Housing and Homelessness Prevention
Community Homeless Court
The Community Homeless Law Center Project is to provide legal assistance to HUD eligible homeless persons to remove legal barriers to obtaining and maintaining permanent housing and income. Services include a wrap-around approach to address the needs of homeless clients that involves both legal and social services. Legal services can address health, public benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), domestic violence, Homeless Court, consumer, education, child support, and other matters.
Equal Access Fund Homelessness Prevention Project
The Equal Access Fund Homelessness Prevention Project prevents homelessness by defending low-income tenants that are subject to the unlawful detainer (eviction) process. This project assists tenants throughout Kern County regardless of whether the landlord is represented by an attorney. Defense may include representation at various stages of litigation such as pleadings, discovery, trial, and settlement negotiation. This project also assists tenants throughout Kern County who have received a pre-eviction termination notice such as a 60 or 30 day termination notice.
Housing and Disability Advocacy Project
The Housing and Disability Advocacy Program assists HUD-eligible clients who are experiencing homelessness with obtaining disability benefits (such as SSI, SSDI, CAPI, and VA benefits) using the SOAR (SSDI/SSI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) method.
Mobilehome Advocacy Project
The Mobilehome Advocacy Project dedicates services to preventing homelessness by ensuring residents of mobile home parks are protected from common housing violations such as illegal grounds for eviction, improper notices of rent increases, and other common violations.
Services include counsel and advice, brief service, and/or direct representation to low-income mobile home residents in pre-eviction or eviction disputes. The project also presents workshops to increase awareness of residents’ rights and Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL) to mobile home residents and other stakeholders who provide services to the low-income community.
Sargent Shriver Housing Pilot Project
The Sargent Shriver Housing Project works to prevent homelessness by assisting low-income tenants with the unlawful detainer (eviction) process. The project assists tenants in an eviction lawsuit when the landlord is represented by an attorney by helping tenants understand the eviction (unlawful detainer) legal process and/or represent them in trial or aid in negotiating a mandatory settlement conference.
The Project can also make referrals to agencies that prevent homelessness, provide relocation assistance, or connect clients with services relating to employment, education, and family necessities.
Landlord-Tenant Assistance Center
Through a partnership between GBLA and the Kern County Superior Court, the Landlord-Tenant Assistance Center (LTAC) provides a variety of services to help resolve landlord-tenant disputes. LTAC assists low-income tenants with landlord disputes pre-eviction.
Services include legal counsel, mediation, educational workshops, case management, and referrals for housing and community resources. The goal of the Center is to help unrepresented parties understand and prepare for court or, whenever possible, help landlords and tenants reach out-of-court settlements through mediation.
The Center is located at the Kern County Superior Court, Metropolitan Division, 1415 Truxtun Ave., in Bakersfield on the Third Floor.
For Self-Help Assistance on Tenant Evictions, please visit the Kern County Superior Court: Self-Help for Evictions
Additional Resources
Bakersfield Code Enforcement
(661)-326-3712
1715 Chester Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Kern County Code Enforcement
(661) 862-8603
2700 M St. #350,
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Kern County Superior Courts https://www.kern.courts.ca.gov/
Self-Help Center
https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/
Bakersfield Kern Regional Homeless Collaborative https://bkrhc.org/
LawHelp California
https://www.lawhelpca.org/