AIDS Issues Update Blog
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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 …
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 12:11 pm
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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, …
Posted on April 12, 2012 at 4:39 pm
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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 …
Posted on April 12, 2012 at 3:31 pm
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Brooklyn and Bronx Rank Last in NYS Healthy Counties
Look at the map above. You’ll see it shows most of the people diagnosed with HIV in NYC last year were in South Bronx and Central Brooklyn. It should come as no surprise that a new study released last week measured the overall health of each county, found that of the 62 counties in New York State, Brooklyn ranks 54 and the Bronx ranks dead last at 62.
Metro NY interviewed the lead author of the study, Kate Konkle of the University of Wisconsin, who reported “many different factors affect health, from individual decisions to smoke to not having access to high-quality health care and healthy food.
‘Where we live matters to our health — and when you look at these …
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 1:50 pm
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ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Hits 3,240
As of April 5th, the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs had hit 3,240 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 week, and including it in our …
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 10:57 am
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East New York Community Health Center Celebrates Expansion with Ribbon Cutting
Housing Works celebrated the newly renovated East New York Community Health Center with a hot-pink ribbon cutting and tour of the new facility.
About one-hundred Housing Works clients, staff, and community allies gathered outside the health center on Pitkin Avenue in East New York to celebrate the center’s re-opening, which will now serve all people regardless of HIV status, a first for Housing Works’ health service programs. The $500,000 renovation will more than double clients to reach 2,600 new users (about 10,552 medical visits annually), 80% who will be homeless, .
“In order to accomplish our mission of ending the dual crises of HIV and homelessness, we need to be able to offer health care to people before they become HIV-positive,” …
Posted on April 4, 2012 at 2:30 pm
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NYC Data Shows Drop in 2010 HIV Rates But Disparities Remain
This week, NYC released a series of slide sets detailing the HIV infections in 2010. While the overall rates of HIV have dropped in the city, many of the same disparities still persist. Here’s 10 things to remember about AIDS in New York:
- 1 – NYC has much higher numbers of new HIV diagnoses than other cities, but the rate of people with HIV is much lower than cities like Washington, DC, Miami, Atlanta, and Baltimore.
- 2 – About 90% of transgender women (male-to-female) and transgender men (female-to-male) diagnosed with HIV were Black or Hispanic.
- 3 – 20% of people with HIV had progressed to AIDS at the time …
Posted on April 4, 2012 at 11:14 am
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White House Announces Working Group On Women, HIV and Violence Issues
One month after the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) featured women activists calling for more focus on women and girls in the National AIDS Strategy, the Obama Administration has announced working group to begin exploring ways to better respond to the needs of women in the HIV epidemic.
“The Working Group shall coordinate agency efforts to address issues involving the intersection of HIV/AIDS, violence against women and girls, and gender related health disparities,” said President Obama, in a memo posted on the White House website.
Whether this “coordination” will lead to increased funding for HIV treatment, services and care delivery for women remains to be seen. But something has to shift. Last month, a study released …
Posted on April 3, 2012 at 5:35 pm
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