Chinatown Seniors Get Nursing, Social Work At Their Building

CHINATOWN, NY — A Chinatown apartment building was formally designated as a senior housing complex, spurring additional resources for nursing and social work services, Council Member Margaret Chin announced Friday.

Confucius Plaza was named a "naturally occurring retirement community" after 44 years in the neighborhood, where more than 1,600 residents live. The non-profit Hamilton-Madison House will launch The Joy Peace Center at Confucius Plaza to lead social work, nursing, and wellness and art programs for seniors at the Chinatown apartment complex to help them live independently as they age.

"Today, we're bringing more resources for seniors at Confucius Plaza to continue to live independently in their homes and in the Chinatown community they love," Chin said in a statement.

"With the senior population projected to double in the next decade, our City needs to step up to support innovative programming to help more seniors age with dignity in the communities they helped to build," Chin added.

NORCs, as these buildings are known, are where families moved in when they were young, often raised children, and stayed after their children moved out. The senior buildings are scattered throughout Lower Manhattan, where older New Yorkers are offered various services on-site to help them stay in their homes. At Confucius Plaza, about 81 percent of the more than 760 apartments have at least one adult older than 60-years-old living in them, and 106 residents are more than 90-years-old.

The president of the apartment complex and a longtime resident, Lok Sang Mui, said, "Our elderly neighbors love living here and want to stay."

"At Confucius Plaza we want to do all we can to help them remain in our community, where many have lived for more than 30 years," Mui said.

Chin funded some $100,000 to launch the Joy Peace Center at Confucius Plaza, at 17 Bowery, according to her office. The cash for Confucius Plaza's new programming was among some $2.8 million for NORCs citywide that Chin led to secure in the City Council's budget this year, her office said.

"Chinatown is the heart of the city for thousands of older Chinese New Yorkers, but it is getting harder for them to live here," executive director of Hamilton-Madison House Isabel Ching said in a statement. "Our job is to help them live out their lives in the homes they love, surrounded by the friends and neighbors they have known for decades."