Who we are: The Asian Community Development Corporation is a 20 year old community-based organization committed to serving Asian Americans of Greater Boston by developing mixed-income housing; promoting economic development; fostering new leaders; and building power and capacity within the community through organizing, education, advocacy, and action. Mayor Menino addresses crowd as ACDC’s Parcel 24 receives a green building award.
Young participant in the ACDC co-sponsored Khmer New Year’s celebration in Lynn, MA
Our History: Since our founding in 1987, ACDC has developed over $100 million of new housing and commercial space, consisting of mixed-income residences and mixed commercial uses. Our developments are now home to over 800 residents (300+ families), four of the leading Asian American nonprofit organizations in over 30,000 square feet of offices, four Chinatown-based businesses, and a 3,200-square foot community conference center. Additionally, we have created over 18,000 square feet of parks and open space, a 267-car underground garage, and a variety of streetscape and traffic improvements in the neighborhood. From 2003 to 2005 we facilitated a coalition of Chinatown-based community groups to ensure that a significant part of Chinatown that was demolished in 1962 was returned to the community as part of the completion of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Now known as Parcel 24, this land will be the site of ACDC’s newest project, a 315-unit, mixed-income, homeownership and rental development that is projected to have a total development cost of $120 million and to be completed in 2011. Approximately 50% of the residential units will be affordable to low and moderate income residents. The scope of our community development mission encompasses a neighborhood-, community- and region-wide emphasis on the development of and planning, advocacy, and organizing for affordable housing, economic opportunity, and sustained social diversity and cultural identity. We have facilitated and led three major community planning and advocacy efforts, including the Chinatown Air Rights Development study 1998-2000, the Chinatown Master Plan 2000, and the Hudson Street for Chinatown campaign 2002-2005. We established our Homeownership education program in 2002, and since then have graduated over 400 people from the program, and have assisted over 30 families in buying their first homes in communities throughout Greater Boston. We started our first youth organizing program in 2003, and launched a youth driven radio program and a guided walking tour program in 2006. Also in that year, we launched the Chinatown Heritage Project, which is aimed at preserving and promoting the history and culture of Chinatown as a means of revitalizing the area and supporting small businesses. ACDC recently completed our five-year strategic plan which will guide our expansion of services and capacity to improve the quality of life for all Asian Americans throughout the Greater Boston region, as well as the communities where they live, work, and play.
“Chinatown is one of the last truly ethnic neighborhoods in the City of Boston” ~ Mayor Menino
Who we serve Broadening our reach while remaining rooted in Chinatown When community activists founded ACDC in 1987, they articulated their vision for who they wanted to serve in ACDC’s mission statement as “The Asian American community of Greater Boston, with an emphasis on preserving and revitalizing Boston's Chinatown.” Twenty years ago, serving Chinatown was serving that population, but times have changed, as has the community’s needs. We look to match new challenges in the community with a new way of working. This means thinking regionally, broadening the scope of our work, and diversifying our staff and board to serve broader constituencies in the Asian community.
“I think ACDC helps Lynn community to rebuild the community ... I am speaking in term[s] of policy, advocacy and community involvement.” ~ Chheub Bun Heng, Lynn Resident
Lynn Residents at ACDC-sponsored Khmer New Year’s Celebration, 2007
Boston’s Chinatown ACDC was founded and remains rooted in Chinatown. This neighborhood continues to play a key role as an anchor community for the region’s Asian communities. By far the most densely populated neighborhood in New England, Chinatown has suffered from common inner-city issues, such as high concentrations of poverty, pollution, traffic, and crime. Over 30% of Chinatown residents live below the federal poverty level. Almost 60% of households earn under $20,000 a year. Linguistic isolation prevents over half of Chinatown’s households from joining the economic mainstream outside of Chinatown. These vulnerable populations find themselves faced with high-rise developments
Top Asian populations in Greater Boston.
going up on all sides, threatening to raise property values and push out residents. The 170-year-old neighborhood faces many challenges, but it is also home to a vibrant immigrant community. Chinatown has long served as a portal for new immigrants. The concentration of culturally and linguistically competent goods and services in Chinatown provides support to Asian Americans throughout the New England region. The community has also served as a launching pad for generations of immigrant families. Many prominent community members trace their roots to the neighborhood. ACDC is working to ensure that this community continues to prosper and grow.
ACDC focus group in Lynn, MA
Asians as top foreign-born immigrant group.
Asian Community of Greater Boston Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in Massachusetts, growing a total of 67.5% between 1990 and 2000. Today Asian Americans live in almost every municipality in the commonwealth. Cities such as Quincy, Malden, and Lynn especially saw extraordinary growth in the AA community in that time- 140%, 181%, and 91% respectively. Rapid growth and lack of infrastructure continue to present a challenge to municipalities in accommodating the special needs of these new residents. And those needs are pressing. State-wide, one in three Asian Americans lives in low income households. Especially among immigrant and elderly populations, language barriers prevent needy individuals from properly accessing available social services and jobs. What is more the economic gap between those who thrive and those who struggle to survive continues to widen. Our communities’ needs have never been greater, more widespread, or more complex. As a result the need for a regional plan grows more evident.
