HRA Commish Doar to Force HASA Dependents to Work

Rather that overtly state his overall plan for drastically cutting the HASA caseload, it seems that HRA Commissioner Robert Doar prefers to slip major HASA policy changes out in news stories piece by piece. They’re often covered up by other verbiage that you have to pick through to find. It’s like using ketchup to cover the taste of rotting meat.

Doar has served up steak again. Last week, AIDS activists learned that HASA “is also introducing work requirements for the 1,300 able-bodied adult dependents, most of them adult children of AIDS patients,” as scribbled in a larger piece by Kay S. Hymowitz for City Journal, the “news” magazine published by the right-wing think tank Manhattan Institute.

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Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:19 pm

Advocates Seek Ban on Condoms as Evidence of Prostitution

By: Carmelita Cruz, Director of NYS Advocacy & Organizing for Housing Works

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 marked the first annual No Condoms as Evidence lobby day!

The bill (S.323 Montgomery/A.1008 Clark) would ban the introduction of unused condoms as evidence of solicitation, prostitution or related offenses in any criminal proceeding.

Currently, in New York City, and large cities across the nation like Washington, DC and San Francisco, police are performing stop and frisk searches of people and confiscating or destroying condoms they find. Unused condoms are also being used as evidence in criminal proceedings.

In a 2010 NYC Department of Health survey of people who were or were perceived to be involved in the sex trades, over …

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Posted on April 19, 2012 at 10:00 am

New Bill Seeks to Make Child Care “Work” for Welfare

While our NYC HRA Commissioner Doar is trying to make the college-aged kids (“adult dependents’) work for household HASA assistance, a new bill was introduced in Congress that would make the child rearing that a single parent does count as “work” for the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program (commonly known as welfare).

The Women’s Option to Raise Kids Act (WORK Act) was introduced today by Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), would “amend TANF law to recognize the critical job of raising children age three or younger as work. Under the legislation, low-income parents could work, receive job training, search for work, or raise their children until they are school-aged without fear of losing TANF …

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Posted on April 18, 2012 at 4:17 pm

ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Hits 3,097

As of April 12th, the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs had hit 3,097 people across 10 states.

The number of people waiting to receive medication through state-run AIDS drug programs has increased more than 5,000 percent since August 2009, according to the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. The federal government has reacted with little urgency, however, allotting just $25 million in additional dollars to the program for FY 2012.

To help readers keep tabs on the growing ADAP crisis, we are now posting the ADAP Watch—the document that tracks increasing cuts to the program—each …

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Posted on April 17, 2012 at 12:13 pm

My Advocacy Trip To Albany For GENDA

I was extremely proud and happy to be a part of a large group of Housing Works members, both staff and clients, who drove to and from Albany from NYC on Tuesday, 3/13/12. Our mission had been to meet with various New York state senators and assemblymen/women to promote GENDA – Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act. Our focus during the meetings had been to inform and remind our NY politicians that GENDA is, at its core, a human rights and civil rights issue and that we, as supporters of the bill only want these basic civil rights acknowledged and upheld for our transgender and gender non-conforming sisters and brothers.

The entire trip gave me and all in attendance a sense of …

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Posted on April 16, 2012 at 12:11 pm

Housing Works Joins ACT-UP 25th Anniversary NYC Demonstration

Housing Works will once again join forces with AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT-UP), to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the organization that gave birth to Housing Works. The massive demonstration and march will take place on Wednesday, April 25th, starting at 11am at City Hall and ending on Wall Street. Hundreds of protestors are expected to converge for a day-long siege in Lower Manhattan to demand local, national and international governments target the 1% to fix the global economic crisis, and to end budget-balancing on the backs of poor people with HIV.

“ACT-UP formed 25 years ago to demand that NYC and the nation put resources into helping people with AIDS access basic care and services,” said Charles King, …

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Posted on April 12, 2012 at 4:39 pm

NYC Council Calls for $6.2 Mill HASA Increase in City Budget

This came in late Thursday afternoon so we don’t have time to provide a full analysis of what it means. But we wanted to provide our readers with the information as soon as possible.

The NYC Council published its response to Mayor Bloomberg’s budget and is calling for an increase in HASA funds, and an investigation into the impact of the HASA broker’s fee reduction. They write:

However, HRA now proposes funding cuts which would fund HASA programs in Fiscal 2013 at almost Fiscal 2002 levels. These cuts would undoubtedly reduce the availability of services and undermine Local Law 49. The Council does not agree with HRA’s claims that the services provided by HASA case managers and contracted supportive …

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