Chinatown cleanup highlights homeless in Monterey County

UPDATE 3/25/2016 5:45 PM:

SALINAS – Cleanup continues in Chinatown, the largest homeless encampment in Salinas. While some people have moved over to another street, others have left the area.

Friday is a far cry from what we saw on Wednesday. Market Way and Bridge Avenue, once lined with tents, are now empty and clear. With those streets closed off, many people are now crowding the sidewalks on Soledad and Lake streets.

“So they’re just trying to stay ahead of the sweep,” said Chinatown resident Van Greshman. “Eventually the sweep will overtake them. It’s a gut-wrenching sickness. The worry. Yeah it’s a pretty precarious situation.”

Dorothy’s Place, which offers everything from showers to getting jobs, is seeing an uptick in the number of people wanting help.

“Now it’s housing and programs,” said Julyanna Pacheco, program manager for the drop-in center at Dorothy’s Place. “Programs to get well, regarding mental health or regarding an addiction.”

As Chinatown residents face this new reality, people across the Central Coast are seeing the real faces of homelessness and are asking questions. On a Salinas Facebook page, people are asking how many homeless people are in the area.

According to the Housing and Urban Development 2015 Point in Time Homeless Census, there were 2,308 homeless people in Monterey County. It was 282 less than the previous Point in Time survey in 2013. It’s important to note not all the homeless people may have been counted, say if they were temporarily housed with family or friends.

The most recent survey showed a drop in the homeless population in Monterey, Marina, Gonzales and King City. Salinas saw a gain that’s roughly the number of the drop of the four cities combined. The report says Salinas has the county’s largest homeless population, at 867.

While communities struggle to deal with the problem, those on the front lines struggle to keep up with the demand for help.

“People are asking for help right now,” Pacheco said. “There’s a lot of people. A lot of people asking for help. And we need more case managers. That’s what we’re working towards.”

Posted below is how the city of Salinas is trying to address homelessness“

We are working with our partners on a compassionate, real solution to homelessness. That solution requires both that we address immediate needs and that we respond systemically at the scale the problem requires. That’s what we’re doing.

The partnership we have formed includes the City of Salinas, the County of Monterey, homeless service providers and the Community Foundation of Monterey County.

The short term:
• We must address the health and safety crisis posed by the encampments which block and impede City streets and sidewalks: because of threats such as human waste, discarded needles, drug dealers attracted to the Chinatown area and elsewhere, and the inability of emergency vehicles to get through the streets, people are in danger, and people may die.
• Some people ask, “Why not leave the campers in place until there’s somewhere for them to go?” Our answer is that the current situation has gotten much worse than it has been before, to the point that people’s health and lives are in imminent danger, from human waste, discarded needles, drug dealers who are moving in to prey on the homeless, and more. All of us who are working together on this, including homeless service providers, agree that this cannot continue. Meanwhile, we are providing assistance, including access to shelter, while we work on the larger solutions that are needed.
• After working with our partners in the homeless service community to give advance notice to the campers that they would not be able to set up semi-permanent encampments, we are conducting a cleanup of those encampments, as compassionately as we can, working with our contractor Smith & Enright.
• We and our partners are working with the people affected, to help them move, to preserve their possessions, and to get them access to services.
• We are expanding access to the homeless warming shelter.
• The City of Salinas is applying for a $588,000 Emergency Shelter Grant from the State of California.

Next steps:
• Within the next few months, a new health services center will open at 125 East Lake in Chinatown. This center will help to meet some of homeless people’s most pressing needs: for basic hygiene, health services and access to housing.
• We and our partners are working with landlords and developers to make more housing available to low income and homeless people. This will include the proposed Mid-Pen project in Chinatown, which will provide 92 units.
• We are pursuing the purchase of other properties in the area to provide additional housing and development opportunities.
• We are addressing impediments like brownfields and lot consolidations to enhance development opportunities. We will revisit and revise the Chinatown Community Rebound Plan and review the Focused Growth overlay and improve land-use designations.
• We will improve transportation, such as by reconnecting Chinatown to the downtown and the Intermodal Transportation Center to reduce its physical isolation.

The long term:
• For too long, responses to homelessness have occurred separately and at a scale that can’t match the true scope of the problem. Neither the City, the County, nor any nonprofit can meet this challenge alone. But working together, we can.
• Working with our partners at the County and in the nonprofit community, we are pursuing a strategic solution, at the scale that will address the underlying causes and the effects of homelessness.

ORIGINAL POST:

City contract cleanup crews worked overnight to clear out tents and trash from the large homeless encampment on Market Way. Many of those displaced moved their belongings and pitched their tents on nearby Soledad Street, which is also slated for cleanup. There is no timetable yet for that part of the project.

Mariana Hicks is covering the story and will have more tonight during a special 9 p.m. newscast on KION, your Central Coast News Source.