Communities must show they CARE
Cities across California are at the forefront of responding to the persistent crisis of homelessness. Since 2018, when the Bakersfield City Council declared a homeless emergency shelter crisis, Bakersfield has invested in over 600 new shelter beds. Even during a global pandemic, we built the very successful Brundage Lane Navigation Center, which has moved nearly 140 individuals from the shelter into permanent housing through comprehensive case management. The 2022 Point-in-Time homeless count indicated that, for the first time in years, there were more people in shelters than on the streets this past winter.
The city continues to address issues related to encampments by investing in bio-hazard cleanup teams in Downtown and Old Town Kern, Public Works Clean City Teams, the Bakersfield Homeless Center’s Jobs program, the reestablishment of the Bakersfield Police Department’s Impact Teams and Code Enforcement’s Rapid Response Teams. In 2021, the Rapid Response team alone received 6,217 complaints, cleaned up 4,690 encampments and collected over 5.93 million pounds of trash.
Bakersfield has also developed one of the Central Valley’s first housing trust funds to spur additional investment in housing production to provide permanent housing solutions to unhoused individuals. Since 2019, we’ve invested over $14 million into the fund. We’ve allocated another $10 million in ARPA funds for affordable housing, and have received millions of dollars in additional state and federal grants. As a result, over 136 new affordable housing units were completed last year, 217 units are under construction and development and 154 units are set to be rehabbed.
Yet, despite our best efforts to chip away at the problem, there are far too many people with severe mental health and addiction issues roaming our streets and living in encampments. These are our aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, cousins who are suffering from untreated schizophrenia spectrum or psychotic disorders, left on our streets to wither away.
Look around, in Bakersfield and throughout California, it’s clear that the status quo is not working. While we must continue to provide support for those seeking emergency shelter, it is obvious that more must be done. But there are limits to what city governments can do. The state must step up.
This is why I am asking that my colleagues on the City Council join me in adopting a resolution in support of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CARE Court Model. The Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court is a new proposal to get people with mental health and substance abuse disorders the care and support they desperately need. The new CARE Court model will hold everyone accountable — individuals and local governments — with court orders for care, and consequences for not following through for both parties.
CARE Court will connect a person struggling with untreated mental illness with a court-ordered CARE plan for up to two years. Each plan can include clinically prescribed, individualized interventions with several supportive services, medication and a housing plan, and will be managed by a care team in the community.
The focus of CARE Court is on stabilizing people with the hardestto-treat behavioral health conditions, without taking away their rights. Each person will be provided with a public defender and a new supporter, on top of their full clinical team, to provide supported decision making-not substitute decision making, as happens in conservatorships.
CARE Court is for a subset of individuals who lack medical decision-making capacity — before they get arrested and committed to a state hospital, and before they become so impaired that they end up in a Mental Health Conservatorship.
Let’s be clear: There are many reasons why people find themselves homeless. No single solution will solve this societal issue. But CARE Court is a necessary next step in helping some of the most vulnerable individuals get off of the streets and into housing with the support that they desperately need.
Newsom is not only calling for this new approach but supporting this effort by including $65 million for initial costs to implement CARE Court.
This plan is currently moving through the Legislature.
Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, along with California’s Big City Mayors, has endorsed this proposal. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, California Professional Firefighters, the California Medical Association and the California Hospital Association have also joined the coalition in support of CARE Courts.
California must act with urgency to address the mental health crisis on our streets. If you agree, call your state representatives and encourage them to support the CARE Court Framework.