Town hall tackles homelessness in Palm Springs

Monday night’s town hall on homelessness in Palm Springs was standing room only at the Mizell Senior Center.

“Not everyone who is homeless is a bad person. I’ve applied for jobs, I just can’t find one,” said one homeless man during the public comment section.

Some attendees criticized what they feel is a lack of available resources to help get people off the street.

“The city of Palm Springs spent $1.2 million on a no kill shelter,” said one resident. “We seem to care more about animals than we do about human beings.”

Several people voiced concerns about Roy’s Desert Resource Center.

“This beautiful facility is empty all day long when it could be used for positive change,” said Donna Chaban-Delmas, who proposed building a community for the homeless similar to an initiative that has dropped homelessness in Utah by 91 percent.

The city says one of the things it’s working on is increasing funding for Roy’s to expand its services.

“We’re going to have to move some resources around in our budget and actually address them because it’s quality of life issues,” said Councilwoman Ginny Foat.

City leaders also announced a series of other projects that would increase outreach and assistance:

Developing additional transitional housing
Improve transportation to resources and appointments
Establishing a community homeless court as an alternative to the traditional criminal justice court system
Partner on additional outreach with mental health and social services
Hire two more community service officers and extra lieutenant for outreach and monitoring

“We have to address this problem and dispel some of the myths,” Foat said.

“When we grew up it was drug addicts, drunks, it was bums,” said Gilbert Longoria who has been homeless since 2011. He recently found part time work at the Palm Springs Airport. “But I’m not a bum I’ve been working since i was 16 years old.”