About AAFE

Through community development, Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) advances racial, social and economic justice for Asian Americans and other systemically disadvantaged communities, guided by our experiences as Asian Americans and our commitment to civil rights.

AAFE accomplishes its mission by creating affordable housing and economic opportunity, providing an array of multilingual community services and fostering grassroots leadership and civic engagement in the communities we serve throughout New York. We strive for an equitable city where all people live in vibrant and inclusive neighborhoods and have the opportunity to pursue their dreams and aspirations free from racial violence, poverty and discrimination.

In Manhattan’s Chinatown in 1974, AAFE’s founders helped shape the fledgling Asian American civil rights movement, successfully championing the employment rights of Asian American workers. Today Asian Americans for Equality is a comprehensive community development organization, but we remain deeply rooted in New York’s immigrant neighborhoods and dedicated to grassroots community advocacy.

We believe that people in New York’s underserved communities can only thrive when they have access to safe and stable affordable housing, essential social services and equitable resources to achieve economic mobility for their families.

For more than three decades, AAFE has been a community builder, developing affordable multifamily affordable housing and opportunities for first-time homebuyers. Through our affiliate, Renaissance Economic Development Corporation, AAFE provides low-interest loans, training and multilingual counseling services for small business owners. And we meet the changing needs of the community through linguistically and culturally appropriate tenant counseling, navigation services for government entitlement programs and affordable healthcare, immigration assistance, college access and youth leadership and grassroots community engagement and advocacy.

Asian Americans for Equality is part of the NeighborWorks network, an affiliation of more than 240 nonprofit organizations located in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The NeighborWorks network was founded and is supported by NeighborWorks America, which creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities.