How Bakersfield, California Ended Chronic Homelessness


Bakersfield became the first California city to all but abolish a category of homelessness using the Built for Zero campaign's tactics of combining the use of data with a sustained, communal effort. From 2017 to 2020, Bakersfield identified and then housed all but two of the 72 people it identified as chronically homeless. Working from lists of people, the Bakersfield Kern Regional Homeless Coalition met regularly to whittle down the caseload. The county housing authority helped by leasing a bloc of eight units to sublet, easing landlord worries about dealing directly with people experiencing homelessness.

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