The New York City Budget

Since 1990, Housing Works has fought for funding to maintain and improve the safety net for poor New York City residents living with HIV/AIDS.

New York City’s mayors wield a great deal of fiscal power (which means taking on such notoriously tough customers as Rudolph Giuliani). Every year when the city’s mayor releases a budget proposal, Housing Works staff and clients analyze how the plan will affect people living with HIV/AIDS, and we respond accordingly.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has consistently tried to slash funding for AIDS services. His 2012 budget would have chopped more than $5 million for supportive housing services for clients of the city’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration. He also proposed eliminating the Momentum Project, a 26-year-old meals program for people living with HIV.

Thanks to relentless advocacy—including protests at City Hall—those cuts didn’t happen. Instead, City Council members used their own discretionary funds to pay for both supportive housing and the Momentum Project.

When Bloomberg releases the 2013 budget in spring 2012, we’ll be ready to take action.

Read related blog posts

Photo Essay: For People With AIDS, A Sanctuary In Peril

For 26 years, the Momentum Project has provided millions of meals to poor New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. If Mayor Bloomberg’s budget goes through as proposed, however, he will eliminate the project’s entire grant—which totals less than $1 million—forcing the program to shut down.

Momentum provides more than 200,000 meals each …
Read More »

June 6, 2011
NYC Council and Mayor Reach Budget Agreement; Supportive Housing, Momentum Project Restored

After weeks of City Council budget negotiations, Speaker Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg came to an agreement late Friday on the city budget. The good news? Although the city has not released official budget documents, representatives of City Council members have said the council will fully restore funding for HASA’s supportive …
Read More »

June 27, 2011