Lifeline approved for Chinatown SRO seniors clinging to hope

(This story is made possible through the support of AARP)

By Stephanie Lam

Hidden along Broadway Street in San Francisco, is a red door that leads to a steep flight of apartment stairs. At the top is a winding corridor, and at the very end of that, rests a small bedroom where Cai Xun Huang and her husband Guang Liang Zhu call home. 

The elderly Chinese couple have resided there for a decade, filling the tight space with memorabilia collected from their 34 years of living in San Francisco. A long-flowered sheet hangs in their doorway for privacy. It’s a luxury that’s hard to come by since they share bathrooms and kitchen areas with a dozen other residents, who live on the same floor in similar rooms. 

Like many low-income elders in the city, Huang and Zhu live in a Single-Room Occupancy (SRO), a type of housing intended for those with low or minimal incomes. The couple’s rent is only $555 a month, a price they can afford with their combined monthly income of $2,000. 

While the room is budget-friendly, its location is terribly inconvenient, Huang said. The steep stairs make it difficult for the two to go in and out of the building. There isn’t enough space for their adult children to stay and help them. Huang’s severe motion sickness also prevents the 81-year-old from riding on buses that can take her to local appointments or stores.

“We’re hoping to move to a bigger room with a restroom, and preferably close by to Chinatown so we don’t have to take a bus to see a doctor (or do other things),” Huang said in Taishanese. 

On multiple occasions the couple have applied to live in non-SRO affordable housing but were turned away each time due to a large volume of senior applicants and limited availability.

But perhaps in the upcoming years their luck will change.

San Francisco recently secured $33.5 million from the state to create 175 new apartment units on Pacific Avenue for low-income and formerly homeless seniors, an initiative dubbed the “New Asia Project.” The 15-story building will break ground in 2027 and once completed, will be Chinatown’s first affordable housing development in more than 20 years. 

The $170 million project will also include a banquet hall on the ground floor alongside community and office spaces. New Asia will be built less than a mile away from the couple’s Broadway apartment unit.

Funding comes from a mix of state and city dollars, and the recent money will help move New Asia forward in a timelier manner, according to Malcolm Yeung, Chinatown Community Development Center’s (CCDC) executive director. 

The CCDC is one of the pioneers of New Asia, and leads community advocacy, planning and affordable housing development efforts in San Francisco. 

“If we can do this, it can open the door for similar projects with similar benefits that can help Chinatown overall,” Yeung said. 

Huang and Zhu say they are relieved that more senior housing is on the way, but they can’t wait until the end of the decade for a new home. They recently turned in an application to live in an affordable housing complex on Dolores Street and are waiting to hear the results.

The city purchased the Pacific Avenue lot in 2017, with the specific goal of transforming it into an affordable housing site. The space currently houses New Asia, a former restaurant and banquet hall that turned into a grocery store during the pandemic.

The revitalized banquet hall will provide the Chinatown community with a space to socialize, while generating more revenue into the area, Yeung said. Chinatown used to have several large-scale banquet halls for locals to gather and celebrate. Over the years, a mix of pandemic-related and economical factors lead the halls to dwindle. 

In a press release Mayor Daniel Lurie called the project a “lifeline” for low-income seniors and thanked the CCDC and community for their persistence.

“(The project) is a commitment to the families of Chinatown and a promise that San Francisco will keep building housing for our seniors, our teachers, our workers, and our first responders, even when the process is hard,” Lurie said.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, roughly 30% of aging adults are renters who face more financial burdens spurred on by low incomes and rising housing. Meanwhile, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black and Latino/a renters are more likely to be extremely low-income and rent burdened.

For Asian American seniors in particular, the American Planning Association notes that factors including language barriers, limited access to culturally competent services and economic insecurity put them at a higher risk of displacement.

Chinese Tenant Association (TSA) president President Yihung Wong said many of its senior members are immigrants and worked hard for their families, community and city.  

“It’s unfair because they contributed to the city, and the city should take care of them when they retire,” Wong said in Cantonese. 

The CTA is a community-based tenant group that advocates for the rights of low-income tenants throughout San Francisco. 

According to a CTA survey answered by 970 of its members, around 47% of seniors can afford to pay $300 to $500 a month for rent. About 45% live in SROs, while only 27% live in affordable housing units within the city.

Many seniors in the area are cared for by their children, Wong said. By moving their parents into affordable and secure housing, the children can focus on work and other day-to-day duties.

“It releases the pressure from the next generation,” Wong said. “You benefit both the seniors and children.”