City of Palm Springs considers action after reports of homeless people sleeping at airport
The City of Palm Springs is considering an ordinance to respond to concerns that unhoused people are sleeping overnight at the Palm Springs International Airport.
During the December Airport Commission meeting, PSP Airport Admin Manager Victoria Carpenter confirmed, "We do have some homeless that are here inside of the airport that sleep at the airport."
Carpenter continued that the airport "is a public entity."
Carpenter reported that security officials looked into concerns but "were not aware of any homeless trying to or attempting to steal any troops' luggage, or sea bags, or even attempting to steal any of their items."
"We've had a couple of incidents of theft, but we can't attribute those directly to homeless individuals," says Chief Andrew Mills. "And in fact, we arrested a person who had been stealing luggage, but that person was coming in from the outside had nothing to do with the people living there."
"The airport is a public space and is open to the general public," says Chief Mills from the Palm Springs Police Department. "And that's why the ordinance will help us limit the amount of time people can be in the airport. And I think that's what's important. There are plenty of other public spaces in our region, including the other cities in our region where people can go and sleep and get help. The airport is just not the best place for them to be and so it doesn't again, doesn't matter to me, you know, their economic stability. What matters to me is this is just not a good place for people to live. There aren't adequate bathrooms, and there's inadequate food. You know, there are a lot of things that just make that a terrible place to be. And so we'll continue to, again, take a look at the behaviors of people, not the status of the individual."
Police chief Andrew Mills says his team is finding a few homeless people sleeping in seating areas but they are not getting past the TSA checkpoint.
"Most of the complaints have been behavioral people acting out or creating a little bit of a health issue in terms of living in a place that is not designed for people to sleep and to live," says Chief Mills.
"We are currently working with the police department on revising the ordinance for homeless loitering inside of our terminal," Carpenter said, "So that will assist, or that will help our police department really enforce them to kind of keep them moving along."
Several Commission members expressed concerns about the issue. Scott Miller said, "It's somewhat disturbing to me that there's homeless sleeping there." He asked about safety concerns regarding "sensitive areas," saying, "Who's preventing them from getting on the tarmacs? Who's preventing them from getting behind the TSA screens? Who's preventing them from doing any of that if they're sleeping in the airport?" Miller suggested there are "FAA regulations that would prevent the homeless from even being in the airport unless they're on transportation business."
Kevin Corcoran shared concerns that the issue was linked to the closure of Well in the Desert.
"City Manager Justin Clifton, we talked to about this," Corcoran said, "And we said to him, 'What happens if people show up?' and he assured us at that time that would not happen."
Corcoran shared hope that city officials and the police department would revisit the concern.
It will be considered again at a future meeting. Commissioners requested that the City Attorney and a representative from the Palm Springs Police Department join the meeting. Corcoran suggested that
The next Airport Commission meeting is January 18th, 2023.
