BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Nelson Dale has called Bakersfield home since 1994. For more than a year, he has been living without stable housing — moving from place to place, living out of his vehicle, and searching for a way into housing for himself and his family.
“There’s a lot of people… I have friends out here on the streets that’ve been out here for a while,” said Dale.
Dale says his disability and SSI income limit his ability to work and afford housing. He has been reaching out to local organizations for help, but has yet to find a solution.
"For at least a year… through Flood Ministries and other agencies. I still haven't had no housing or anything like that," Dale said.
Dale is also trying to find stable housing for his girlfriend and his 14-year-old son. He says he was told Flood Ministries could help house his family — but not him.
"I just want to have better for my son. I'm trying to stay in my son's life, you know what I mean?" Dale said.
His situation reflects a broader challenge facing the city. City data shows that in July, outreach workers placed 53 people into shelter. Another 66 people were unable to be placed — and of those, 46 were turned away because no space was available.
Jim Wheeler, executive director of Flood Ministries, says the city has added significant resources to the system, but a bottleneck remains when people need somewhere to go next.
"So we need to be able to keep people from entering the system, but we also need more emphasis on the back end where we need places for people to go, whether that's permanent supportive housing or transitional housing or even shelter beds," Wheeler said.
Wheeler says flood has seen more people entering the homelessness system for different reasons — including evictions, a shortage of available housing, and people being released from jail or other institutional settings without a stable place to go.
He says that could help explain why Bakersfield police officers may be encountering more people they consider new to the homelessness system.
And while Wheeler acknowledges there may be individuals who are sent here from other communities, usually through Homeward Bound programs, he says he has not seen evidence of large numbers of people being bussed into Bakersfield.
Instead, he says homelessness is more complicated — with people entering the system for a variety of different reasons.
For Dale, the answer is more resources — ones that help people find a way out without leaving their families behind.
"We need something that's going to help us all, keep us together, keep us a family. The operation needs a big push; it needs a big push, something behind it," Dale said.
Wheeler says addressing the problem means working on both ends — preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place, while also creating more places for people to go when they do.
"Thousands of people get housed every year; we just need to stem the flow into the system. Once we do that, people will start seeing a real difference," Wheeler said.
Flood Ministries says the goal now is to build on the resources already in place and find more ways to help people move from homelessness into stable housing.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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