BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Sarah Regalado was on the streets and addicted to drugs when she came to the Open Door Network in 2022. With no ID and nowhere to turn, they helped her find a purpose.
- Video shows workers with the Open Door Network's Adopt-A-Highway program, which employs formerly incarcerated and homeless to pick up litter and clean the streets of Bakersfield for a wage.
- Workers like Sarah Regalado, a formerly homeless employee, who benefit from this program are seeing their employment put in jeopardy now as the state reduced the budget for this program from $807,000 to $500,000.
Picking up trash and washing down sidewalks isn’t the most glamorous job, but it’s a necessary one.
Sarah Regalado was on the streets and addicted to drugs when she came to the Open Door Network in 2022. With no ID and nowhere to turn, they helped her find a purpose.
“Before this job, I wasn’t’ anybody," she said. "I felt like 'What am I here for?' I’m not here for anything so just sweep me off the face of the earth. No, I’m here, I’m here because people need us out there.”
The Open Door Network helped Regalado get a job through the Adopt-A-Highway program — which employs formerly incarcerated and homeless to pick up litter and clean the streets of Bakersfield for a wage.
But now, Regalado and many others who benefit from this program are seeing their employment put in jeopardy as the state reduced the budget for this program from $807,000 to $500,000.
“Knowing that this program was going to be cut in any manner just really pulled at our heartstrings,"
CEO Lauren Skidmore said in March they learned about the budget cuts which would result in them having to layoff and reduce hours for over 2 dozen employees. She said the cuts are especially difficult because of the vulnerable population they employ and the impact it would have on their progress.
“At-risk of reentering homelessness, becoming problematic on the streets, entering back into addiction, and it really hurts the community that we’ve created here," she said. “Knowing that this program was going to be cut in any manner just really pulled at our heartstrings."
The Adopt-A-Highway program — a contract with Caltrans and the City of Bakersfield — was the Open Door Network's longest-standing contract helping hundreds for more than a decade now.
Katrina Hinzo struggled to find employment due to previous criminal charges and no GED. Thanks to the program became a work lead and she has developed skills she can take into another job opportunity.
“Showing me more or less how to lead other people and how to be responsible and all that," she said.
Regalado said as a lived experience worker — helping clean up litter and even homeless encampments at times — she and other workers can do the job while offering a unique perspective and compassion to those on the streets.
“It makes us happy, it makes others on the streets happy knowing that we’re helping the community," she said. "It just breaks my heart when I look and I see how the streets are and how I could have been on the streets but I’m not, I’m alive and this job made me feel like I’m worth something.”
Both Regalado and Hinzo have found housing and acquired cars thanks to their employment now.
With questions about the future of the program due to these cuts, Skidmore said they're looking for other means of funding. At the last Bakersfield City Council meeting, Vice Mayor Andrea Gonzales asked city staff to look for ways to supplement the loss.
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