Harris County Commissioners creates first Asian American, Pacific Islander commission

A new Harris County commission—which was created during the Dec. 10 county commissioner’s court—will target topics such as health and safety for Asian American and Pacific Islander residents throughout the county.

The big picture

The population of Asian Harris County residents grew 53% across the Houston metro area from 2010 to 2020, according to Dec. 10 Harris County Commissioners Court meeting documents. This growth was almost three times larger than the overall population growth in the area.

According to the meeting documents, the new Harris County Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission will:

• Advise commissioner’s court on disparities in health, economic outcomes and safety that Asian American and Pacific Islander residents face
• Work with Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations and residents
• Focus on advancing policies that matter to Asian American and Pacific Islander residents and communities

Notable quote

During the Dec. 10 court meeting, state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, spoke in favor of the Harris County Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission. Wu said he hopes the commission can “find the missing parts” for what the Asian American community needs to be better served.

“Our community has unusual issues that other communities don’t deal with,” Wu said. “We have an incredible diversity of not only national origin, but ethnic, cultural [and] language differences even within one country of origin. ... We also have issues where our community really, really does not like to talk about things like mental health issues, domestic violence and all of these things that our community must address in order to be happy and healthy and prosperous.”

Some context

The county has other commissions such as:

• African American Cultural Heritage Commission
• Harris County Hispanic Cultural Heritage Commission
• Harris County LGBTQIA+ Commission
• Harris County Women’s Commission

More information, including bylaws and representative nominations, will be presented at commissioners court as the commission is set up, according to meeting documents.

On Dec. 10, commissioners also expressed interest in creating a future commission to represent Indigenous Americans.