Neighborhood Centers Inc.’s new community center in the Gulfton neighborhood – a key component of our New Century Campaign – will function much like a village market, providing a central gathering place where neighbors can easily come together to access the resources they need.

The complete “Gulfton marketplace” will:

• Provide much-needed educational programs for families to increase English proficiency, improve young children’s school performance and help adults gain skills and knowledge for citizenship, business ownership and more.
   

• Create a neighborhood network allowing individuals and leaders to harness the energy and knowledge of the community.
   

• Serve as an incubator for economic development to help immigrants transition into Houston’s economic and social systems.
   

Today’s Gulfton is a true melting pot of cultures, with extended families from Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia all living together in apartments once popular with singles. They come to Gulfton for a new life and the opportunity to pursue their dreams. Often, they find only hardship.

Though most Houstonians aren’t aware of the “new Ellis Island” in their midst, the statistics tell the story:

• More than 90 percent of the immigrant families living in Gulfton rent from one of the many huge apartment complexes in the neighborhood. With so many large families sharing single apartments, Gulfton has enormous population density, with about 16,000 persons per square mile – roughly eight times that of Harris County and three times that of Houston’s inner-loop.
   

• While 70 percent of males and 55 percent of females are employed, many are underemployed. They live paycheck-to-paycheck with nearly half earning incomes below $25,000.
   

• Approximately 40 percent of the families with young children in Gulfton live below the poverty level. Few benefit from any form of public assistance.
   

Sixty-two percent of households have school age or preschool children; less than half of the adults in the area graduated from high school. And 53 percent do not speak English well.

Despite the difficult living conditions, the Gulfton area has tremendous assets. The neighborhood’s residents share a tangible passion for a better life and an entrepreneurial spirit that belies their current status.