In 2018, the Camp fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills killed 85 people, destroyed 14,000 homes and displaced more than 50,000 people. Fire refugees evacuated to Chico, a nearby college town. Before the fire, Chico residents already struggled finding housing, and with the increase in climate refugees to the region, many were pushed out of the area or onto the streets. “You take an area that had a housing crisis before the Camp fire, and then add 20,000 people overnight, and it was disastrous,” said Cathryn Carkhuff, the executive director of Home and Heart.