Thomas Yu hadn't planned on a career in community development. But as an immigrant growing up in lower Manhattan, there was something about it that felt right.
"My family lived in affordable housing, so that theme runs throughout my life," says Yu, who serves as co-executive director of Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) with Jennifer Sun. "There's a strong belief in my family that the pathway to security and economic mobility starts with a safe and affordable place to live."
Yu's family moved to New York from Hong Kong. They originally settled in Chinatown before moving to the nearby Lower East Side. Yu grew up there until he went to college, studying international relations and military security at Harvard University. Despite being away at school, his community was never far from his heart and mind. During summer break in 1997, he worked as an AAFE intern, where everything he did benefited his community.
After graduation, Yu worked in the private sector, in arts curation and journalism. He also wrote short fiction, and his writing explored changing neighborhoods. He wondered about the people he'd known as a child, what happened to them over time and where they ended up.
"I was one who had been able to leave the public housing we were in. I was able to get a good education," he says. Wanting a job that "moved the needle" for his Chinatown community, Yu went to NYU to study urban planning. While in graduate school, he called his former supervisor at AAFE. "I was studying land use assessment and needed some maps that he had." His supervisor needed boxes moved. To Yu, that sounded like a fair trade, but he got much more out of the deal. He ended up moving those boxes, got the maps and a part-time job shadowing project managers.
"That was in 2001, right after 9/11," Yu says. "AAFE was working to help rebuild Lower Manhattan and I worked on the first affordable housing project to be built in the disaster security zone." Twenty years later, he is still with AAFE, having worked in various roles, from property management to tenant organizing. He grew as the organization did.
"He understood the positive impact our work has in the community," recalls Frank Lang, Yu's supervisor in those early days and now Director of Housing for St. Nicks Alliance. "He understood what the objective was in trying to make a difference for residents. He had the ability to work with everyone: residents, peers and partners. And he was good at multi-tasking."
In 2018, Yu and his co-executive director Jennifer Sun officially took the reins of the organization. "We were compatible," Yu says. "Neither of us had an ego, we both had a background in planning, and both had young children at home." Together, they led AAFE, which now has more than 100 employees, to be a more family friendly workplace.
"Thomas knows the community we serve really well," says Sun. "He has real expertise as a longtime advocate for immigrant communities." Yu's advocacy is also shown through his involvement with the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, a coalition AAFE helped create. The member organizations work to help Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who are living in poverty. Yu is co-chair of the board.
He is ever mindful of AAFE's start, seeking fair hiring practices and rallying for racial justice and equal opportunities in Chinatown. AAFE's staff members fought for Asian Americans and other systemically disadvantaged communities. They still do. Their mission is to ensure and provide safe places to live, and more. "We want to reinforce the ideals of being involved in a neighborhood – in civic engagement."
Yu recalls living in neglected tenement housing as a child. "Immigrant families don't always know where to go to create change," he says. "Or where to go for help. But we had a neighbor who was an organizer, rallying tenants together to promote change and fight for building repairs." It was new to Yu at the time, and he learned from it. "I learned that if folks are engaged, they're given the tools on how to affect change, they're willing to take things into their own hands." They can have a say in their own fates, proclaiming, "We want better. This is how we can do it."
Under Yu's and Sun's leadership, the nonprofit has created new affordable housing while keeping older units affordable for a total of 1,200 over 90 buildings in the city. The organization has expanded from lower Manhattan to encompass the entire city. AAFE has been involved in disaster recovery after 9/11 and providing loans and helping clients make a comeback after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Those experiences prepared the nonprofit to launch a COVID-19 emergency response fund before governmental help was available. Over the past year, that fund provided approximately $5 million to more than 270 small businesses struggling from pandemic shutdowns.
Outside of the pandemic, they've counseled more than 5,000 entrepreneurs over the past 15 years, particularly immigrant entrepreneurs, providing loans and training programs, while also providing counseling and education programs for tenants, seniors and immigrant youth. "People are pursuing the American dream," Yu says. "That's one of the biggest avenues for our community for upward mobility.
"Home is where we are anchored," he says. "It's a starting place for many of us. It can be nurturing or it could be traumatic or a testing ground. It can be all of those things at the same time. Home is something that shapes us." Yu wants home to be as safe and stable as possible for as many people as possible. In last year's NeighborWorks America Housing and Financial Capability Survey, 50% of Asians said their home did not feel safe or secure, while 44% of Blacks and 44% of Latinos shared the same sentiment.
Partners have shared knowledge and expertise to help AAFE move forward over the years. So have organizations like NeighborWorks America. Yu's plans for the future are to make sure AAFE does the same for other nonprofits. "Our founders … started protesting and rallying for more opportunity and equal treatment in Chinatown," he says. "We remember that part of our DNA." As more emerging groups – Caribbean immigrants, South American immigrants, South Asian immigrants – make New York their home, Yu and Sun want to help provide the information they need to create more affordable, safe places to live. "We want to be able to help others get in that field – the more the merrier."
Over the summer, AAFE plans to have a neighborhood exchange, where volunteers will work to beautify neighborhoods next door to one another. "We'll work across neighborhoods, across racial lines, to bring tangible healing between communities," Yu says.
A lesson learned from over the years, he says, is to "keep an ear to the ground, to listen to staff and clients and to elevate voices. Often, the answers on what to do come from the people you're trying to help."
Recently, Asian-American communities have dealt with xenophobia, stoked by fear of the virus and anti-Asian sentiment. Members of Yu's immediate community have been victims of racist rhetoric and violence. A focus this year is finding ways to keep the community safe and to look out for one another, which includes additional training
One way Yu hopes to bolster the community is by bringing art and culture to Chinatown's Forsyth Plaza, near the Manhattan Bridge. Chinatown has the lowest open-space ratio, per person, in the city. Yu says turning the plaza into a long-term arts and performance space will utilize an area that is empty after dark and bring economic activity at the same time. But it will also bring the community much-needed joy, starting with an art installation at the end of May. He says, "We want to reclaim spaces to say, ‘We are not afraid.' We are here, as a people."
Another hope he has for the future is to build a robust, urban planning "academy" for young students from the neighborhoods AAFE serves. "For many who grew up in the city like me, very few are aware even of this field or consider it as a career choice," Yu says. "It's extremely rewarding and has real positive impact for affecting change in the places we grew up in."
05/03/2021
