Will Census Results Secure Funding For Chinese Senior Centers?
Some Chinese-American community leaders are hoping the 2010 Census numbers will help secure additional funding for the community’s elderly.
According to NY1, the new Census results show a 41 percent increase of Asians living in Brooklyn.
“In Brooklyn, there is not one Chinese senior center that is funded for operations by the city’s Department of the Aging,” Richard Kuo, executive director of Homecrest Community Services told NY1. “And we hope that the 2010 census will change that dynamic, that additional funds will be provided by the city.”
Homecrest Community Services currently runs two centers, including one in Bensonhurst and a larger one in Sheepshead Bay. They are both supported, in part, with discretionary funds from State Senator Marty Golden’s office.
Both Sheepshead Bay and Bensonhurst have seen dramatic increases in their Chinese-American populations in the last 11 years.
Kuo thinks proximity to subway lines, along with good schools and low crime, are a major factor in the decision of where Chinese immigrants, who often commute to work, choose to settle.
“We Chinese-Americans are along the subway lines, because we commute into our jobs and other areas of the city, we need to have subway lines,” said Kuo to NY1.