COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP
on
HOMELESSNESS
Resources and services for families and individuals experiencing homelessness in Palm Springs are on the city website. Palm Springs has many wonderful volunteers serving hot meals to unhoused people at the United Methodist Church, Oscar’s, Our Lady of Solitude Catholic Church, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. Call Well in the Desert at 760-656-5905 or 760-285-7297 to confirm locations and times. To volunteer with The Shared Plate or donate, visit thesharedplate.org.
Martha’s Village and Kitchen operates the Palm Springs Access Center at 225 El Cielo Rd. (across from the airport) daily. Those needing overnight shelter will be transported to the Early Entry Facility next to the Palm Springs Navigation Center. A detailed report from a City Working Group evaluates these facilities’ successes and needs. In response, the City is working on extending hours, says this June 2026 story in The Palm Springs Post.
Latest News
Cooling centers open: When temperatures reach 100°F or higher, the City opens cooling centers. These centers will remain available through the end of September at James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center (Mon-Fri, 9-5:30) and Public Library—Temporary Location at Rimrock Plaza, Mon & Thurs 10-6, Tues & Wed 10-8, Fri-Sat 10-5. Dogs must be on a leash, and cats must be in a carrier. The Palm Springs Access Center, 225 El Cielo Rd. (across from the airport), also operates daily as a cooling space for unhoused individuals.
Although a federal report says the number of people with nowhere to call home decreased both in California and nationwide in 2025, it’s obvious on the streets of Palm Springs that homelessness has not gone away. Catch up on what has and has not happened in our national, state and local response to homelessness by reading our 2025 Year-end Report.
The Navigation Center (pictured above) fully opened on Oct. 1, 2024. See our update. The Navigation Center began offering 50 overnight beds in March 2024 on the north side of Palm Springs. Martha’s Village and Kitchen, an Indio-based nonprofit, handles intake at the Access Center located near the airport at 225 El Cielo Rd. For more information on how to direct people seeking assistance, call 760-424-8438 or email info@marthasvillage.org. The timeline for the project is on this city website. The State of California awarded Palm Springs and Riverside County $19 million to build and operate the Navigation Campus, a holistic and comprehensive approach to address the city’s and western Coachella Valley’s unhoused residents. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted on Jan. 23 to allocate $7.5 million to complete the facility on McCarthy Road. With recent additional state and federal grants, the city government says it now covers less than 20 percent of the cost of the facility. Details are on this city webpage and in this newspaper story and this TV news report.
AUGUST 2025 UPDATE: The Palm Springs Post reports city officials are admitting barriers persist for unhoused people seeking help or shelter. This article describes rigid operating hours and procedures, among other systemic problems.
We attended the March 2024 open house to learn more about the Nav Center. Click the photo below to see a slide show.
CARE Courts: The California Supreme Court in April 2023 rejected a request to block the September 2022 CARE Court law, which aims to steer homeless people with severe mental health and addiction disorders into treatment. See our reaction to the legislation and read this commentary, which says, “What’s dramatically different about CARE Court is its requirement that government actually help the people who are living in inhumane and unhealthy conditions on our streets.”
CPoH hosted a community forum to question city and county officials about what we can do to advance our mission. You can view the recording on our YouTube channel or read a story about it in The Palm Springs Post.
Our core group
Members of our core group take leadership roles based on their talents and interests. They meet regularly in person and online to coordinate who will speak on our behalf, act as liaisons to city agencies and service providers, organize cleanups, and make CPoH a reliable hub of information on the response to homelessness in Palm Springs. Click here if you would like to join.
Our beliefs and mission
We believe all people enduring a period in their lives when they are unhoused or totally without shelter deserve a helping hand. Those people who are most visible on the streets are nearly all suffering with substance abuse, mental health issues, or both. They deserve prompt, humane, coordinated interventions by civic agencies, law enforcement, the judiciary and other professionals to help put them on a path toward personal transformation.
Our mission is to advocate for services and solutions that address the needs of people experiencing homelessness, while improving the civic environment for the common good of the entire Palm Springs community.