Palm Springs funds $400K investment to intervene in violent crimes
The City of Palm Springs is putting up hundreds of thousands of dollars to intervene in increasing violence on the north end of town.
Last week, Palm Springs city council voted to contribute $400,000 to Palm Springs-based non-profit We Are One United with the goal of intervening and preventing ongoing violence in the Desert Highlands Gateway Estates and East San Rafael neighborhoods.
"There's some gang activity. Actually, our police have been really trying to work hard to address some of that," said John Epps, executive director of We Are One United. "They're treating the symptoms, we're trying to get to the causes."
Epps said programs will build assets up in the lives of the community's youth, aimed at immediately addressing conflicts between rivalry street groups.
"We're working also to bridge some cultural issues, because a lot of the trouble seems to be between different ethnic groups in the communities," Epps said.
Palm Springs police officials said violence in the city's District 1 has been increasing for years with 30% of the city's gun violence happening in an area that houses just 2% of the population.
Palm Springs Mayor Pro Tem Grace Garner represents District 1. She said after years of calls from the community for investments in youth social programs, this is the city's answer.
"One of the things that we've needed in Palm Springs for quite some time is more youth programs specifically focused on our young teens and young adults," Garner said. "I think they will play a really important role."
They're programs Epps said will produce long lasting results. "We're embedding an infrastructure in the community, so that this thing doesn't go away when the money goes away," he said. "We want to make sure that we're making changes that the community can sustain itself."
We Are One United was previously awarded $2.1 million dollars in grant funding from the state. The organization is now required to secure matching funds, which now the $400,000 from Palm Springs city council.
The group is now seeking the remaining $1.7 million from other sources.
