BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Homelessness rose by 37% in 2024, to more than 2,600 homeless individuals in Kern County, according to Bakersfield-Kern Regional Homeless Collaborative.
The Mission at Kern County serves as the headquarters for the 2025 Point In Time Count.
“We’re mandated by Housing and Urban Development to do this every year, it’s a snapshot really, we have four hours to do this survey,” Steve Peterson, Director of Programs at the Mission at Kern County.
Volunteers have four hours to go around town and the county to find every homeless person they can and survey them.
In an effort to get an accurate number on homelessness in the county. Or as close to an accurate number as possible.
“Every year we get better and better, so I want to say that our count comers fairly close, but I’m sure we’re not going to get everybody,” Peterson said.
Tracking homeless in the shelters is the easy part. The hard part is counting the ones outside.
But they have a plan for that.
“What we do is we create these teams, there’s a four-person team that will go out there, and they’ll have a map. And they stay within that area, so we’re not just randomly going out there,” Peterson went on to explain.
Even then, it’s still not enough to track all of them, especially in those rural areas of the county.
That’s why they’ll still have two extra days to track those rural areas and make sure they’re counted too.
All to make sure the count is as accurate as possible, so that funds to help the homeless get properly allocated.
“They go to supportive services that come along and help people get into housing, or once they get into housing help them stay in housing… our goal is to get them off the streets so they can be in a safe environment. Nobody should have to live out there on the streets,” Peterson said.
Hear what one volunteer had to say about her experience volunteering for the annual Point In Time Count in the video player above.
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