BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The city of Bakersfield is reporting patchy outcomes in its homelessness prevention and intervention programs.<\/p>\n
In a City Council Homelessness Committee meeting on Tuesday, Bakersfield Police Department Lieutenant Nicole Anderberg said that although the year-to-date numbers for BPD’s Community Vitality Unit’s operations are below last year’s, there was a “noticeable” jump in enforcements between this past June and July.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, those numbers jumped from\u00a0986 unit\u00a0actions in June to 1,222 in July —\u00a0nearly a\u00a024% increase.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Watch 17 News, After Sunrise and more local news free on your smart TV. Click to learn more about KGET+\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n The BPD unit also saw a 42% increase in outreach operations from the nonprofit that is contracted with the\u00a0city of\u00a0Flood Ministries, 23% more calls to Community Vitality for services and 26% more co-responses between law enforcement and homelessness outreach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Anderberg said there were also more calls for BPD\u00a0homelessness\u00a0assistance\u00a0and BPD Impact Enforcement arrests for illegal lodging,\u00a0trespassing\u00a0and public nuisance violations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrae Gonzales, Bakersfield City Councilman who\u00a0represents\u00a0Ward 2 and sits as the\u00a0chairman\u00a0of the Homelessness Committee, said some of those jumps are significant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “It feels like we’ve made some progress, and then there’s a downward shift,” Gonzales said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Gonzales’ statement in the meeting came after officials with Flood\u00a0Ministries\u00a0presented their numbers from the last two months, saying the number of “unduplicated individuals” they work with increased between June and July, meaning they are reaching different, new unhoused people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “If the unduplicated count of individuals that Rapid Response or Impact is encountering is increasing, we know that the calls and the responses are increasing and we know from our constituents that they feel like there are more and more people on the streets, that there’s more people on the streets,” Gonzales said. “What’s going on?\u00a0What’s\u00a0causing that?”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Manuel Vieyra, director of programs with Flood Ministries, said a general lack of housing, lack of permanent housing and shelter space all contribute to homelessness and people not being able to access housing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “The inflow of people entering into\u00a0homelessness is\u00a0so much greater than the outflow of people exiting (from) homelessness,” Vieyra said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n