Betty Kwan Chinn

Betty Kwan Chinn (關惠群) is a Chinese American philanthropist and homelessness advocate based in Eureka, California. Since the 1980s, she has provided food, shelter, and support services to people experiencing homelessness in Humboldt County. She founded the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation, whose programs have included a day center, family shelter, transitional housing, public showers, and street outreach. In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Early life Betty Kwan Chinn was born to a wealthy family in Hoiping (Kaiping), Guangdong. Hoiping (Kaiping) is well-known as a hometown of overseas Chinese. She was possibly born in 1959 (as her birth certificate was lost, this can no longer be confirmed). She was labeled as a member of the "Five Black Categories" during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She witnessed her elder brother and sister-in-law being executed by gunfire. At the age of seven, she became a homeless child, scavenging for food in garbage piles. According to biographer Karen M. Price, Chinn escaped mainland China with three of her siblings and reached Hong Kong after crossing Deep Bay. Although her time in Hong Kong was brief, she was deeply inspired by seeing the Cantonese opera star Sun Ma Sze Tsang come out every year to do charity work and raise funds for Tung Wah Group of Hospitals.

Immigration and life in the United States After arriving in San Francisco, Chinn stayed briefly with relatives. She later moved to Seattle to live with another sister. While her sister and brother-in-law were at work, Chinn began learning English by watching Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. She later married Leung Chinn, a physics and mathematics professor at Humboldt State University, and the couple settled in Eureka.

Community outreach Chinn’s outreach began while she was working at Lafayette Elementary School, after she learned that a student’s family was living in a station wagon. She began providing food to the family and later expanded her work to other people experiencing homelessness.

In 2006, community fundraising paid for a food-safe catering truck known as Betty’s Blue Angel, allowing her to distribute prepared food throughout Humboldt County.

Following the death of a man who drowned while attempting to bathe in Humboldt Bay, Chinn put the grant accompanying her Minerva Award toward a public shower and laundry facility developed with the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. The facility opened in April 2010.

Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation The Betty Kwan Chinn Day Center opened on November 16, 2013, offering services to people experiencing poverty or homelessness. The center has offered case management, employment assistance, computer and mail access, adult education, and after-school programming for children.

In 2020, the Betty Kwan Chinn Foundation stopped receiving donation items due to the coronavirus pandemic. The foundation offered 100 free packed meals on weekdays at its Eureka-based center.

By 2022, the foundation's facilities included Betty's House, a 32-bed family shelter, and Betty's Blue Angel Village, a temporary housing facility constructed from shipping containers.

In 2025, Bayside Village opened in Eureka as a transitional housing community with capacity for approximately 38 people. The Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation helped manage the site during its first year, serving residents who had previously lived in encampments along the Waterfront Trail.

Awards and honors In 2002, Chinn was a co-recipient of the Humboldt County Peacemaker Prize, presented by the Eureka Interfaith Fellowship.

In 2008, Chinn received the Minerva Award.

In 2022, Cal Poly Humboldt awarded Chinn an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.

In 2023, Chinn was named by Carnegie Corporation of New York as an honoree of the Great Immigrants Awards.