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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Dani Anguiano in Chico with photographs by Rachel Bujalski

The town at the center of California’s climate refugee crisis

Woman in the dark amid flowering trees
Julia Cheek in Chico, California. Photograph: Rachel Bujalski/The Guardian

After Julia Cheek lost all of her belongings in the Camp fire, she longed for a safe place to lay her head at night. When she finally received a check from the California utility that had caused the fire, Cheek used it to buy the only home she could afford: a 2010 Nissan Xterra.

Cheek didn’t have insurance and has struggled to secure permanent housing since the fire, remaining among the growing population of unhoused residents in this northern California outpost.

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