BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Rapid-Rehousing is one of the ways California and Bakersfield address our homelessness crisis. However, while the goal of this program is to help get people into homes, sometimes it works against them.
- One Bakersfield woman was allegedly refused an apartment after she said that her entire rental payment would come from housing assistance through the Open Door Network. Now the state’s Civil Rights Department is taking the matter to court.
Rapid-Rehousing is one of the ways California and Bakersfield address our homelessness crisis. However, while the goal of this program is to help get people into homes, sometimes it works against them.
One Bakersfield woman was allegedly refused an apartment after she said that her entire rental payment would come from housing assistance through the Open Door Network. Now the state’s Civil Rights Department is taking the matter to court.
According to the lawsuit, the state alleges that in May of 2022, a single mother working was a substitute aid for the Bakersfield City School District went through the Rapid-Rehousing program and applied for an apartment owned by Babby Kurian. The rent was advertised at $1,400 a month, but when she told Kurian the payment would come from the Open Door Network, he said “I’m not going to deal with those programs,” according to the lawsuit.
“As a landlord, there's always a concern with these type of funding sources,” said Lauren Skidmore, CEO of the ODN.
Skidmore said at ODN, they try to work with landlords and build a relationship centered on communication and transparency with Rapid-Rehousing. She said some landlords, however, are still weary to accept the rental assistance as income, especially if they’ve had a bad experience before.
“It really can be an uncertain situation for them to enter into, because it is not meant to be ongoing,” she said. “A lot of times, we do our best to make sure we can fully subsidize their rent, but they need to find something that's affordable and in a place that they believe they can sustain.”
The lawsuit said after the woman was rejected, it took five months for her to find housing. After this, the Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance conducted testing and found on at least three occasions that Kurian denied a tester applicant after they disclosed the received rental assistance.
I reached out to Kurian over the phone who did not want to comment on the lawsuit but said he will handle in court.
Skidmore said ultimately Rapid-Rehousing is proven effective, having placed 831 households in new homes in 2023. She said the ODN works with the clients for up to two years to ensure they can sustain the housing once assistance is done. If a client doesn’t seem to be managing on their own, they will work to transition them out and into a more longterm solution.
“We pay directly to the landlord, so there's an automatic assurance that you're going to get that rental payment,“ she said. “It's always our goal to make sure that landlords aren't left with the situation where they feel like they have to legally evict somebody, or they have to punish somebody for not being able to pay their rent.”
However, one factor that can harm both the clients and landlord is if the state pulls funding for programs like rental assistance.
“We don't have a say when California budgets or federal budgets end programs that support these individuals,” Skidmore said.
Skidmore said though these challenges impact them and their clients, more often then not they find Rapid-Rehousing as a successful method to not only get someone out of homelessness but also keep other from entering it. That’s why they work to incentivize landlords to take part.
“Might look like double deposit. You know, three months rent paid at once,” she said. “Sometimes we will support clients in making sure their arrears are paid for, whether it's old utility bills or old rental payments.”
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