State awards Bakersfield $22.8M for substance abuse treatment facility to be run by Kern County
The facility is expected to offer residence free of charge to uninsured or Medi-Cal beneficiaries and their families for periods averaging about three months. Besides individual and group counseling to address opioid and other addictions, adult residents including perinatal women will receive instruction on parenting and job readiness.
Six similar facilities in the county offer a total of 109 beds, but demand for their services is so high that wait times for men or women can be up to three weeks, Director Alison Burrows of the county's BHRS department said.
"We've been trying for years to expand substance use treatment for residents," she said Tuesday. "This is incredibly exciting to us."
The grant — Bakersfield's largest in at least a decade — was among a series of awards announced this week by the Newsom administration. It gave out $3.3 billion in grants estimated to create more than 5,000 residential treatment beds and over 21,800 outpatient treatment slots, all of them funded by bond proceeds from Proposition 1, approved by state voters in March 2024. Bakersfield was among just four cities awarded grants under the program.
Plans for the local facility deepen an existing partnership between the city and the BHRS Department, which already staffs a call center diverting about 70% of calls to 911.
The city has agreed to dedicate the grant money to building the facility and then pay for its upkeep through opioid settlement revenue that now comes to $300,000 per year. The county's role will be to use Medi-Cal reimbursements to cover the facility's estimated $4 million per year in operating expenses.
By the city's estimate, an average of 110 people every month are diagnosed by BHRS as eligible to enter a residential treatment facility for substance abuse. Assistant City Manager Anthony Valdez said the problem is that few people can afford to enroll in programs that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Expectations are that the facility will open by July 2026 at the Country Inn & Suites at 2310 Wible Road.
Burrows said the family-housing aspect of the new facility is novel. She said conversations with service providers at existing residential centers indicated a need for places where patients can live with their partners and children while receiving treatment.
"This new facility will allow that," she said, adding that the property will have a child-care center and outdoor space.
Residents will be able to leave, Burrows said, but exits and entries will be monitored and there may be periods when patients can leave only for scheduled appointments. She noted there will be fencing and security to protect residents and neighbors.
California expanded Medi-Cal eligibility about five years ago to cover the full cost of stays in residential substance treatment facilities. But Burrows said the county may need to help cover some of the difference between what Medi-Cal pays and what the facility actually costs to run.
While residence at the facility will never be mandatory, she said, there will be referrals through a 2023 state law that adjusted conservatorship provisions. Also, some patients may be sent to the facility as an alternative to incarceration under last year's Proposition 36.
Secretary Kim Johnson of the California Health & Human Services Agency said in a news release the grants mark a critical milestone in the state's efforts to transform its behavioral health system.
"Through these awards, we are investing in bold, community-driven solutions that expand access to care, promote equity and meet people where they are," she stated.
Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh said in a news release the city is grateful to the state and the county for the "unprecedented partnership" expanding access to treatment.
"We cannot stand by while many of our families are severely hurt by the nation's opioid crisis," she stated.
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