BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 A Bakersfield City Council member gave a passionate speech on Wednesday after several members of the community spoke out against his comments on homelessness made during a previous City Council meeting.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 21, Ward 6 Councilmember Zack Bashirtash expressed frustration<\/a> over the city\u2019s Clean City Initiative and Community Vitality Program, saying they wasted millions of dollars in programs that didn\u2019t do much to help keep people off the streets or create safe communities.<\/p>\n Watch \u2018After Sunrise\u2019 on KGET+; Click to learn how to get KGET+ on your smart TV devices <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m enraged that we prioritize homeless degenerates over our children in our community. We\u2019ve wasted millions of dollars on treating a problem that\u2019s not doing anything,\u201d Bashirtash said at that meeting.<\/p>\n Nine people, some of whom represented different local organizations, attended the City Council meeting Wednesday evening to criticize Bashirtash\u2019s use of the word \u201cdegenerates\u201d and ideas on holding homeless people in jails<\/a> for a period of time.<\/p>\n Jacqueline Aguilar, the president of the Kern County Young Democrats Leaders, was among several speakers who said the homeless population includes veterans, seniors, families, people with disabilities, people with economic hardships or health crises, those fleeing domestic violence and more.<\/p>\n They said shelter services and other similar investments are more effective solutions over jails and spoke against criminalizing homelessness.<\/p>\n Carter Beardsley, secretary of the Kern County Young Democrat Leaders, said he was disappointed in Bashirtash for degrading his constituents and neighbors instead of providing a solution.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think we need to be conscious about the words that we\u2019re using because if we want to come to a legitimate solution to these problems \u2014 these real problems that we can all agree there is a problem \u2014 if we want to come to those solutions we have to come together,\u201d said Beardsley. \u201cAnd degrading people by calling them degenerates, that\u2019s not getting us anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Gennessa Fisher, the chair of the Youth Action Board under the Bakersfield-Kern Regional Homeless Collaborative, said she was homeless in the past. She said people in power calling homeless people \u201chorrible names\u201d creates shame around homelessness and discourages people from asking for help.<\/p>\n \u201cWe care about these people, we have a heart for these people and they are people at the end of the day. This is somebody\u2019s mother, this is somebody\u2019s daughter, this is somebody\u2019s son, somebody loved this person so much, and now they\u2019re going through something hard. And for you to call them horrible names and be so disrespectful \u2026,\u201d Fisher said tearfully.<\/p>\n Fisher also criticized Bashirtash for not coming out to the PIT Count or working with Flood Bakersfield Ministries.<\/p>\n \u201cSo before you sit there and flaunt your privilege to have a house, to have food, to have clothes on your back, to be clean, go out there and talk to those people because at the end of the day, they\u2019re people,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cSomebody loved them, I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n Annual Kern County homeless population count finishes with crucial data <\/a><\/p>\n Robert Hooks, a member of the Democratic Women of Kern, said how we talk about people in crisis matters just as much as the community\u2019s urgency for safe neighborhoods and cleaner streets.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic officials have a responsibility to govern with restraint, accuracy and respect for human dignity,\u201d said Hooks. \u201cWhen rhetoric starts to resemble national political crackdowns instead of local practical problem-solving, all you do is make a complex situation worse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re just astronomically wrong. And I\u2019ve heard you complain before about your job \u2026 There\u2019s a saying in leadership: \u2018Lead, follow or get out of the way,\u2019\u201d said Hooks.<\/p>\n Flood Bakersfield Ministries Executive Director Jim Wheeler also spoke at the meeting, saying it was disappointing to see people online mock the work the organization has been doing. Flood Ministries is an organization that aims to reduce homelessness through various services like street outreach, shelter placement and housing navigation.<\/p>\n Wheeler asked councilmembers to come out and see the work Flood Ministries does to help homeless people find housing and shelter.<\/p>\n Bashirtash said he knew the speakers were coming to the meeting because he was told a \u201ccertain councilmember\u201d was inviting people to come and \u201cbash\u201d him.<\/p>\n He said his goal isn\u2019t to lock away homeless people and throw away the key, but to slow individuals down long enough to get them the resources they need to become functioning members of society.<\/p>\n He appeared to be choking up as he said there are incidents like the newborn who died by a dumpster on Monday while the city invests in things it believes are helpful to the community.<\/p>\n Bashirtash said he spent a large part of his life working for a nonprofit in the past where he worked with people living on Skid Row. He also talked about how his father-in-law was hit by a car and died in Northern California because he was homeless.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t sit lofty in a mansion like someone who has no idea what they\u2019re talking about,\u201d said Bashirtash. \u201cI\u2019ve sacrificed thousands of my hours on helping intervene in people\u2019s lives who didn\u2019t want intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n He also defended his use of the word \u201cdegenerate,\u201d saying the definition of the term is someone whose behavior is socially irresponsible.<\/p>\n