The temperature was quickly approaching 116 degrees as Ruben Partida loaded his dusty Nissan Frontier truck with two coolers of water and Gatorades covered in ice. As his neighbors prepared to take shelter during the hottest part of the day on June 30, Partida began his work reaching out to members of the homeless community in Brawley, a city of about 25,000 people in the heart of California's agricultural Imperial Valley.
This has been his reality every weekday from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm since June, when temperatures began regularly exceeding 100 degrees.
In keeping with broader state and national trends, Imperial County There has been a steady increase in the number of homeless people, will increase from 1057 in 2022 to 1303 in 2023 and to 1508 in 2024. outpacing growth seen across the statehowever, California saw an increase of 3% during this period, and Imperial County saw an increase of 15.7%. And in the summer, the region's growing homeless population struggles with life-threatening heat with little to no resources or support.
Ruben Partida buys ice that he will use to cool the drinks he plans to deliver to the homeless in Brawley.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Partida is the founder and executive director of the Comité de Acción del Valle (Valley Action Committee), a non-profit organization whose goal is to “educate the public about climate change and the environment [Imperial] Valley,” according to him website. He founded the organization after surviving colon cancer, which doctors told him was caused by decades of exposure to harmful chemicals and conditions while working in the area's vast agricultural sector.
This led to his quest to educate locals and others about environmental hazards in the Imperial Valley and give them a voice. Most of the year the organization focuses on farmworkers, but in the summer it redirects its attention to the homeless.
First and foremost, that means bringing water to people and helping them find places where they can cool off, Partida said. Reaching this community is difficult due to their constant movement in search of cooler areas and attempts to avoid confrontation with local police. The organization patrols areas where groups of homeless people ranging from a few people to more than 50 typically congregate, such as alleys, behind large buildings and parking lots.
When Partida finds these groups, he shows kindness and humor in an attempt to disarm the initial wariness. Many people relax when they see him and his colleague bring ice-cold drinks.
A woman delivers cold drinks to a homeless man in Imperial Valley.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Recent problems have complicated the work of the Comité de Acción del Valle. Increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcement ordered by the Trump administration, as well as local ordinances that essentially criminalize homelessness not only in Brawley but also in other Imperial Valley cities, including Calexico and El Centro, have made it harder for local homeless communities to cope with life-threatening heat.
Increased border patrols and collaboration with local police have pushed homeless people into even more secluded and risky locations, said Daniela Flores, co-founder and executive director of the Imperial Valley Equity Coalition. “There are fewer of them [unhoused] People are coming out,” Flores said. “They are scared.”
The coalition noted an increased police and border patrol presence in areas frequented by the homeless and undocumented population, such as downtown Calexico and El Centro's Main Street. This likely means that current efforts to keep these populations cool during heatwaves—for example, creating community cooling centers or public buildings like libraries that are air-conditioned and welcoming to anyone and everyone—become unviable. “You're asking people to risk their lives to walk five or six blocks across town to get to air conditioning,” Flores said. That means five or six blocks where they are exposed not only to ice, but also to life-threatening heat.
“Now you see a lot of border patrol and ICE officers on bikes everywhere,” Partida said. “People don't go out anymore.”
As a result, places where homeless people in the Imperial Valley used to congregate, such as parks, are now empty. In trying to help this population, Partida discovered that they were now often hiding under bridges, in canals and storm drains, making work nearly impossible and also exposing these people to more dangerous and hotter places.
Flores explains that part of this population are day laborers who typically gather and stay in certain areas of the city in search of work. “Some people are literally living on the street and going to work and they’re just being dropped back on the street,” she said. This population has also been targeted by a growing immigration presence in the region, Flores said.
Homeless people in Brawley.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
One hot June day, the Party encountered one such man, who asked to be called Rogelio, in a shopping mall near El Centro. As Partida gave him water, Rogelio told The Times he has no safe housing and at times lives in a ramshackle camping trailer with no air conditioning near his brother's house nearby. To earn money, he washes car rims outside a supermarket, working long hours in extreme heat.
To take a break, Rogelio sometimes went behind the supermarket, where he could find shade. That is until one day he went behind a building to cool down, passed out and was awakened by the horn of a Border Patrol vehicle. The agent eventually left, but Rogelio said he now worries about even having to take breaks in places where he once felt safe.
Tighter immigration controls and the criminalization of homelessness have created a dangerous situation in the Imperial Valley, pushing already vulnerable communities deeper into isolation and danger. Despite the challenges of reaching these vulnerable populations, Partida remains committed to the cause, driven by personal experiences of environmental damage and loss.
“This is why we fight,” he said. “So that others don’t suffer.”
