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University Neighborhood House: Regretful to leave Houston Street Center but Chinatown services will not be terminated
Reporter: Liu Ziqi
The Houston Street Center in Manhattan’s Chinatown was operated by University Settlement for many years, but the latter will leave at the end of the month, which makes the community feel regretful; despite this, several managers of University Settlement said recently that Chinatown residents can still continue to receive services at other nearby locations, and their “commitment and determination to the residents remain unwavering.”
According to multiple insiders, the neighborhood settlement will withdraw from the Houston Street Center after October 31, ending more than a decade of service there. Melissa Aase, CEO of University Settlement, has said internally that “after careful consideration and with a heavy heart, we have decided to end our work at the Houston Community Center and give up our co-ownership of the space.”
Aase and her team said in an interview that although they are very sorry that they cannot continue to operate here, the community business will be dispersed to nearby locations to provide services. According to University Settlement, the branches around Chinatown still include 184 Eldridge St., which focuses on early childhood education and community mental health clinics; 175 Eldridge St., which is responsible for adult English education; 189 Allen St., which provides services for renters and the elderly; and 89 Catherine St., which is responsible for providing early childhood education programs for children.
University Settlement said that the organization is “carefully designing and implementing an exit plan,” including transferring some programs to other branches. Aase said that the Senior HeART program originally at the Houston Community Center will be merged to the Allen Street address and continue to be provided.
Aase admits that although University Settlement helped build the Houston Center, it cannot avoid the fact that operating costs are rising. She stressed that no matter how things change, the needs of the community are always at the core of the work to ensure that all residents can get the necessary support and services. Currently, all projects of University Settlement cover languages such as Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish.
Houston Center Project Director Zhuohao Wu also said that many services are popular among Chinatown elders and the agency is willing to lend a hand to anyone.
University Settlement statistics show that the services it provides in the Lower East Side are used by about 6,000 to 10,000 people each year, and about one-third of them are of Asian background. Xing Hui Zheng, assistant director of the Houston Street Center, said that many of the Chinese people served are first-generation immigrants, and many of them come every day starting with breakfast and participate in entertainment programs, digital teaching or other community activities. Aase also said that she hopes the city government can improve the payment process for non-profit organizations because the latter are the ones who take care of citizens and serve the city on the front line.