VYDC

Our Neighborhood

The San Francisco Tenderloin (“TL” as it is commonly known) is home to an estimated 12,000 Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (Census 2000). According to the Fall/Winter 2003 issue of Asian Outlook a publication of the Asian Pacific Fund, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese have the highest level of poverty, reaching 54% in the Bay Area. Currently there are more then 30% Southeast Asian youth in the San Francisco School District; many of these youth are living in the Tenderloin.

The Tenderloin District is plagued by drug dealers, poor access to quality health care services, unsafe streets, high crime rates and overcrowding. Over the years, the TL has been quietly forgotten; however, the dissolution and poverty of this district still exists today and it still holds the residents captive in its grasps. The families that inhabit the Tenderloin are primarily Southeast Asians. Parents are usually forced to work multiple jobs just to pay rent or to buy groceries. Due to the constant survival mode of the family, there is very little time for parents to be with their children or to encourage them to stay in school. They are unable to move outside of their isolated neighborhood becasue they do not speak English well, are not familiar with the different social systems, and lack of access to new technology.

These families are at high risk for social problems and mental health disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, fearfulness, anxiety and conduct disorders are commonplace in parents and adult members of the family and often complicate and delay the acculturation and adjustment process in the United States. Intergenerational conflict exacerbates the stress already felt in these families and contributes to poor interpersonal relationships and increased mental health problems among Southeast Asian parents and teenagers. Because these communities do not encourage adults or youth to acknowledge problems within the family system, let alone admit to mental health problems or seek treatment, it is difficult to overcome this intergenerational conflict with traditional mental health services. A report by the SAAY Consortium (2003), a collaboration among community-based agencies that provide direct services to Asian and Pacific Islander youths in San Francisco, stated that there is a high need for outreach, information, and communication in appropriate languages for immigrant parents of Asian youths. The report also stated that youth and their families need a better system to connect them with a network of culturally-competent services.

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