On Soledad Street, where junkies and angels reside, a clash is coming.

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Dorothy’s Place is unduly shouldering the blame for the area’s drug problem,  says Mia Ferreira, shelter coordinator for Women Alive! The nonprofit group opened a overnight shelter in December 2005 and has provided a warm cot and dinner to more than 80 women. Some of the women from the shelter meet on Saturdays to silkscreen shirts and make other crafts as part of a work coop. The shirts are emblazoned with slogans such as “Love Loudly” and “Food for All.”

“What we do here is the opposite of what happens on the street,” Ferreira says. “I feel we need to get more involvement from the property owners. Because there is no traffic in the area, that allows drug dealers to come through here.”

Not ready to wait for the city to declare the area a “drug-free zone,” Sun Street Center and the Franciscan Workers plan to post signs proclaiming that designation themselves.

The center’s residency program is located two blocks away from Chinatown. Marie Kassing, deputy director of programs, says three men in the program have died after relapsing and overdosing on drugs they got on Soledad Street.

Sun Street is not opposing the conditional use permit renewal for Dorothy’s. “What we have a concern about is business as usual for the entire area,” Kassing says.

In early December, the Salinas Planning Commission will likely extend the Franciscan Worker’s lease for another two years. There will be some minor adjustments to the permit, but they won’t be evicted. The city of Salinas redevelopment agency, which owns the Green Gold Inn, has yet to decide on a permanent place for homeless services. But it isn’t likely to change course now.

The blighted neighborhood is inching toward redevelopment. The downtown community board is gearing up for a five-day “neighborhood envisioning” session in March. That process, which will include focus groups and a neighborhood needs assessment, will be facilitated by the Local Government Commission, a Sacramento-based nonprofit that helps municipalities create healthy communities.

This meeting, known as a “charette,” will then lead to a market study for the area, followed by a request for proposals for developers, says Don Reynolds, project manager for the Salinas Redevelopment Agency.

Meanwhile, this week’s announcement of the purchase of property by the city could mean that an acre of blighted land will be turned into an affordable housing/mixed-use development.

 Redevelopment will not cure the unsolvable problems of poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental illness. More beds for homeless people, mental health services, and jobs would be a big help, but that takes money. The city is not in the business of providing social services. The redevelopment agency is focused on downtown, and developers aren’t going to want poor people loitering in their project area.

It remains to be seen whether concerned organizations in Salinas will stop reproaching Dorothy’s Place and instead start collaborating to help the area, or whether the Oldtown Association’s “tough love” can fit in with Dorothy’s “unconditional love” approach.

Drug dealers have been in Chinatown since before Dorothy’s Place opened. It is not just the responsibility of the social service providers to monitor it, but also the businesses, residents and property owners in the area. Perhaps the neighborhood will band together and push out the dealers.

All stakeholders want the same thing: a safe, clean, and viable neighborhood. There will continue to be finger-pointing, but solutions are bound to surface—eventually.