To fulfill our mission, ACDC has built a 5-year strategic plan to become a truly regional organization that improves the quality of life for Asians and Asian Americans throughout the Greater Boston region. In 2007, we initiated, co-sponsored, and organized the commonwealth’s first annual APA Heritage Month at the Massachusetts State House drawing over 200 people, including current and aspiring APA elected officials. Building on the success of this event, ACDC is reaching out to key Asian communities to convene local leaders, identify needs, map community assets. Gradually we will develop a network of activists and concerned leaders who can band together to advocate for positive change on a local and regional scale. We are building bridges to burgeoning Asian communities outside of Boston, starting with the Cambodian community in Lynn where the need and a vacuum of service is most evident. ACDC is working hard to not only expand our community organizing, but also our homebuying education, affordable housing development, and other programs, to serve communities throughout Greater Boston.
“I can’t tell you what it means to me to see Parcel 24 moving forward. I was born on this land, my family was displaced in the 1960’s when the highway was built. I fought with many others for its return to Chinatown, and now I look forward to returning to live here again someday soon.”
~Caroline Chang, Chair of ACDC’s Board of Directors Over 300 residents were displaced from Parcel 24 during the extension of the Mass Turnpike. At the time, Homeowners were given approximately 1/3 of the value of their land.
Sustainable Community-Based Affordable Housing Development ACDC has built over $100 million in mixed-income affordable housing development in the past 20 years. We have accomplished this in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Boston and in one of the hottest markets in the nation by forging partnerships with experienced, socially-conscious for-profit developers. At ACDC, we leverage the very forces that fuel displacement to carve out a lasting space for long-time residents. We work with the community to build a common vision for beautiful, fair, sustainable development in Chinatown, of which we can all be proud.
ACDC Portfolio at a glance • • • • • •
339 mixed-income residences built since 1987, home to over 800 individuals (300+ families) including... 203 affordable homes to low and moderate income families and individuals. 30,000 square feet of offices home to four leading Asian American nonprofits. 3,200-square foot community conference center. 18,000 square feet of parks and open space 324 energy efficient homes to be built by 2011, approximately 50% of which will be affordable.
Oak Terrace Apartments ACDC was born out the opportunity to forge a new path for affordable housing development, by and for the Chinatown community, on the Oak Terrace site. ACDC was formed specifically to bid for the right to develop Oak Terrace on land owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority; the founders intended for ACDC to be a model for community-based, community-controlled development. Begun in the late 1980’s, the Oak Terrace development was completed in 1995, surviving the deep recession of the late 80’s and early 90’s. It is notable for being the first major affordable housing development in Chinatown in two decades as well as one of the first developments in the country to utilize the now standard Low Income Tax Credits. Today the building is home to over 300 residents, the majority of whom have low to moderate incomes. It also provides space for community meetings, local businesses, and health care practitioners. The Metropolitan Parcel C, now known as The Metropolitan, leveraged our experience in developing Oak Terrace to take on new challenges: the 5% owneroccupancy rate in Chinatown and the increasingly expensive cost of housing in Boston’s downtown core. ACDC pursued a development strategy that maximized affordability in the building by leveraging the location, transit access, and acceptable density incorporating profitable, market-rate condominiums to subsidize affordable housing at a rate far beyond the City of Boston’s own Inclusionary Zoning levels. The result is a mixed use high-rise containing 251 rental and homeownership units, 115 of which are affordable to low and moderate income families. The building is also home to four grassroots non-profit organizations: The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Chinese Progressive Association, Youth Essential Services, and ACDC.
Hudson Street demolished in August 1963 to make way for highway, displacing a vibrant community
Parcel 24 Parcel 24, LLC (a joint venture of ACDC and New Boston Development Partners) is in the pre-development stages of work on a mixedincome community with 324 affordable and market rate residential units that will provide much needed community housing while restoring the fabric of the neighborhood which existed on Hudson Street over forty years ago. The development proposal is based on the Community Vision for Parcel 24, which was developed by the Hudson Street for Chinatown (HSC) coalition, a working group of residents, former residents, and Chinatown-based community agencies, over a three-year period. ACDC sought out community involvement throughout the design process through meetings and design charettes to come up with a design that meets the needs of the Chinatown neighborhood. Our proposal includes approximately 50% affordable housing, a public park, roof-top gardens, open space, community space, ground floor retail, and underground parking- all incorporated into a neighborhood-sensitive, environmentally sustainable design.
