{"id":154218,"date":"2026-01-29T01:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/154218\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T01:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:49:08","slug":"kern-county-conducts-annual-homeless-census-amid-hopes-for-youth-decrease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/154218\/","title":{"rendered":"Kern County conducts annual homeless census amid hopes for youth decrease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The Bakersfield Kern Regional Homeless Collaborative has embarked on its annual <a href=\"https:\/\/bkrhc.org\/pit-count-reports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Point in Time Count<\/a>, a comprehensive census of the homeless population in the community. Volunteers have been diligently counting individuals living in shelters and those unsheltered throughout Kern County.<\/p>\n<p>Carlos Baldovinos, executive director at <a href=\"https:\/\/themissionkc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Mission at Kern County<\/a>, emphasized the importance of recognizing the humanity of those counted. &#8220;These are lives. And as a community member I want to make sure that these lives that we&#8217;re counting, that are part of our communities or community members, how can we better help them?&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Curt Williams, a volunteer and worker at the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, highlighted the focus on youth homelessness. &#8220;The number is somewhere around 6,200 students that are attending schools in Kern County that experience homelessness at some point,&#8221; Williams said.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers are hopeful for a decrease in homelessness, particularly among the youth, due to new programs. Last year, the count revealed approximately 2,000 people experiencing homelessness, marking a 2.3% decrease from 2024, which had seen a 37% increase.<\/p>\n<p>Baldovinos noted the impact of initiatives such as affordable housing, outreach, behavioral health services, and additional shelters. &#8220;That tells you the things that we&#8217;re putting in place&#8230;actually helps our count, the overall counts,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>As volunteers continue to tally the numbers, the Mission at Kern County is distributing bags with essential items and food to those being counted. Baldovinos reiterated the importance of treating every individual with dignity and humanity. &#8220;Every person does matter. If you come in asking for a plate of food, or overnight shelter or clothing or a toiletry kit, every person does matter,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The Bakersfield Kern Regional Homeless Collaborative has embarked on its annual Point in Time Count,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-154218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}