"We couldn't have hung in for this long, hard fight without the support of everyone who helps us stand up for homeless people with AIDS," said Housing Works CEO Charles King.

May 26, 2005--The City of New York will pay almost $5 million to the nonprofit group Housing Works to settle several lawsuits alleging that Giuliani administration officials unlawfully cut off the group's housing and social services contracts to punish it for its aggressive, vocal advocacy on behalf of New Yorkers living with AIDS and HIV.

After hearing the good news, Charles King, president and CEO of Housing Works and a leader of many of the group's street demonstrations, thanked the many people who have supported Housing Works in the years the suit was pending through their direct donations, purchases at Housing Works' Thrift Stores and Used Bookstore Cafe, in-kind labor and more. "We couldn't have hung in for this long, hard fight without the help of our donors, volunteers and everyone else who helps us stand up for homeless people with AIDS," said King, who also expressed gratitude to Housing Works staff and clients, always at the ready to mobilize publicly (and loudly!) for the rights of people with HIV/AIDS.

Housing Works will receive $4.8 million in settlement of two federal cases, Housing Works v. Giuliani and Housing Works v. Turner, filed after welfare officials cut off housing, job training, and supportive services contracts to the group in 1997.

Testimony taken in preparation for trial in the cases showed that top officials in the Office of the Mayor, the Human Resources Administration, and Mayor Giuliani's re-election campaign kept a close watch over protests, class-action lawsuits, and other advocacy work carried out by Housing Works. City officials then took a number of hostile and retaliatory actions against the group for exercising such free-speech rights, including cutting off existing service contracts and blocking access to city, state and federal antipoverty funds...