Desert Hot Springs to open homeless shelter, service center as number of unhoused doubles

Facing a rapidly growing homeless population, Desert Hot Springs will open an “access hub” where people can get out of the weather, eat lunch, shower and get help with issues including employment. It also will have space for 20 to 25 people to stay overnight.

The number of unhoused people in Desert Hot Springs has grown rapidly in recent years. Data from Riverside County's annual homeless point-in-time count shows it more than doubled from 2018 to 2023: from 58 people without housing in 2018 to 122 in 2023, according to a city staff report.

With a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, the Desert Hot Springs City Council approved an agreement that involves the city paying Martha’s Village and Kitchen about $290,000 to operate the access hub for three months, from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. City officials hope to get grant funding to keep it open past year's end.

Councilmember Russell Betts was the dissenting vote.

What services will the access hub provide?

The hub will offer assistance Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. that includes being a cooling and warming center, distributing lunches, shower services, case management and employment services. It will also be an overnight shelter for 20 to 25 clients, which will include offering breakfast and dinner.

Martha’s Village and Kitchen will provide 24/7 security, but the Desert Hot Springs Police Department will also regularly patrol the area, according to the city staff report.

Where will it be?

It will be at 66-753 Hacienda Avenue. Desert Hot Springs purchased this property in May so it could comply with a federal appeals court ruling that prohibits cities from enforcing anti-camping ordinances when they don’t have available homeless shelter beds.

The city council voted unanimously to purchase the property after a closed session discussion May 2, according to minutes of that night's council meeting.

The minutes include only a nine-digit assessor's parcel number, with no mention of the address, the sale price nor the fact the property would be used for homeless services. There was no apparent public discussion of the planned access hub until this week.

Online real estate services report that the property sold for $575,000.

How much will this cost?

The cost of the agreement with Martha's Village and Kitchen is $291,225. Interim City Manager Doria Wilms said this cost includes Martha's bringing everything from furniture to office supplies, staffing and security. The city will be funding this through savings from salaries and discontinued contract services, she added.

She said the city will pursue grant funding to keep running the access hub past Dec. 31.

"But in order to be eligible for grant funding, you have to oftentimes have a program operating so that you can show success. So that is the plan," Wilms said.

Martha's Village and Kitchen, which is based in Indio, operates a shelter and thrift store there. It also offers various services in Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs and Mecca.

What did the council have to say?

Betts, who was the sole vote against the agreement, mostly cited concerns with how the access hub will be funded after the end of 2023. He said the city should know where the money will come from if it's starting a program, and he added that given the cost for three months, it would cost around $1.2 million annually to run.

This $1.2 million figure was disputed, and the council did not approve any spending past the $291,225 for the three-month agreement on Tuesday. City officials didn't give an estimate for how much it would cost to continue operating the access hub past the end of the year.

"The difficulty I have up here, it seems, is that when an idea comes along, I suggest that there's another way that we can accomplish this without going for the Cadillac plan or the most expensive plan," he said. "And then that gets turned into, well, no consideration of, ‘Is there some other way to get this done? Is there another model?’"

Mayor Pro Tem Roger Nunez said the access hub temporarily provides homeless services the city needs until it can do something bigger and plan for the future.

"This really goes back to the outcry that the residents of this city tell us," he said. "They tell us, ‘What are you guys doing about this?’ And this puts our money where our mouth is."

Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Desert Hot Springs to open homeless shelter; number of unhoused grows