| The East End neighborhood of Houston, Texas, is a historic and culturally diverse community. The 25-square-mile area, where Houston Community College-Southeast (HCCSE) is located, is home to two of Houston's oldest Hispanic neighborhoods and features the city's first Chinatown. It also is part of Houston's Enhanced Enterprise Community.
East End residents face a variety of challenges. More than 60 percent of residents do not have a high school diploma, while almost half (44 percent) have less than a ninth grade education. Crime is increasing among young people. There are approximately 500 active gang members in the East End neighborhood, according to local government reports. Sixty-eight percent of the gang members are young people under 18, and 66 percent are Hispanic females. The housing stock is deteriorating. The East End had 3,414 fewer housing units in 1990 than it had 10 years earlier. Almost half of the total housing units are renter-occupied. There is a lack of adequate childcare. A majority of parents who live and work in the area need some type of childcare service. Often, however, neighborhood childcare centers are filled to capacity or parents do not qualify to receive services at reduced rates.
HCCSE is working with its community partners to develop a micro enterprise center or "eCenter," that offers entrepreneurial and job training in information technology specialties; life skills training in such areas as financial literacy and personal management; and support services such as daycare and micro loans. The eCenter is a collaborative effort between HCCSE, the Community Technology Initiative, Houston READ Commission, Housing Opportunities of Houston, Sociedad Mutualistia Obrera Mexicana, East End Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Gulf Coast Workforce Board, Housing Technology Center, International eCommerce Inc., and ACCION, a private, nonprofit micro lender.
Thirteen of Houston's 20 census tracts have a population that is 75 percent Hispanic. The East End became predominately Hispanic during the 1980s, when the area's population declined due to the economic downturn in the oil and gas industry. While the East End lost 5 percent of its long-time, White and African-American residents during this decade, it gained more than 9,500 Hispanic residents, or 14 percent of the current Hispanic population. Average annual per capita income is $6,411 and the area has a poverty rate of 35 percent.
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