One California County Combats Homelessness Crisis With New, Sometimes Controversial Methods
A quarter of the nation’s homeless people live in the state of California.
Reports over the years have described the impact of the homelessness crisis in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco. But smaller cities and towns are also experiencing an uptick — including Bakersfield, California.
According to Megan Person, director of countywide communication for Kern County, 46% of people living in the area are one paycheck away from catastrophe.
“We have a huge population of people who are within one to two paychecks of homelessness,” Person says. “So our job as a county is to help move those people into more stable situations.”
There is a radical approach on the table to fight the homeless crisis in Kern County, where Bakersfield sits. The sheriff there
