Chinatown health center closed, leaving homeless without place to shower

The Chinatown Health Services Center has a closed sign out front, which was a 24-hour center for homeless to shower and use the restroom. Dorothy’s Place says they no longer have the funds to keep it operational.

In the meantime, the hundreds of homeless people living in Chinatown no longer have a close and free place to shower.

“You’d go over there shower, use the restroom whenever you want they’d give you free shampoo and that’s a lot when you have nothing,” a homeless person who asked to remain anonymous said.

Wednesday we found one woman who’s lived in Chinatown for six years, who’s so fed up she even made signs expressing her anger.

“They don’t want people to go around here, where are they supposed to go [to the bathroom]? So the same problems going to happen again, people are going to go where they have to go,” Diana Blaylock who lives in Chinatown said.

The older people we spoke with say physically it’s too challenging walking over a mile, which they say is now the closest place to shower.

“Based on donations we’ve been throwing every discretionary dollar that we have at this to keep it open because we believe this is a vital service for people,” Dorothy’s Place executive director Jill Allen said.

When the health clinic opened almost three years ago, the city gave a $100,000 grant up front to Dorothy’s Place. The city also pay to rent the building on Lake Street, but right now the mayor says there’s no extra funds, so they’re searching for a solution.

“Two weeks ago I heard she ran out of money, so that’s come as a shock to us, and we’re trying to scramble, so we’ve reached out to the other non-profits. We’re negotiating with one to possibly run it, so we’re not leaving people without services,” Mayor Joe Gunter said.

The mayor says the goal is to have the service center back open within the week, but right now it’s still unclear where exactly that funding will come from.