Koreatown Social Services Lacking, Study Finds

The Los Angeles Korean community is increasing so rapidly that social services available to meet its needs are way behind, according to a United Way study.

The recently completed “Koreatown Profile Study Report” by the umbrella charity agency showed that the fourth-largest Asian Pacific group in Los Angeles County had grown 700% (from 8,500 to 60,618) between 1970 and 1980. Estimates since then put the area-wide total at 250,000.

The study said “the Korean population in Los Angeles is underserved,” with a shortage of job, health and social service programs.

Local Koreans have often pointed out the same thing, but the study now “lends credibility” to Korean problems from an outside source, Col. Young O. Kim said.

Kim, a retired U.S. Army officer who chaired a committee of Koreans that worked with United Way on the two-year study, said he hopes its value will be to “focus attention” on the community.

The study centered on the area including and surrounding Koreatown, bounded by Vermont Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Crenshaw Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard.

On the basis of surveys of 664 people and 88 local social service agencies, the study found:

- Local Koreans tend to be young, with a high proportion below 39 years of age, and in the United States less than 10 years.

- Income levels are low-to-middle income, with 40% earning less than $12,000 a year.

- The most needed social services identified were employment, health and mental health.

“The area of mental health was one of the most important,” said Sirel Foster, director of planning at United Way, who oversaw the study. “Most of the services do not have the language capability (to speak with Koreans), so they’re not available to Koreans because of that.”

“The study is trying to bring awareness of this significant population,” Foster said.

The study recommends programs to help Koreans better adapt to American society, to acquaint the general public with Korean culture, and more job and social service programs.

In recent months, however, there has been greater attention paid the Korean community. Last November, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $100,000 grant to set up an economic development project for Koreatown. The city Planning Department also assigned a planner to study the area.

Last September, the Board of Library Commissioners approved an unusual proposal to construct not only a new library for the Korean community, housing books in the Korean language, but a second new building, on the same site, for the Korean Youth Center.

The center is the community’s only service for Korean children and teen-agers, and had outgrown its existing offices in Koreatown to such a degree, director Jane Kim once said, that clients were being interviewed in the parking lot.

One other service, the Asian-Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center, also said that it is overburdened in trying to deal with the problems of Koreans.

The center, run by the Los Angeles County Mental Health Services, has three Korean-speaking professionals.

But the demands for services by Koreans are so great, director John Hatakeyama said, they had to shut down the waiting list: “We haven’t been able to open intake for six months.”