Homeless in the heat: How people survive in Palm Springs' scorching summer

Maria Salazar dreads the evenings.

During the heart of this summer's hottest days, she's gone to the county-sponsored cooling center at the Demuth Community Center in Palm Springs, where she’s been grateful to be able to escape the heat, oftentimes get a free meal and, perhaps most importantly, have a safe place to catch some sleep.

But when it gets closer each day to 6 p.m., closing time for the center, Salazar says the anxiety starts to hit. It reaches a crescendo when the hour arrives and she and the rest of the people who have been at the center must leave, taking their possessions with them.

Like hundreds of others in the Coachella Valley, they're homeless and have nowhere to go but the streets.

“We feel the heat, and it’s just horrible because it’s really hot,” she said. “That’s like the hottest time of the day. They don’t realize that, but it feels like the hottest time of the day with the sun going down.”

Salazar said she’s particularly thankful to the staff at the cooling center, who usually allow her to sit in front of the open door to feel the air conditioning until it cools down somewhat.

But even that act of generosity can’t change the fact that the doors are eventually closed daily, leaving Salazar and others to spend hours outside waiting for the center to open again at 8 a.m.

She and her partner, Shawn Sheets, say they usually stay up all night, both to try to keep their belongings from being stolen and because it can be difficult to sleep when it stays so hot around the clock. They typically stay near the center, trying to find a spot out of sight of police and security guards, although they sometimes end up grabbing some sleep on the sidewalk to avoid sprinklers.

20 beds for 239 people

Those sleepless nights show the challenges faced by those without homes in a city with brutal summers and few shelter beds. Palm Springs has the second-largest population of homeless people in Riverside County, trailing only the much larger city of Riverside.

During January's county-sponsored point in time count, volunteers tallied 239 homeless people in Palm Springs. That was up from 222 the year before. This summer, Palm Springs saw its hottest July on record, breaking a record set only two years ago.

Besides the one at the Demuth Community Center, the county is also operating cooling centers this summer at Palm Springs’ library and the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in north Palm Springs. A city spokesperson told The Desert Sun the three centers have room for a total of about 280 people and that about 225 people a week had used them this summer through late July.

Homeless residents can also escape the heat and receive some services at the Access Center, which is located at the former Palm Springs Boxing Club near the airport. That center typically serves about 40 to 50 people a day during the summer and has never had more people come in than it has room for, according to a staff member.

But while those facilities mean Palm Springs has more than enough capacity to provide its homeless residents a place to escape during the day, the same isn’t true at night. Currently, the city’s overnight shelter options are limited to 20 beds at the Access Center in the summer and winter months.

Alejandra Diaz, the director of programs and operations for the nonprofit Martha’s Village & Kitchen, which operates the center, said that in August, more than 20 people have been showing up to get beds. On one recent very hot day, she said the shelter turned away 10 people once it reached its capacity.

“We feel bad, right?” Diaz said. “But with our small capacity, 20 beds is all we can put up.”

She added that staff encourages people to go to Martha’s Village & Kitchen’s larger facility in Indio, but said few do so because many people don't want to go to Indio. Some of those without homes also lack reliable transportation.

Mixed impressions of overnight shelter

And even when there are beds available in Palm Springs, not everyone wants to take them.

Dennis Johnson, who has been homeless for around six months, said that while he often goes to the Access Center during the day, he is not interested in going at night because he believes it would be stressful to sleep around so many people.

Salazar said she has not slept there, either, because she has heard from others that it is small and uncomfortable and that she would not be able to bring her belongings. She said she prefers coming to the cooling center because it has room to spread out her blankets and other belongings and sleep, even if it means having to leave at night.

“It’s hard over there,” she said of her perception of the Access Center. “You can’t close your eyes for a minute. You basically have got to sit in the hard chair and do nothing but sit and watch TV. That’s why the (cooling center) is such a blessing."

Gerald Ford, meanwhile, has been spending both his days and nights at the Access Center for the last month. He said having a safe place to sleep has been a relief after sleeping on the street. And he said following the shelter rules and showing up every day at roll call to claim his bed is well worth it.

“People die out there in the heat,” Ford said. “So by staying here in this temperature, you stay alive.”

The Riverside County coroner told The Desert Sun there had been one confirmed heat-related death in the eastern half of Riverside County from the start of April through July 27. They did not say whether the person who died was homeless. However, KESQ reported in July on a man who said his 52-year-old brother, who was homeless, died in Coachella during that month's heat wave. Five other deaths, including two of people who were reported to have been unhoused, were possibly heat-related, but a final determination had not been made.

Since the start of 2019, there have been 188 deaths and 4,842 emergency room visits in the county that were classified as heat related, according to Riverside University Health System. There was no data available on how many were among homeless people.

Ford came to Palm Springs from Perris, where he is from, because he had heard homeless services were available. However, it took him awhile to learn about the Access Center.

Ford said he is now working with counselors and is hopeful they will help him find a long-term place to live, although he knows that is a slow process.

Diaz said Martha's has some success getting people vouchers for housing, although she said that is most common when they are enrolled in the organization's 90-day program in Indio rather than being served at the Access Center.

Planned center will offer services, housing

People The Desert Sun spoke to at both the Demuth cooling center and the Access Center shared the desire for the city or county to provide more options beyond the large sheltering facilities.

“What would help us most is a hotel voucher,” said Sheets, who spends most of his time collecting recyclables to redeem for cash.

The city has said the planned homeless navigation center being built in north Palm Springs will be a game-changer in terms of helping the city’s homeless residents.

City staff have said the facility will be finished in the next year and provide much needed housing and services, including 80 modular units people will be able to live in while they get help finding and moving into permanent housing. It will also have space for 50 shelter beds.

For now, however, homeless residents like Jordan Klein say they are simply trying to get through another blazing Palm Springs summer one day at a time.

Klein came to Palm Springs from northern California to receive medical care, but found himself homeless after the place where he was planning to live fell through. He said he’s been sleeping in his car, which has a broken air conditioner, and spent his days at the Lowe’s home improvement store before learning about the Demuth cooling center.

“The heat got so bad that my little dog almost died,” he said. “I had to get a bucket of ice and put him in it to bring him back. It was that bad.”

While he has been thankful to find the cooling center, he said he worries about the many homeless people he has met in Palm Springs who refuse to seek shelter or other services because they have warrants out for their arrest or are scared of contact with police.

“They are like zombies, hiding during the day and wandering around at night,” Klein said. “Those are the people that are really affected (by the heat). It’s really dangerous.”

Paul Albani-Burgio covers breaking news and the City of Palm Springs. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and via email at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Homeless in a Palm Springs summer: How people say they survive