Start with a cup of coffee. Coffee, a place to sit and time to sit there without somebody telling you have to leave because you can’t pay the bill or don't look the part.

Cafe M is part of the M Street Navigation Center, the homeless shelter run by the Community Action Partnership of Kern located on M Street behind white transport buses, a lot owned by the Fire Department and two buildings housing the Veterans Administration.

Contact The Californian’s Herb Benham at 661-395-7279 or hbenham@bakersfield.com. His column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays; the views expressed are his own.