City Council moves to extend Access Center hours to help unhoused residents better deal with extreme conditions

The Palm Springs City Council on Wednesday directed staff to start the process of extending hours at the Palm Springs Access Center during the summer months to provide some relief from heat for people experiencing homelessness. 

Currently, Martha’s Village and Kitchen operates both the 55-bed Early Entry Facility (part of the broader Navigation Center on McCarthy Road) and the Access Center (which is open in the daytime but does not provide overnight shelter) on El Cielo Road. Those staying overnight at the Early Entry Facility are currently required to vacate the facilities every morning and are transported to the Access Center. 

The staff report outlined three potential options for expanding cooling opportunities for people experiencing homelessness in Palm Springs: extending the operating hours at the Access Center until 10 p.m. in the summer months, opening a daytime cooling center at the Early Entry Facility for those staying overnight there, or adding overnight shelter for 20 people at the Access Center in the summer. 

The city’s Navigation Center Working Group recommended using the Early Entry Facility as a daytime cooling center during extreme weather seasons for the 55 people staying overnight there.

“This strategy optimizes the facility’s existing footprint and eliminates transporting the 55 individuals to the Access Center each morning during extreme weather events,” states the staff report. 

Councilmember Grace Garner, who represents the neighborhood where the navigation center is located, said that while adding a daytime cooling center could be an option in the future, there hasn’t been enough community engagement yet to utilize that option right away. 

“In terms of what we’re asking for now, which is an immediate solution for extreme heat, I don’t think that’s feasible, because we haven’t had those community conversations, and when we started this process, we agreed that we would have that really robust community outreach,” said Garner. 

Instead, the city council directed staff to move forward with a hybrid of the two strategies focused on the Access Center. The council supported extending the Access Center’s hours until 10 p.m. for six months of the year (covering three summer months and three winter months) and also asked staff to look into what the additional cost would be to open a limited overnight shelter at the Access Center only during specific extreme weather days within those periods. 

The Access Center is currently open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The estimated annual cost of extending those hours until 10 p.m. is $171,700, mainly to hire three additional security positions. Staff estimated the extended hours could be operational within about a month. 

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