EDITORIAL: Homeless count vital now more than ever
As teams of volunteers scoured every corner of Kern County last week, counting the number of homeless people in the region, lawmakers controlling state and federal dollars anguished over looming budget cuts.
The inevitability of those cuts heightens the importance of accuracy in the census, conducted every other year by the Kern County Homeless Collaborative, because millions in government aid to combat the persistent problem is a stake.
The count must be as accurate as possible to secure a commensurate level of aid, such as the federal Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program, which directs assistance to displaced and at-risk individuals and families.
Some 1,500 homeless souls were counted in 2009 on the heels of the banking and mortgage crises. What will this year's survey reveal when preliminary figures are released about a month from now? No one's really sure, according to Louis Medina, grant writer for the Bakersfield Homeless Center. It's hoped that the last round of funding and the hard work of these volunteers will have had a significant impact in reducing homelessness. But that's by no means assured.
Medina said this year's effort emphasized two specific groups: down-and-out veterans of military service in the Middle East who returned, physically or psychologically traumatized, to a nation mired in a poor economy; and families that lost everything in the wake of layoffs and the housing crash. These two groups are quickly changing the face of homelessness in the United States.
It's impossible to count every last homeless person -- so many of them are invisible, either by choice or because of their transient lifestyles.
But we are grateful for the volunteers and others who've undertaken such a difficult job in the name of compassion.
