City’s homelessness dashboard created to increase accountability | News

This understanding was part of the reasoning behind a new homelessness dashboard unveiled at City Hall, according to Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh.

“What we’re facing is a mental health, a substance abuse and a housing crisis. We know that systems are broken and those have to be fixed,” Goh said, noting there’s no simple solution to address these interrelated problems.

“There is not, ‘If only, mayor, you would do this, then homelessness would be fixed,’” she said, referring to a hypothetical conversation with a frustrated constituent. “It takes all of us through very complex, persistent solutions, and that’s what we’re doing.”

There are a few purposes for the dashboard, according to City Manager Christian Clegg.

It’s not only to share information with the community, show the community what’s being done and increase accountability, he said. Although Clegg did take the opportunity Tuesday to point out that despite large growth in the local homeless population during the pandemic, the city continues to house more people (744) than are living on the streets (612), a historic first for Bakersfield.

The achievements have come as a result of a number of partnerships, as well, including work with Kern County resources, such as the Community Action Partnership of Kern. CAPK’s new safe campground site behind the M Street Navigation Center, for example, opened in June and has already made a difference. There are now 41 people living there who might be otherwise living in an illegal encampment. 

Eleven residents have moved from the campground to the adjacent M Street center, six have been placed in permanent housing, six more have been provided housing vouchers and two others were reunited with family members, according to James Burger, outreach and advocacy coordinator for CAPK, who added that the campgrounds recently added misters and water-cooled fans to help with the heat wave. 

The idea behind the dashboard, though, also is to recognize there needs to be statewide policy changes in order to improve a situation where locals have been hampered by statewide policies; and also, since it’s a community issue, the city wants help from those who see the concerns every day.

The hope is that the dashboard will be able to help solicit more informed suggestions and solutions from the public, in understanding also what’s already being done. It should also encourage residents to reach out to Sacramento, said City Councilman Andrae Gonzales, whose ward includes downtown, an area of the city perhaps most heavily affected by the issue.

“This is why it’s important for the citizens to look at this dashboard and to study it and to recognize all the work that we’re doing at the local level,” Gonzales said.

“But ask yourself, ‘What more can we do?’ The answer is, we’ve really got to talk to our state legislators, our representatives, and get the state to really take this issue head on. … We have to do more at the state level.”

One of the bigger investments the state is working on to address the issues surrounding homelessness is Senate Bill 1338, or the CARE Act, a bill passed by the Legislature last week that establishes a framework for CARE Courts. Gonzales has advocated for them.

The Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Court program would create a framework whereby those in the court system in need of mental health care would be able to enter into a voluntary agreement or a court-ordered CARE plan for services that would be to be provided by county behavioral health agencies, including stabilization medication, housing and other enumerated services, according to the legislation.

Clegg noted the city was working within the framework of the law to create something ahead of the Dec. 1, 2024 deadline set by the state for counties.

“We’re going to be reaching out to our partners and offering our assistance,” Clegg said, noting there already have been meetings with the district attorney, sheriff and judges, “and even offering some of our resources to help implement CARE Court as soon as possible.”