KERN RIVER VALLEY, Calif. — “Right now we only have four that attended the training,” Jim Wheeler Executive Director of Flood Ministries said.
Flood Ministries helps recruit volunteers for the Point In Time Count, which is organized by the Bakersfield Regional Homeless Collaborative.
“We do a survey, we determine how many people were homeless on this specific night at a point in time. We ask demographic questions, questions about mental health, substance abuse, where they were when they became homeless,” Wheeler said.
The Point In Time Count takes place on January 24 from 4 am to 9 am.
Volunteers need to attend a training session; the last one before the count is a virtual session at 5:30 pm on Tuesday January 16. The Training goes over the the survey tools and safety procedures.
“We’ve never lost anybody on Point In Time count, it’s very safe. We just want to make sure to keep it that way.”
Both state and federal funding is determined by the results of the count.
Wheeler says the Kern River Valley is one of the more difficult areas to get an accurate count, because it is spread out.
Last year, only 12 unsheltered people were reported.
“The more people and the more volunteers we have and the more teams we have the more comprehensive we can be in our count. We know there are more than 12 people that are experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the KRV.”
“To get involved you can go tobkrhc.org and click “Volunteer for the 2024 PIT Count” on the homepage.
“We would really ideally have ten to twelve people so we could have three or four teams.”
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