Housing Works: Housing Prevents AIDS. Housing Improves Health.

Housing Prevents AIDS. Housing Saves Lives. Housing Works.

As our above slogan suggests, Housing Works is dedicated to fighting for housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. Why housing? Not only does society have a collective responsibility to house the poor (who make up the overwhelming majority of HIV cases in the U.S.), a growing body of evidence shows that housing for people with AIDS saves lives and saves money.

We’re proud of our accomplishments so far. For example, because of the efforts of Housing Works and allies, New York City is legally obligated to provide housing to poor people living with AIDS (read about Henrietta D. v Bloomberg on our litigation page). But the problem of housing for people living with HIV/AIDS is far from solved in New York and elsewhere.

• New York City’s definition of who has AIDS means too few people get housing they need to remain healthy.
• A cruel Pataki-era policy means that those who do receive housing must subsist on $11 a day
• Nationally, AIDS housing is woefully underfunded
• Internationally, we are just beginning to have the housing conversation

In accordance with the United Nations’ “International Declaration on Poverty, Homelessness, and HIV/AIDS” (signed by the United States), Housing Works is fighting to make housing a human right. The declaration reads:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of him [or her] self and of his [or her] family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his [or her] control.