City rejects project aiming to aid homeless women and children

The Bakersfield City Council voted on Wednesday to halt a privately-funded project designed to help homeless women and children.

Citing concerns over the nonprofit’s business plan, the City Council approved an appeal filed by the neighbors of the planned site of the Casa Esperanza Home for Women & Children in a 6-0 vote, with Councilman Andrae Gonzales abstaining because of a conflict of interest.

The Bakersfield Planning Commission had already unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the project, which allowed it to move forward. Many commissioners said they did so out of a desire to help fight homelessness plaguing the city.

But it was a different story at the City Council, which heard the appeal filed by neighbors. Councilman Ken Weir led the charge of council opposition, saying he had come away from talks with Casa Esperanza leaders unimpressed with their plan to make the project a success.

“I don’t want to invade somebody’s neighborhood with something that I have little confidence in succeeding,” he said during the meeting. “My gut feeling is this shouldn’t happen.”

Casa Esperanza would have established a home where women experiencing homelessness could have reestablished themselves as they sought stable incomes and permanent housing. Organizers sought to purchase a house across the street from Bakersfield College, on the corner of Panorama Drive and Haley Street, that had previously been used as a foster home.

However, neighbors opposed the project, saying they worried too many people would live in the house and problems could spill over into the surrounding area.

“We tried very hard to impress upon the people that we talked to that it’s not just objecting for the sake of objecting, but our research pointed out some flaws in the plan,” said neighborhood resident Kristen Urquidez. “It’s really hard to fix things after the fact.”

Still, a Planning Department report said an average of 16 individuals had resided on the property since 1999, and the city’s building code would likely have allowed a maximum of just over 20. Casa Esperanza would have housed six women and their children at one time.

The home has seven bedrooms along with nine parking spaces in the backyard. Casa Esperanza board secretary Jim Mosher called it the ideal location, not only for the size of the home itself, but for its proximity to a nearby busing hub.

“We did look at other properties around Bakersfield, but the other ones were too small and they certainly weren’t transportation connected,” he told the council during the hearing.