CSUMB program to facilitate planning for Soledad Street

Soledad Street in the former Chinatown area of Salinas is the site of vacant lots, abandoned buildings and makeshift shelters for the homeless. It's full of broken windows and broken dreams. The area has been neglected for years, despite the fact that it's located only a few blocks from the National Steinbeck Center, the crown jewel in Salinas' redevelopment efforts.

As the result of a longtime relationship between the Franciscan Workers of Junipero Serra - who run Dorothy's Place Hospitality Center on Soledad Street - and CSUMB's Service Learning program, that may change.

Dorothy's Place provides meals for the poor and the homeless. Begun when its director, Robert Smith, distributed sandwiches from the back of his car more than 20 years ago, it now serves two meals a day to hundreds of guests and has provided service-learning opportunities for CSUMB students for nearly a decade.

When faced with the prospect of losing the lease on Dorothy's, Smith approached the university for help in redeveloping the area, along with the city. The university's Service Learning Institute saw an opportunity.

University faculty and staff members applied for federal grant money to facilitate community planning for lower Soledad Street and set up job training for the homeless there. The grant was funded -- $600,000 over three years was awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The money will be a catalyst for redevelopment in the 20-acre area.

Grant money will pay the salary of a project director who, along with CSUMB service learning students, faculty and staff, will work with social service providers, property owners and business owners to produce a redevelopment plan for the area. The university hopes to have a plan ready to present to the Salinas City Council in two to three years.

"I'm really excited about the possibility of bringing people together in dialogue . . . to connect social service delivery with housing, with retail, with education," said Seth Pollack, director of service learning at the university.

Grant money will be used to teach work skills and develop micro-enterprise business opportunities for the homeless. CSUMB business students will develop income-generating projects; the possibilities include a bicycle repair business and a used clothing store.

As part of the project, university students will construct a 40,000-square-foot garden on city-owned property -- with native plants, flowers and vegetables -- at the corner of Soledad and Lake streets. Homeless people will be employed as garden assistants.

"In the short term - several years - we'll use the space as a garden. Ultimately, it will be a site for housing. The goal of the garden and the job training is to show the property owners in the area that there can be a connection between them and the folks who live there now," said Pollack.

The first order of business is to locate space in the area to house the project's administrative office and computer training classes. Work on the garden and the business plan will start in the spring.

Two events last spring demonstrated the potential the partnership between Dorothy's Place and the university holds:

For more information, contact Professor Pollack at 582-3914.