Palm Springs hopes to help homeless during summer months

We’re learning more about the steps taken to address some issues facing the homeless population in Palm Springs. The city wants to use $75,000 from their general fund to help the homeless get through the summer months.

“The city of Palm Springs is going to be funding more money for Roy’s Resource Center to have some daytime staff there because that’s always been a problem,” said Joy Meredith, a member of the city’s homeless task force.

Mayor Robert Moon said the program will allow residents to stay there during the day and take advantage of counseling services aimed to find them jobs and housing. He said this program, if approved by Roy’s, will run for four months and then the city will decide if they will extend it. They’re also working to clean up problem areas, like the the Circle K closing at the corner of Encilia and Arenas roads.

“There was a whole hotbed of issues there. There was a low income housing building that was in terrible disrepair and there was the Circle K right there and a bus stop there,” Meredith said.

Bruce Kanady owns Bear Wear right next door and said the difference since the Circle K closed is night and day.

“The lack of homeless and drugs and it’s practically non-existent,” Kanady said.

While these are steps in the right direction many hope more can be done for the community.

“I hope that we can afford to be a community that can be as compassionate as we want to be because there’s people that need help,” Meredith said.

The city also hired two mental health workers as part of their homeless task force. Their job is to go around and identify issues homeless people face and find out why they’re in the situation they’re in.