Mutual Assistance Network

DEL PASO HEIGHTS OVERVIEW

Del Paso Heights is a well-defined neighborhood located just north of downtown Sacramento.  Bordered by Interstate 80 on the north, Arcade Creek on the south, Marysville Boulevard on the east and the railroad tracks on the west, Del Paso Heights is a residential community characterized by small, single-family homes situated on relatively large plots of land.  There are two school districts in the area that include three elementary schools, one junior high and one high school.  There are many churches, three community centers, one police substation, one public library, and relatively few businesses.

Ethnically Del Paso Heights is very diverse.  Of the 14,252 residents counted in the 2000 U.S. Census, 31 percent are African-American, 17 percent are Caucasian, 30 percent are Asian and Pacific Islander, and 16 percent are Latino.  Del Paso Heights is home to many different languages, with over one-third of the entire population speaking a language other than English in the home.  The most common languages are: Spanish (14.1%), Hmong (10.7%), other Asian and Pacific Islander (5.75%) and Russian (1.76%); however, almost 75% of the population is native born. 

A look at family composition shows that there are a large number of single-parent households in Del Paso Heights.  Thirty percent of all the households in the neighborhood are headed by single parents, compared to 17.5 percent countywide.  Twenty-three percent of the children living in Del Paso Heights live in female-headed households, while seven percent live in male-headed households.  Additionally, there are 501 grandparents (5.7% of all households) responsible for raising their grandchildren. 

In 2000, when the median income for Sacramento County was $43,816, 72.8% of Del Paso Heights households had an annual income of less than $40,000.  Additionally, one in four households in Del Paso Heights received some form of public assistance in 1999, comparable to only one in twenty households for the surrounding three-county region, and the 1997-98 student data for Grant High School shows that 100 percent of the students are eligible to receive a free or reduced price lunch, compared to 25 percent for the County.  Of the 129 businesses in the community, 12% are African-American while 6% are Hmong owned.

The current program focus on Hmong and African American individuals is based on the current enrollment of 363 participants MAN employment services of which 58.67% are African-American, while 9.97% are Hmong. Of those employed approximately 24 have health insurance through their positions.  Of the 213 African American clients, there only about 7% receive health insurance through employment. While the Hmong clients receive only 4% of  which receive health insurance via their employment. MAN has chosen to focus on the Hmong and African-American population because they represent the two largest ethnic groups in the Del Paso Heights community. 

Del Paso Heights faces challenges in other areas as well.  The neighborhood also has a much higher rate of child abuse (69.5%) and teen pregnancy (16%) than the County (56.8% and 11%, respectively).
But there are many encouraging signs in Del Paso Heights.  MAN has created an informal Neighborhood System: a network of agencies and organizations that serve the residents of Del Paso Heights.  With this informal network, services were no longer fractured and competitive, but complementary.  As agencies have grown to support one another, so too have they contributed to the widespread health of the community.  The crime rate, while still high, has come down dramatically over the past several years.  Grant High School has recently matched or exceeded County equivalents in several areas, including the percentage of graduates completing UC and CSU course requirements.  The number of employment opportunities, while still low, has also grown substantially.  The percentage of low birth weight babies born to neighborhood mothers has also decreased to the point that it now equals that of the County.