Sutter County Plan Could Help Homeless And Their New Neighbors

Sutter County has a plan to create a secure area full of tents near the airport to house the homeless.

“The goal and expectation of the County is for the emergency shelter not to be a permanent, multi-year facility, but to be there as long as it will take for these individuals to transition back into society,” County Administrator Scott Mitnick said.

Dozens of homeless began camping along the Feather River Bike Trail in February when flood waters forced them from their previous camps.

The County will ask the Board of Supervisors today to approve an application for a $500,000 federal grant. Mitnick said the grant would help build an emergency shelter near the airport.

"They'll come in there to get cleaned up, to allow us to identify who they are, connect them with loved ones, family members, jobs, services, federal, state funding, etcetera," Mitnick said.

Construction on the emergency shelter could begin next spring.

To give the homeless a place to stay in the meantime, the county will ask the board in two weeks to approve a temporary tent compound for the homeless near the proposed emergency shelter site.

The board will also consider a change to the county's camping ordinance that will make it illegal to camp on county property.

The county said a Department of Justice order prevents any attempt to move the homeless from county property unless the County provides a place for them to stay.