Basic Needs Foundation

Causes: Animals, Citizen Participation, Food, Food Banks & Pantries

Mission: We provide food for homeless people who live in their vehicles with their children and pets. We also provide pet food to low income people and cat food for feral cats. We find homes for pets when their homeless owners can no longer care for them. We conduct numerous spay/neuter programs in various areas in southern california.

Programs: Basic needs foundation provides food for very low income working homeless individuals who live in their vehicles with their children and pets. The average income in these families is $475 per month. Most of these homeless individuals can only find part-time jobs in retail positions. Many animals are abandoned or surrendered to city/county shelters because their low-income owners cannot afford to feed their pets. Primary reasons are owners having lost their jobs and their homes going into foreclosure, and thus, many are evicted with no other options. Our foundation alleviates the financial and physical burden on city/county animal shelters and on taxpayers by providing pet food to low-income individuals, enabling them to keep their pets. Restricted grants from animal welfare foundations allowed us to offer free spaying, neutering and trap/neuter/release of feral cats to low income, homeless pet owners and feral cat feeders in several rural communities, and 324 dogs and domestic and feral cats were spayed, neutered and trap/neuter/release (tnr) in 2017. We re-homed 71 dogs, puppies and cats with new forever adopters. These pets were surrendered to basic needs foundation when their homeless owners could not keep them any longer. Community support and multiple grants from foundations provide the first step in positive change for the life of working homeless families and their pets. Home health aide jobs are becoming very popular due to the huge number of baby boomers who are reaching the age where in-home care is needed. The homeless individuals we help are working on home health aide training and expect to receive their certificates in the near future. With this knowledge, these individuals will be able to secure full-time jobs that pay up to $15/per hour. This is the next critical step to being able to afford a real home. Several local businesses and generous individuals sponsor essential items for homeless families such as, tracfone, health club memberships, safe place to park vehicles at night, and discount veterinarian care. From january through december 2017, a total of 5 adults and 14 children including their pets have moved into their own apartments, studios, and mobile homes and are no longer living in their cars. They can take showers at their apartments rather than in a local gym, they can make and eat their meals in their kitchens rather than in their cars, and they can live a life where they are contributing positively to the community. We are very grateful for your new and continuing support. Please help us to continue these services in 2018 by donating to our cause. Our website is www. Basicneedsfoundation. Org and we thank you for your generous support.

spay/neuter program temporarily restricted fundsprogram service accomplishments: - 324 dogs and domestic and feral cats have been spayed/neutered through tnr (trap/neuter/release) via our fix your pets program. The services were provided for the poverty stricken pet owners in rural towns of onyx, weldon, south lake, squirrel valley, bodfish, wofford heights, lake isabella, mountain mesa, havilah, and caliente of first district (kern river valley), delano, mcfarland, lost hills, wasco, shafter, greenacres, buttonwillow, taft, maricopa, frazier park, lebec, arvin, tehachapi, boron, mojave, north edwards, rosamond, ridgecrest, california city, inyokern walker pass, johannesburg, randsburg, and kern county of california, - the "fix your pets" program has altered over 2,841 pets and community/feral cats since august 20, 2011 via nine mobile spay/neuter clinics, the discount spay & neuter clinic, the critters without litters and 4paws pet hospital in bakersfield, kern county, ca, and calcity pet clinic in california city, kern county, ca.