Graduates in front of their new home in Dorchester and Newton, MA
Comprehensive Home Ownership Program (CHOP) and Financial Literacy Education We operate New England’s only home-ownership education program consistently targeting low and moderate income Chinese-speaking homebuyers. ACDC has graduated over 400 people from our home ownership courses and one-one-one counseling in Mandarin and Cantonese, and has assisted over 30 families in buying their first homes in communities throughout Greater Boston. By teaching families about how to establish and maintain good credit, by educating potential homebuyers about financing options and pitfalls, and by walking people through the process stepby-step, CHOP helps low and moderate income families not only find and buy their first homes, but also avoid predatory lenders and foreclosure.
“[CHOP is] very good for the low income family, [it] can help the low income family to have the American dream... to buy a first home”~ Raymond Cho, CHOP graduate
CHOP’s Homebuying 101 course
Speakasy Speakeasy is a proposed service that offers nonEnglish speaking individuals convenient, free and easy access to a network of well-informed, multilingual volunteer “Guides” to provide on-demand, confidential language interpretation via three-way telephone calls. Aside from interpretation services, Guides would also be able to effectively address callers’ concerns and needs as they are more familiar with the social service options available in this country. Instead of having to depend solely on informal social networks that sometimes place undue burdens upon family members and friends, Speakeasy would be able to take advantage of the ubiquity of cell ACDC volunteer tests Speakeasy system. phones and connect non-English speakers to Guides promptly. Community Organizing, Planning, and Advocacy ACDC’s Community Planning and Organizing Initiative educates and organizes residents and community leaders around inclusive urban planning, affordable housing, public safety, and other issues. ACDC led the organizing of the Hudson Street for Chinatown Coalition, which worked for over 3 years to ensure that Parcel 24 was set aside by the MTA for affordable housing and community benefits. An ACDC co-hosted regional-planning workshop in Lynn, MA.
Today, ACDC’s organizers provide core support for coalitions in Chinatown working for fair and open processes in urban planning and decision making in the Chinatown Gateway, and elsewhere. We have expanded our organizing work beyond Chinatown. In 2006, ACDC hired a region organizer to work with communities across Greater Boston and beyond for greater unity, voice and participation among diverse Asian communities across the Commonwealth. In 2007 we launched a series of suburban discussion groups to identify needs in these communities. We also co-sponsored the first ever APA Heritage month at the Massachusetts State House.
Elders at a Hudson Street for Chinatown demonstration.!
Detail of murals created as part of the Chinatown Heritage Project displayed at the Dreams of Freedom Museum.
Chinatown Heritage Project The Chinatown Heritage Project celebrates and promotes the multifaceted history, culture, and community that make Boston’s Chinatown so unique and vibrant. Through a series of innovative programs, the program encourages cross-cultural understanding and helps support small businesses. A Chinatown Banquet is an artful series of documentary video shorts featuring interviews with members of the Chinatown community. The Chinatown Heritage Trail is a self-guided podcast tour that builds off of the Banquet and historical research of A-VOYCE youth. The Chinatown Walking Tours provide groups of visitors the opportunity to explore Chinatown with a knowledgeable tour guide. The 1-hour tours cover the history, development, and contemporary challenges facing the neighborhood.
“The Chinatown Heritage Project is the most well-developed Program of its kind I’ve seen about any Chinatown in the country” ~ Helen Zia, noted author and CHP Advisory board member
A-VOYCE youth practice interviewing skills before going out on the beat.
Asian Voices of Organized Youth for Community Empowerment A-VOYCE (Asian Voices of Organized Youth for Community Empowerment) develops the leadership potential of Asian American youth from Greater Boston by bringing their voices to the public and creating positive change through the power of dialogue and storytelling. Through education, technical training, and creative work, youth build marketable skills while fostering critical thinking and social inquiry. A-VOYCE teens research the history and contemporary issues facing the Greater Boston Asian American community, and produce a weekly radio program which features music, news and the teen’s original commentary and documentary-style audio pieces exploring what they’ve learned. A-VOYCE youth gain a better sense of their power as Asian Americans and as young people, their right to be heard, and the youth role for advocating community advancement.
“With the knowledge I’ve learned and the experiences of leadership and communication, I know that I can affect the community. I know that using my voice I can teach others, affect their beliefs and opinions, and maybe even make them think differently.” ~ Thanh Ly, 17 years old, talking about A-VOYCE in her college essay
38 Oak Street Boston, MA 02111 (t) 617.482.2380 (f) 617.482.3056 info@asiancdc.org www.asiancdc.org
Mission Statement: The Asian Community Development Corporation, a community-based organization, is committed to high standards of performance and integrity in serving the Asian American community of Greater Boston, with an emphasis on preserving and revitalizing Boston's Chinatown.