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07/23/2012
City Contracts Awarded For Two New Senior Centers In Asian Community
By: Jeanine Ramirez
City contracts went out Monday to two new Brooklyn senior centers. Both serve the Asian community, the city's fastest-growing group. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.
Homecrest Community Services has been providing for the Asian community in Bensonhurst since 2004. While many senior centers may have Chinese members, this one is also run by Chinese.
"What we bring is that special feeling of community, that cultural heritage," said Homecrest chairman Don Lee.
The senior center has relied on donations and grants to keep the center funded. Now, it's been selected by the city for funding.
"We all know that Homecrest has been doing very good services for a very long time," said Department of Aging Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli. "The difference is going to be that they have more resources now. They're going to be part of a network."
"It's been a dream come true in many respects," said Richard Kuo, the executive director of Homecrest. "So we're very happy."
For the first time in about a dozen years, the Department of Aging put out a request for proposals. Only two new groups were chosen in Brooklyn, both primarily serving Asian communities: Homecrest and the Brooklyn Chinese American Association in Sunset Park. Homecrest was awarded a 3 year, $380,000 contract.
"Essentially, we had over 300 applications," Barrios-Paoli said. "It was very rigorous. A lot of competition. So it's attribute to Homecrest that they were able to compete successfully against some established providers to get funded."
The elderly Asian population has seen tremendous growth in Bensonhurst over the past decade and the facility brings many of them together to socialize, eat together, learn English and take health classes. The center is open Monday through Friday serving about 80 meals a day.
"The city is now going to provide funding for those congregate meals, for the staffing and to help offset the cost of the rent, which is a very important component," Kuo said.
State Sen. Marty Golden has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to keep the center operating. His district has one of the largest concentrations of elderly residents.
"The southwest and southeast parts of Brooklyn have the highest senior counts throughout the state of New York," he said.
Administrators at Homecrest said with more, they'll do even more. - See more at: http://www.ny1.com/archives/nyc/all-boroughs/2012/07/23/city-contracts-awarded-for-two-new-senior-centers-in-asian-community-NYC_165372.old.html
05/21/2012
Asian American Week: Chinese Population In Brooklyn Broadens, Ages
By: Jeanine Ramirez
When New Yorkers think of "Chinatown," the Lower East Side, Flushing and Sunset Park come to mind, but there are also other Chinese communities that have emerged and strengthened in Brooklyn over the years. Borough reporter Jeanine Ramirez filed the following Asian American Week report.
For the past two decades, Sunset Park has flourished as Brooklyn's Chinatown. According to the 2010 census, it now has a larger Chinese population than Manhattan's Chinatown. But that is not the only Chinese community to emerge in the borough.
Another Chinese hub is several subway stops south, at Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay in Community District 15.
"What's been happening is that in this area, there's been a tremendous growth of the Chinese population and Chinese seniors," says Richard Kuo of Homecrest Community Services. "Right now, the Chinese population is approximately 12 percent of the total population in Community District 15, and that's approximately 18,000 to 20,000 people of Chinese origin. Of that number, about 10 percent, over 2,000, are seniors over 65. So this represents since the year 2000 a 25-percent increase."
Kuo saw the southern trend 15 years ago and started the neighborhood's first Asian senior center. Homecrest Community Services started operating out of a Presbyterian church in 1997 with 200 seniors. It now has 2,000, offering all kinds of services from health care to ESL classes.
"With the culture and the language barriers, it's very difficult for seniors to get access to what they're entitled to and what the services are," says Kuo. "So what we do is we provide that access, a link to government as well as to outside organizations."
In 2004, Homecrest expanded to Bensonhurst, where another Chinese community, also along the southern subway lines, has emerged in the once predominantly Italian neighborhood.
Kuo says in both Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay, the Chinese communities are made up of homeowners, professionals and voters who live in multi-generational households. He says more funds are needed to help the senior population.
"I'm hopeful that the Department of Aging will provide multi-year funding for this center very soon," says Kuo.