Through the HD-OD project, we seek to help residents who are vulnerable to displacement from development plan for their future, as well as to preserve the character of Chinatown.  Read more

Neighborhood Resource Workshops at the Studio

The Studio will be hosting in-depth local agency workshops on programs that provide direct assistance to Chinatown residents and small businesses.  All workshops are bilingual, free, and open to the public within the Storefront Library.

Congratulations to the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights for presenting during the first Workshop! On December 7th, attendees participated in a lively conversation and learned how the Chinatown community can make use of the Committee’s free services to promote equal opportunity for individuals and small businesses by addressing factors that contribute to racial justice and economic opportunity.

Upcoming workshops:

12/14, 5 pm: ESOL and Job Training with AACA  Download flyer [pdf, 314 kb]

12/21, 5 pm: Childcare with BCNC  Download flyer [pdf, 306 kb]

1/4, 5 pm: ESOL with ACCESS  Download flyer [pdf, 313 kb]

Download the full listing [pdf, 273 kb] 

Service Resources Map Distributed to Local Agencies

To assist agencies in directing visitors and clients to resources throughout the neighborhood, Chinatown HD-OD has put together a biligual resource map.  View the map (Flash required) Download the map [pdf, 1.91 mb].

The Chinatown Human Development Studio is now open

The Studio will be a walk-in resource for the community to learn about local development, and receive planning resources and referrals to social service providers. The Studio will be the direct service point for HD-OD, where residents and small business owners will gain skills, support, and knowledge to help them take advantage of development opportunities to improve their lives.  The Studio is located within the Chinatown Storefront Library, at 640 Washington Street in Boston.  Hours: Mon, Thurs, Fri 1-5 pm; Sat 10-2 pm

The Chinatown Community Snapshot 2009

is available for download in English [pdf, 3.54 mb] and Chinese[pdf, 2.53 mb] or view flash versions of the Snapshots:

HD-OD Pilot in Chinatown 

The Human Development Overlay District (HD-OD) is premised on the idea that physical place and the people who live there are inextricably interrelated and must be planned for together. Families, individuals and small businesses are often unable to adapt to all the changes that take place in a neighborhood undergoing heavy development, whether physical, economic or social. In recent years, Chinatown’s land has increasingly become more desirable to developers because of its central Boston location and the efforts to revitalize the Theater District.

The increase of market-rate and luxury priced housing units, as well as the addition of hundreds of new hotel rooms, has inflated real estate housing values in Chinatown, sending rents up 10% to 200% in the past two years. The cumulative impact of these new development pressures threatens the existing population - particularly low-income residents, new immigrants, small businesses, un/underemployed, renters and potential homebuyers, and those with health concerns.

View the information sheet [flash].

  Download info sheet [pdf, 577 kb]

To help the neighborhood navigate pressures from development, ACDC and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) are developing one of four national pilot sites for a Human Development Overlay District (HD-OD), in Chinatown. The goal is to help residents who are vulnerable to displacement from development plan for their future, as well as to preserve the character of Chinatown. This project seeks to understand the potential benefits of providing social services, small-business resources and housing assistance in a focused “human development district.”  This work is made possible through an award by the Environmental Simulation Center, a New York-based nonprofit linking cutting-edge technology with community planning, in partnership with the Ford Foundation, along with support from the Boston Foundation and Liberty Mutual.

Recent advances in information technology, particularly decision support systems utilizing multiple data sources, virtual reality, and 3D environments, can enable service agencies to assist clients so that they can embrace development changes as opportunities for upward mobility. The HD-OD could potentially be a new model for community development that could be applied across the country. 

The Neighborhood HD-OD Center 

ACDC and its project partners will open a Community Change Center (CCC), a central neighborhood site that connects each client to a continuum of human services that will stabilize their lives in the short-term and serve as a clearinghouse of information about the economic opportunities, jobs, and housing generated by local development to optimize their ability to plan for the future. Walk-in clients will receive assistance with their immediate needs, ranging from enrolling in an ESOL class to dealing with a housing emergency to filling out public assistance documents.  Whatever the need, these interventions will be part of a long-term process that will address barriers to self-sufficiency and help them achieve economic and housing stability.

When the CCC begins intake, trained staff will do a needs assessment and record each client’s goals. CCC tools will help engage, monitor and assist in managing the trajectories of residents and small businesses, as well as development changes in the neighborhood.

The Chinatown Human Development Studio at the Chinatown Storefront Library will serve as a short-term center for approximately 3 months to develop and finalize intake processes and best practices for information collection.

The HD-OD objectives dovetail with the process for the Chinatown Master Plan 2010, a collaborative effort to update the Chinatown Master Plan 2000. The CMP 2000 served more as an agenda of community priorities than a specific implementation plan. The goal of the Master Plan 2010 initiative is to create an update plan to influence rapid development events and, through the process, unite the community to work for implementation of the plan. The HD-OD initiative shares many of these goals and involves a similar stakeholder base. 

Becoming Involved 

If you would be interested in learning how to become involved in this exciting initiative, please contact Amy Koo, Project Manager, at amy.koo@asiancdc.org or 617-482-2380 x212.