Dean Gray on Homeless Shelters

Dean Gray has written a lengthy opinion piece for Desert Local News on some of the homeless shelter issues. Really it probably should have been two opinion pieces. First, he talks about am $11 million valley-wide project to purchase a building for a homeless shelter in "South Desert Hot Springs." In the 6th paragraph you find out that he is referring to the location at Indian and I-10. That's not "South Desert Hot Springs." It's not even North Palm Springs. It's just Palm Springs.

But, to get to his point, he says that besides the purchase and improvement cost of $11 million, the place will cost $4 million per year to operate and that ALL the cities of Coachella Valley will be paying to support this place. Now I'm on fire. It's been a year and a half since I wrote about what a terrible location that is for a homeless shelter, but at the time I thought it was a shelter to be paid for and operated solely by the city of Palm Springs. If Palm Springs wanted to sink endless millions into a shelter that wouldn't work, what would I care. But I'm sure DHS has no spare funds to waste.

Mr. Gray refers to public documents that support his statements that all the cities will be required to support this, and I wish he would name or quote or link to those documents so that we could all evaluate them.

Second, he talks about the new surprise homeless shelter on Mountain View in DHS. He says that this shelter comes "with a hefty price of $80,000." Is that a purchase price? The cost to run it for a year? In either case, "Rick Pettet, of Riverside County Social Services," says DHS will be expected to reimburse the county for some part of that expense. Mr. Pettet acknowledges the numerous problems with the Mountain View location (zoning violations, lack of approval by the fire department and planning department, unpermitted plumbing and electrical work).

I see here that Mr. Pettet spoke to the Indio Sunrise Rotary Club on the 22nd on the subject of "Riverside County Ten Year Plan To End Homelessness." That could have been very interesting to hear. Did anyone attend that lecture who can throw some light on all of this?

UPDATE: the Desert Sun article on the homeless shelter on Mountain View. The facility is permitted for six residents, but as many as 50 people have been staying there. $82,000 is needed to fund the shelter and DHS is being asked for $6,200. Riverside County is contributing $20,000.