Martha’s Village And Kitchen Closing Emergency Shelter to Cut Costs

The emergency shelters in use at Martha’s Village and Kitchen in Indio will no longer be used to help the Coachella Valley’s homeless.

Father Joe Carroll, president of Martha’s Village and Kitchen, made the announcement on Friday. He said it was part of a series of cost-saving measures to address a decrease in donations and reduced government funding over the past few years.

The emergency tent was originally opened in February 2007, as a temporary solution to provide a safe and stable environment to the Valley’s homeless during extreme weather conditions. Since that time, the emergency structure has been in operation 24 hours per day, housing 100 homeless people at a time, he said.

In addition to the shelter closing, Carroll announced changes in other programs at Martha’s Kitchen and reductions in staff salary.

“These adjustments allow us to continue to focus on our main mission of permanently changing the lives of people impacted by homelessness,” said Carroll. “The board of directors and I were faced with a difficult choice. It was not an easy decision; however, we chose to close the temporary structure and reduce costs in all areas so that we can continue to focus on our core mission of preventing homelessness.”

Residents in the long-term residential facility will not be affected. Martha’s Village staff will work with the Riverside County leaders and other agencies to place the 100 shelter residents in other short term housing locations.

“The fate of these 100 community members is uncertain,” said Lupe Ramos Watson, Mayor of Indio and Chairwoman of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments Homelessness Committee. “In these tough economic times, our hope is the community hears this call for help and responds with the desire to help those who are facing even tougher economic times.”