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Reaching Out in the Garden State |
A new outreach program, begun in 1998 by HUD's New Jersey office, is helping Asian and Asian Pacific Islander (AAPI) immigrant groups strengthen their housing and com-munity development capacity in the Garden State. New Jersey is one of the top U.S. magnets for immigrants, and approximately one-third of the state's more than 1 million foreign-born individuals are AAPI. The largest groups are Asian Indians (30 percent), Chinese (22 percent), and Filipino (20 percent), with strong representation from Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thais, Cambodians, Laotians, and Hmongs. But despite their numbers, the AAPI communities in New Jersey are relatively unfamiliar with available resources and have been underrepresented in many housing and community development initiatives. Communities are less connected. The newer AAPI communities of New Jersey are not organized as well as older, more established ethnic communities and lack the well-developed advocacy organizations necessary to access information and funding resources, explains Diane Johnson, the HUD state coordinator in Newark. In a 1998 survey, the HUD New Jersey office found that new AAPI immigrant groups tended to focus on providing social services or hosting cultural activities and lacked the program knowledge, capacity, or training in HUD programs that could help families access better housing or help communities improve their neighborhoods. There were many reasons for this. "Language was a problem," along with the existence of several equally unintelligible dialects, notes Johnson. Moreover, by working with community leaders, "we often would deal with older individuals—senior members of the community—who had not learned a lot of English," says Johnson. A lack of neighborhood concentrations of immigrant groups also complicated outreach activities, according to Frank Lang, director of planning and development for Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), a 20-year-old New York-based nonprofit that served as the outreach program's technical assistance provider. New Jersey AAPI groups "tend to identify themselves ethnically rather than geographically," he says. "There is no Chinatown in New Jersey. When you are not dealing with a neighborhood base, it is harder to organize. It is more difficult to focus." One of the biggest hurdles to overcome, according to Johnson, was a frequent distrust of government officials and agencies. "It took considerable time to build confidence in the community," she comments. To establish trust, HUD staff met individually with community members, "often in their places of worship or tea parlors—places where they felt comfortable," Johnson recalls. Established advocacy expertise. During 1998 and 1999, AAFE received approximately $350,000 from three HUD programs—Community Development Block Grant, HOME, and Community Housing Development Organizations—to provide technical assistance. The HUD New Jersey office and AAFE held workshops for the various AAPI groups. The workshops were designed to introduce groups to community development, explains Lang. "We got a very good response," he says, "about 35 people from a variety of groups showed up." Additional workshops focused on fundraising, establishing a board of directors, and incorporating as a 501(c)(3) corporation to qualify for private tax-deductible and public funding. "We also had a workshop for local governments to help them include people of Asian descent in their outreach programs," says Lang. "Earlier this year we invited a number of Asian groups who could speak about their own situation." In the process, notes Lang, the groups "began to identify the local government agencies they would need to contact to talk about issues." Both Johnson and Lang agree that the outreach program still has much room to grow. They predict that it will take 1 or 2 years before any of the community groups become incorporated and ready to apply to HUD for funding. "The skill-building process takes time," says Johnson. "I think what we will see first is groups applying for homeownership and housing counseling," says Lang. After that, Johnson foresees the development of senior housing. "There is quite a need in the community," she says. For more information, contact: Diane Johnson, State Coordinator, HUD, Newark, New Jersey, (973) 622-7900, ext. 3102; or Frank Lang, Director of Planning and Development, Asian Americans for Equality, New York, New York, (212) 979–1108.
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