Recently, I took some time away from work and went for a nice long drive. I’ve always liked small towns and I haven’t had much of an opportunity to visit most of the smaller communities around Chico. It was a very enjoyable day checking out several local places but when I got up to Cohasset; I had a little epiphany.

Cohasset, CA has a posted population sign reporting that 720 people live there. When I saw this sign, my first thought was – “Wow, I personally know more people who are homeless than the entire population of this town.” That’s when it hit me; we have an entire town’s worth of people who are homeless in Butte County! I haven’t been able to get this comparison out of my head. On May 11th, I celebrated my one year anniversary as the Executive Director of the Torres Community Shelter. In that year, we’ve served more people than the entire population of a nearby community. Also, our most recent count of people who are homeless in Butte County identified 1,422 people and that rivals the population of Biggs, CA at 1,793. Unfortunately, due to the economy, our “town” of homeless people is probably growing faster than the population of most of our local communities.

It’s hard to find something universal to say about an entire town’s worth of people except that in many ways, our “small town” of homeless people is similar to any other small town in America. The overwhelming majority of individuals in the Shelter’s “small town” are decent people that want to improve their lives and are working for something better. However, we also have some people, like any community does, who take up too much of our town’s resources and their actions sometimes reflect poorly on the character of our town as a whole. Our town is as diverse as any other town and the only attribute that I can ascribe to every single one of them is that they are in crisis because they don’t have a permanent residence.

Please imagine for a moment what you would do if over the last year, an entire town came to stay with you because they didn’t have anywhere else to stay. I’m not trying to single out Cohasset, but just because they are of a comparable size, it helps to visualize. If everyone in the town of Cohasset came to your house last year and needed a bed, food, some clothing, a place to shower and get their laundry done; how would you even begin to address their needs? Also keep in mind that most feel horrible that they have to impose on you (some even resent having to be helped) and want to get out of your house as soon as possible, but you know that they may need help finding a new job, a place to live, some life skills training, help with their credit rating, mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, etc.

That’s a pretty good description of my first year at the Shelter. Our staff has had an entire town come stay with us and we’ve met all of their basic needs. We’ve made a difference in all of their lives just by being here when they needed us. We’ve also helped the majority of these people in lasting ways so that hopefully they won’t need us again. However we know that we’ll see some of these people again and we also need to be prepared for a whole new town of people that will need to visit us next year as well. With our community's continued support, we'll continue to help people improve their lives here at our "small town"—the Torres Community Shelter.

Thank you,

Brad Montgomery

Executive Director
Torres Shelter
opwindows@aol.com or brad@chicoshelter.org