among the reasons the magnet issue is not really an issue. Furthermore, we have talked about this issue with the Directors of Marysville’s 14 Forward, Medford’s Hope Village and Eugene’s Opportunity Village and they all concurred that attracting out-of-townees has not been a problem for them.
— Charles Withuhn, Chico