Kern County could see the end of veteran homelessness by the end of 2019, experts say
The Bakersfield CalifornianSep 29, 2018
Within the next year, experts say, veteran homelessness could be a thing of the past, or at least be reduced to "functional zero."
Zero could potentially already have been reached in
But after efforts from a local veterans group, the local
"I've been doing this for 22 years, so I am super excited," said
Most homeless veterans typically can receive some form of housing assistance, of which one is housing vouchers from the
The vouchers work similar to Section 8 housing, in which the government directly pays landlords a portion of the rent, while the tenant pays the remainder. In order to use the vouchers, veterans must be paired with a team of employees from the
Because of a staffing shortage, the local Housing Authority office currently has a backlog of 54 vouchers, which cannot be used because the local
"It's a very unified sense of frustration," Kimmel said. "Our local
The frustration began to ebb in May, when Johnson attended a conference in
The meeting kick-started a series of actions that resulted in Valadao, along with Rep.
"We know that once those staffers are in place, we're going to make significant progress in knowing that no veteran in our community is going to have to suffer through homelessness," Kimmel said.
Over the past several years, the number of homeless veterans in
In
The average age of homeless veterans is between 54 and 62, Johnson said.
She added that there is no single contributing factor to homelessness among veterans. Some veterans accrue injuries after a lifetime of physical labor and can no longer work. Others suffer from substance abuse or mental illness.
"It's usually one issue that leads to another, that leads to a third and a fourth, and that just kind of snowballs," she said.
Kimmel and Johnson believe that with the added staffing levels at the local
"It doesn't mean that we're going to end homelessness among veterans," Johnson said. "But it does mean that we will get homeless veterans into housing as quickly as possible. It means we'll have a system in place."
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