Safe Space Executive Director Hilary Crosby says that Safe Space Chico wants to make sure that they have everything in order before paying the $14,000 fee for submitting a permit application.


CHICO, Calif. – Safe Space is working to get their intake center on the Esplanade ready for the winter season.

However, Safe Space has yet to put in the application for the permit with the City of Chico in order to operate the intake center.

Action News Now spoke with Hilary Crosby, the Executive Director of Safe Space Chico, about the reason for the delay in filing the application for the permit.

Crosby tells Action News Now that the reason they have not filed the application is because Safe Space is making sure that everything is in order before filing the paperwork for the permit. The permit application comes with a $14,000 cost.

In October, Safe Space Chico reached out to the City of Chico with plans to create a long-term intake center at a building on the Esplanade, but city officials said the organization needed a use permit application before they could move forward. According to Crosby, Safe Space Chico will be putting in the paperwork for the permit application this week.

Crosby says that there has been some opposition from business owners in the area around the new intake center location over safety concerns.

“I encourage all feedback, I want to work that into our plan,” said Crosby. “Safety is also a concern as a woman that’s running a business i wouldn’t expect no different anything else, but we have to remember that not all homeless are dangerous, not all homeless are criminals.”

“So I definitely don’t want to have that impression out there. We did hear loud and clear last year that the downtown businesses did not want an intake center down here, so I want to listen to that feed back as well.”

Officials with the City of Chico say that the permit process can take several months for it to be completed, and that is for projects that generate little controversy.

Crosby says that they are hoping that the permit will get approved, as the $14,000 fee is not refundable if the permit gets denied by the City of Chico.

Safe Space Chico says that they also want to make the intake center on the Esplanade into a new home for their organization, as they have been looking for a new office space for months.