Concerned about the recent closure of Roy’s Desert Resource Center, an emergency homeless shelter located in north Palm Springs, and the increasing number of homeless in the Coachella Valley, the Desert Healthcare District (DHCD) Board of Directors voted to establish a collective fund with up to $2 million as a challenge grant for a West Valley Homelessness Initiative.

DHCD is committed to helping raise matching funds to support this effort and will match up to $2 million in contributions. This initiative will address short-term, mid-term and long-term solutions to address the needs of the valley’s homeless.

Through Board action, the DHCD is providing leadership in the priority areas of facilities (potential sites for the homeless), funding (matched proposals), policy (such as “Housing First” – stable housing paired with social services), and community awareness. Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG) recently approved the District having a seat at the policy table for their Homelessness Committee. District and Foundation leadership efforts continue on a collaborative basis with partners such as the City of Palm Springs, CVAG, Riverside County and other communities, leaders, and residents. Some of these efforts include CVAG’s West Valley Navigation Program and the City of Palm Springs’s continued funding of homelessness services and programs addressed in their budget.

Homelessness in the Coachella Valley has reached a crisis. The Board of Directors of the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation, at their recent (and ongoing) strategic planning for FY 2018-2020, elevated the homelessness issue as a major community health focus.

For more than 16 years, the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation has been a leader collaborating with many community-based organizations in their efforts to alleviate homelessness and elevate homelessness prevention in the
Coachella Valley.

By aligning resources under the DHCD’s collective fund umbrella, encouraging collaboration and prioritizing the “Housing First” system, the District’s West Valley Homelessness Initiative provides the infrastructure the west valley needs to effectively reduce homelessness.

For additional information on the Desert Healthcare District/Foundation call (760) 323.6113 or visit their website at www.dhcd.org. For an online referral directory of health services and programs across the Coachella Valley (in English and Spanish), visit their Health Information Portal at www.CVHIP.com.