The Bakersfield Rescue Mission's Homeless Intervention Services Center, located at 816 E. 21st Street, serves the needs of the homeless community and consists of two large buildings the Homeless Intervention Services building and the Lonnie Heath Center. Services include case management and referrals to community resources such as Human Services, Mental Health, Disabled Services, and Medical Services.

Guests of the Homeless Intervention Services Center, or H.I.S., are in need of Crisis Intervention. They may only need one short-term service such as a meal, or stay with us for only one night.

We provide a 24-hour, 7-day a week drop-in center for our guests who are looking for a safe, clean, alcohol and drug free environment. Books and magazines, board games, television, and periodic movie nights are available. The drop-in center doubles as an overflow dorm when we exceed our dorm capacity.

Guests of the Lonnie Heath Center have come to us from the Crisis Intervention and are in need of a long-term housing program while they work to re-enter the community as independent, functioning adults.

The Lonnie Heath Residential Center is a permanent dorm with bed space for 100 guests, where showers and laundry facilities are offered. Each guest of this dorm is assigned one permanent bed and a locker for storage. There is also a mini drop-in center for those guests with medical concerns who are unable to use the larger drop-in center in HIS.

A new permanent dorm next to the Homeless Intervention Services Center was completed in early 2006. The dorm offers the same services provided by the Lonnie Heath Residential Center to an additional 75 guests. The combination of the two dorms allows us to offer a permanent overnight housing for 175 guests.

Guests who stay with us for more than just a short time are encouraged to start rebuilding their lives and rejoining society by joining in on activities with which most people are involved on a regular basis. By participating in these events and activities that the Mission provides for our guests such as regular movie nights, weekly bingo, intermural baseball with our Program Disciples, and other activities which our new HIS Chaplain will be implementing, we feel that our guests return to a more normalized lifestyle takes it root here.

For the first time the HIS guests will be having a full time Chaplain working with them who is devoted solely to helping them as their advocate as well as to helping them with their emotional, spiritual, and other needs. He is a wonderful new asset that has been badly needed and we are happy and excited to have him here working with our homeless men.