BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — On Tuesday, September 6, 2022, The City of Bakersfield unveiled a new tool to keep track of their efforts to address homelessness in the city.
The City of Bakersfield Homeless Hub at the city’s website is a public portal to a better understanding of the impact of homelessness on the city.
Andrae Gonzales, Bakersfield City Council member for Ward 2, believes the Homeless Hub will provide more direct and transparent information about what the city is doing to address homelessness.
“This is serious, and so we want to community more clearly with the public exactly how we’re doing,” Gonzales said. “We want to provide them actual data as to what the situation on the ground looks like according to our best information.”
The site shows that as of the Point in Time count in January, 2022, there are 1,356 unhoused people living in Bakersfield. 744 of them live in area shelters, while 612 are sleeping rough. The website also shows the progress the city has made with outreach efforts, getting people into homes, and enrolling people in jobs programs.
Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh says that when it comes to sheltering those who are unhoused, it takes a number of resources.
“There is no, ‘If only, Mayor, you would do this, then homelessness would be fixed,’” said Goh. “It takes all of us through very complex, persistent solutions, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Bakersfield City Manager Christian Clegg says the statistics show there’s more work to be done, and that work is the reason for keeping such a close eye on the numbers.
“Think folks have always said ‘What gets done is what gets measured,’ and so we’re serious about getting thee work done in these areas. If we’re looking at those numbers and we’re measuring against it every month, that’s what we’re going to focus on,” said Clegg. “We’re going to continue to push hard until we see those numbers go in the right direction.”
Still, city leaders say that despite all the efforts they’ve made over the past years, from the Brundage Lane Navigation Center, to Flood Ministry, outreach workers, and the jobs program through the Open Door Network, people are still experiencing homelessness. Clegg hopes the new information clearinghouse will help the state make more feasible plans for getting people off the streets.
“We’ve been able to see that 40 percent of individuals we contact on a weekly basis are resistant to services,” said Clegg. “That means we have services available, they don’t want them. It’s not just about offering. We need to have the ability to help compel folks into the program.”
Councilmember Gonzales adds that if there was an easier solution to combat this problem, it would have been done already.
“The sad reality is that this homelessness crisis is far bigger than the city of Bakersfield,” said Gonzales. “It’s a statewide issue, it’s a west coast issue, and it has to be addressed more systemically at the state level, and we need to continue to have good data so we can continue to tell our story in Bakersfield.”
