A Santa Fe community center will be brought up to speed in the digital age with some help from federal economic stimulus funds.

The Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority will receive $176,400 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to increase Internet and computer access at a new community center in the Hopewell neighborhood.

The yet-to-be-named center on Espinacitas Street, off St. Michael's Drive, is still under construction and is expected to open by the middle of next month, said Ed Romero, housing authority director.

A temporary community center, called El Centro Comunitario, has been housed in two converted public housing units near the new construction since October 2008, said Soledad Santiago, the center's executive director.

English as a Second Language, General Educational Development and art classes are some of the programs offered at the center, and there was only one computer in the center when it first opened, Santiago said.

"What we've found, and we knew it but we're now experiencing it, is that computers are gateway technology," Santiago said. "Only 5 percent of this neighborhood has Internet and yet all the children come in and know how to use it."

The housing authority donated additional computers, which neighborhood students use for homework or to play games.

Part of the ESL classes are also devoted to teaching computer skills.

"Everybody's so anxious to learn," Santiago said. "The jobs of the future are all gonna involve that — they do all involve that."

The stimulus funds will cover 13 new work stations, replace seven old ones and provide broadband access to serve more than 100 people, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"They're old and they crash and they crash," Santiago said of the center's current computers. "So this will be fantastic."

The funds, which come from the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, will also go toward creating new computer stations in other community centers, the statement said.

El Centro Comunitario will share the 4,200-square-foot new building with the Boys and Girls Club. The new facility will include two classrooms, office space, a gym and a commercial kitchen, Romero said.