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High Speed rail plans could impact homeless center

Posted at 6:57 PM, Dec 21, 2017
and last updated 2020-10-07 18:51:40-04

The High Speed Rail project is on pace to arrive in Bakersfield in the next several years but it stands to take out one critical non-profit which has been serving the homeless for more than four decades.

Several proposed paths for the high speed rail would require the demolition of the Bakersfield Homeless Center and officials there are worried about their future.

Luis Gill, CEO of the homeless center says they are getting ready to go through one of the biggest changes the organization has experienced in more than 40-years,

The project is projected to add hundreds of jobs and solve many of the state's transportation issues,

but it stands to disrupt and potentially put in jeopardy the homeless center which serves hundreds of homeless women and children each night.

Gill says HSR officials contacted him in 2015 and made plans to acquire their entire campus but he says things changed.

"After working with them for two years towards that they told us there no longer going to consider us for early acquisition,” Gill said.

23ABC spoke with HSR officials who say funding issues are stalled.

They say it could be more than a year before officials give the homeless center an answer.

 

But Gill still says he can't wait for government red tape to sort itself out because he has hundreds of families to serve.