BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The grant will fund intensive case managers and services to help homeless individuals, including those recently released from prison.
- Bakersfield received a $1.9 million grant to aid the homeless community.
- The grant will fund intensive case managers for at-risk homeless individuals.
- The program aims to provide mental health services, substance use treatment, and diversion programs.
- Efforts will also focus on preventing homelessness among recently released prisoners.
For your convenience, the skimmable summary above is generated with the assistance of AI and fact checked by our team prior to publication. Read the full story as originally reported below.
Broadcast transcript:
62% of Kern County's homeless population is unsheltered according to the 2024 Kern County Point and Time Count. Recently the city received a 1.9 million dollar grant to fund supportive services to the homeless community.
This grant in particular came through Prop 47's grant program, which awards funds to public agencies to provide mental health services, substance use disorder treatment and/or diversion programs for those in the criminal justice system.
Nicole Anderberg, Lieutenant with the Bakersfield Police Department says, "What that grant is going to be utilized for to fund intensive case managers that are going to be able to reach out and provide services to chronic at-risk homeless individuals."
The city says the intensive case managers will provide support and resources to the homeless communities who police are consistently responding to. Flood Ministries is one of the outreach programs here in Bakersfield and they say outreach, housing navigation, case management, and supply resources, are some of their main priorities.
Jim Wheeler, Executive Director for Flood Ministries says, "People who are experiencing homelessness aren't going to come to us sometimes they do but most of the time we have to go out and find them and look for them and build that relationship and build that rapport so that they trust us."
Carlos Baldovinous is the chair of the Bakersfield Homeless Collaborative and the executive director at Mission Kern County and he says this grant will be a great addition. "There's been a lot of efforts in the last several years to basically work with this population at a mass level because in California carries 35% of the homeless nationally." he said.
The city wants to add a portion of the grant deals with the re-entry population from the prison systems.
Lt. Nicole Anderberg says, "We'll work very closely with individuals who are being released from incarceration to try to not even allow them to go into homelessness." she also tells me the programs will be intensive and require regular contact to keep the individual supported.
Flood Ministries says even though the number of homeless individuals has gone up it doesn't necessarily mean there are more, it just means the county has been doing a better job at counting them.
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:
