Chinatown health center to open in midst of homicides, camping ban.

Along Soledad Street in Salinas’ Chinatown, tents block sidewalks in front of empty businesses, and the homeless men and women lying next to their shelters appear dirty and tired. But there’s hope at the end of the block.

The Chinatown Health Services Center, equipped with 24-hour showers and toilets, is set to open in mid-October, Dorothy’s Place Executive Director Jill Allen says. The new facility will have offices for service providers and case managers to assist homeless with housing, employment and rehabilitation.

The project has been in the works for more than a year and was done in partnership with the city of Salinas, which is paying rent – $24,000 a year – and helping with renovation costs of the building. Individual donors have also been instrumental to the launch.

But financial challenges remain. Allen says $45,000 is still needed to have the facility open by mid-October.

“I thought it was going to be easier [to raise money] because it is such a remarkable innovation for this area,” Allen says.

Chinatown has been beset by homelessness, drugs and crime for years. Allen describes it as a “vicious cycle of poverty and violence, with no end in sight.” Recently, Chinatown has become a hotspot for shooting deaths, something Salinas Police Sgt. Chris Lane cites as “unprecedented.”

In the past three months, eight men were murdered in the neighborhood. Dale says it’s difficult to pinpoint a reason for the spike in homicides, but says drugs have always been a constant in the area.

While deadly crime has ticked up, Dale says other criminal activity has declined. This could be in part because an estimated 200 homeless residents were forced out of the area in April when workers, hired by the city, cleared Chinatown of homeless encampments, as part of a city ordinance.

This forced people to scatter throughout the city, with the right to legally camp in city property from 6pm and 6am. But that will change Oct. 1 thanks to a new controversial ordinance that bans camping in city or private property at anytime. Camping would now result in a criminal citation.

Salinas City Attorney Chris Callihan says the new law was enacted after the city received “more than a few complaints” of people urinating, defecating and harassing city employees in front of City Hall and Oldtown Salinas, two public places that became a popular camping spot since the cleanup. (See story, p. 19.)

When asked where the city expects homeless residents to go now, Callihan says the city has discussed it, but declined to comment on its plans.

“You can’t legislate homelessness,” Allen says. “People have to sleep and they are going to lie down somewhere.”

Allen says she has been in talks with the city to encourage those who are cited to meet with case managers in exchange of having their criminal record cleared.

“We could get flooded with work and not have enough case managers to help,” Allen says, adding that the center’s 15 case managers can only handle up to 15 people each. More work would require more workers, and in turn, more money.

“If we don’t get them help, and they could be hundreds, they would be in jeopardy of having a criminal record.”

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story misidentified Salinas police Sgt. Chris Lane. The story has since been corrected.