Well in the Desert day center permit to be reviewed by city council
The city of Palm Springs will be reviewing Wednesday night whether to renew a permit for the Well in the Desert’s day center to continue running.
For the past two years, the Well in the Desert has provided a place to stay for the less fortunate. The day center serving anywhere from 30 to 60 people a day.
“We have a lot of people. We give a lot of showers daily. We provide a lot of services, snacks,” Arlene Rosenthal, President of The Well in the Desert, said.
Now, the day center’s permit to operate is up for review. Rosenthal says the center has been a success in helping the homeless and minimizing issues. Palm Springs councilman J.R. Roberts agrees with that assessment.
“Our biggest goal was to give people a place to go in the heat. People will die out in the desert,” he said.
According to the staff report, police recorded an increase in service calls in the immediate area around the day center, but those calls decreased for the entire downtown area the first six months it was open. It also says minimal calls rose to the level of a felony crime and arrest numbers have remained stable before and after the center’s opening.
“We have a tremendous relationship with the police department. The chief and his staff are incredible,” Rosenthal said.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1148742999070969863″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;The Well in the Desert’s day center in downtown &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PalmSprings?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#PalmSprings&#lt;/a&#gt; will undergo a review of its conditional permit in order for it to possibly be renewed. I spoke with Arlene Rosenthal about the impact the facility has had in helping the less fortunate. My story tonight at 6 on &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt;. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/F4VyKjl7Qo”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/F4VyKjl7Qo&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1148742999070969863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;July 9, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
For Marco Munoz, who lives across the street from the day center, he would like to see the day center be moved citing concerns over loitering and vandalism.
“I know they’re trying to help the people, but the people don’t respect the neighborhood,” he said.
Roberts says the new overnight shelter at the former boxing club will help address those concerns, providing a place to stay when the day center is closed.
“The city’s paying very close attention to the good things and to the ill effects that might be happening from this,” Roberts said.
Rosenthal says she can continue providing services with a permit renewal.
“We’re looking at keeping what we have, improving on it,” she said.
The city will discuss the review at Wednesday’s city council meeting.
