Chinatown’s health clinic still closed, the city says it’s just weeks away from re-opening

The Chinatown Health Services Center, which is a 24-hour center for showers and restrooms for the homeless, has been closed since July.

Dorothy’s Place, who operated the center, ran out of funds to keep the building open. The city owns the building on Lake Street and says finally it is close to re-opening.

According to the Salinas Police Department and homeless, Chinatown has had a drastic increase in public defecation and urination since the center has closed.

“People have needs and people need to use the restroom, even when its closed for 10 hours we see a huge impact on the street,” Salinas Police officer Gabriel Carvey said.

“It’s shameful but where else are you going to go? A lot of people get their five gallon bucket put water in it and go that way and then throw it out,” Joseph Rodriguez who lives in Chinatown said.

Friday, the city did one of its regular clean outs of Chinatown to try to make it as sanitary as possible. Police say it shows how much more unsanitary things have gotten since the center closed.

“It needs to be a 24-hour facility, so we can try to keep the filth off the street,” Carvey said.

The city finally found a new non-profit, and a grant from the state is also helping with funding. Monday port-a-potties will be up and then a week from then the center should re-open, according to the city.