Palm Springs steps up to find solutions to growing homeless issue

The city of Palm Springs has seen a 97 percent increase in its homeless population since 2013. Because of that they’ve renewed a Homeless Task Force, and are putting money and resources into finding solutions.

You’ll find only staff members at Roy’s Desert Resource Center during the day. But it’s not from lack of need.

The clean, modern homeless shelter near the freeway in northern Palm Springs turned away 292 people last month.

“We can provide services for 80 individuals,” says Amina Aun, Shelter Manager of Roy’s Resource Center. “They can stay here for 90 consecutive days. We provide breakfast, dinner.”

Roy’s also provides mailboxes, donated clothing, in-house medical clinics and referrals.

“There is a skeleton crew here during the day,” says Aun. “Obviously we don’t have clients here because we’re not funded.”

Despite functioning essentially as an emergency overnight shelter, in the last fiscal year, Aun says “903 individuals were served, and a little over 50 percent of them were stably housed so that’s a lot.”

That’s why Roy’s is now working on fundraising, beefing up its web presence with a new “Friends of Roy’s” Facebook page, and searching for corporate sponsors for it’s second annual golf tournament at Bighorn.

But part of the challenge for Roy’s remains transportation, which eats up about one third of their budget. Clients have to be bused in from downtown Palm Springs. which is why Roy’s is working with the city to create a satellite location.

“The community in Palm Springs, although they recognized the need to have services for the homelessness population, they were not ready to open their doors, and allow them within their neighborhood,” explains Lupe Ramos Watson, who serves as the chair for the Coachella Association of Government’s homelessness committee.

Ramos Watson says Palm Springs is now learning from Indio’s example, which has successfully worked with the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission and Martha’s Village and Kitchen over the last several years.

“We anticipate the satellite location, which we are currently exploring, will work in tandem with Roy’s Desert Resource Center, it will be co-located in an area that’s more accessible to the homelessness population so that during the day they can come in, receive intake, evaluations, and be referred out to the non-profit organizations so that they can find their path out of homelessness.

Ramos Watson is working with Palm Springs Councilwoman Ginny Foat, who recently renewed a Homeless Task Force in Palm Springs.

“It all came together at a point where it was getting out of hand,” explains Foat.

She points to Sunrise Park, home to the library, Palm Springs stadium, basketball courts, and, Foat says “right here in this location, I’d come in to the park in the morning, and there would be like, 50 carts, with people.”

So Foat gathered experts on the issue. Police, mental health counselors and others who were truly vested in finding solutions.

People like Tom Woods.

“Solution?” Woods asks. “Employment. Plain and simple, employment.”

Woods has been homeless for two years.

“People don’t understand what it’s like to be out here. To get up, and have no direction, and no destiny, nothing to work on with nothing to do with no resolve,” he laments.

So for the first time, this June Palm Springs approved money from the general fund to fight homelessness.

$170,000 to pay for two “homeless assistance” community service officers. Not to make arrests, but to give the homeless bus routes for Roy’s, help refer them to programs, and “making sure that they get hooked up with whatever limited services there are,” finishes Foat.

Palm Springs also approved a $165,000 contract with Riverside County’s Department of Mental Health for homeless outreach workers.

“We looked at what the No. 1 issue we felt was, addiction and mental health issues,” explains Foat.

Now Palm Springs is working with an organization called Health to Hope to provide a mobile medical unit for the homeless and their pets, and they’re working with Sunline Transit on mobile showers to bring downtown. The task force has also conceptualized what Foat calls a “triage center” in a central location to help the homeless with mental health referrals, drug rehab beds, or coordinate benefits.

In addition, Foat says “We’re putting together a proposal to do a project with a single house, because we’re really a believer in housing first. If you get people off the streets and into a house, then you can deal with all the rest of the issues around that.”

Because that’s what Foat says people in Palm Springs finally realize. The homeless? “Some of them are us.”

Supervisor John Benoit met with the Riverside County Department of Mental Heath staff about a proposal made by the Palm Springs Homeless Task Force. “He is supportive, and commends the city of Palm Springs for its innovative approach to this very serious issue,” said Darin Schemmer, communications director for Benoit. Schemmer says the Board of Supervisors will vote on the agreement at their meeting on Dec. 8.

To see a breakdown of the homeless population in Riverside County city by city, in 2013 and 2015, clickhere