Features Blog
-
Mayor Bloomberg’s Executive Budget Tramples on Basic Human Rights
Housing Works expressed outrage today that Mayor Bloomberg’s executive budget failed to restore a more than $1 million cut to the city’s supportive AIDS housing services and a half-million dollars to HASA’s critical food and nutrition program for people living with AIDS, currently run by the Momentum Project.
“Access to food, access to stable housing—these are the most basic human rights on which Mayor Bloomberg proposes to trample,” said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King.
In addition, the budget includes a misguided plan to save $4 million in 2012 by slashing broker’s fee subsidies for Human Resources Administration clients. When HRA clients find private market apartments to rent, HRA will only pay broker’s fees of up …
Posted on May 9, 2011 at 3:57 pm
-
ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Hits 7,873
As of May 5, the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs had hit 7,873 people across 11 states.
The number of people waiting to receive medication through state-run AIDS drug programs has increased 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 Friday morning newsletter.
-
U.S. Senate to Consider Historic AIDS Housing Resolution
Eleven senators are backing a resolution that recognizes the key role housing plays in preventing and treating AIDS.
The resolution, S. 162, was introduced Wednesday and is sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Its co-sponsors are Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Al Franken (D-MN), John Kerry (D-MA), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
The resolution’s introduction is a small step toward a larger victory for those who view housing as a critical tool to fighting HIV/AIDS. A year ago, the House passed the same resolution.
A document passed by both legislative houses would be “not just historic, but strategic,” said Nancy Bernstine, executive director of the …
Posted on May 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm
-
Gearing Up for Bloomberg Budget Release, Advocates Call for AIDS Funding Restoration
With two days to go before Mayor Bloomberg is expected to release the next version of his budget, advocates for low-income people with HIV met with city council members and their representatives to explain how more than $10 million in cuts to AIDS services would hurt people with HIV.
Bloomberg’s 2012 budget proposes three major cuts to AIDS services: $1.4 million fewer dollars for supportive housing case management; $8.48 million fewer dollars for case workers at the HIV/AIDS Services Administration; and $477,000 fewer dollars for the Momentum Project, a food program that has already closed four of its locations this year.
At the briefing, VOCAL-New York board member and HIV-positive Brooklynite Wayne Starks explained to council members that …
Posted on May 3, 2011 at 8:02 pm
-
Action Alert: On May 12, Make Big Banks and Millionaires Pay
On Thursday, May 12, Housing Works will join thousands of New Yorkers to send a loud, clear message to Mayor Bloomberg: Stop the budget cuts and make big banks pay their fair share.
Big banks crashed our economy, destroying jobs and foreclosing on millions of homes. Taxpayers paid for their bailout, but now Wall Street is making billions in profits and doling out record bonuses. Meanwhile, Housing Works clients and many of our fellow New Yorkers are still hurting—and billionaire Bloomberg has proposed devastating cuts.
Enough is enough. There is no revenue crisis, there is an inequality crisis.
That’s why a coalition of working people, students, seniors, people on public assistance and community activists will descend on Wall Street and create a giant classroom without …
Posted on May 3, 2011 at 2:48 pm
-
City Homeless Numbers (Surprise!) Convince No One
New York City’s Department of Homeless Services has released the results of its annual street homeless count and—surprise!—the city is reporting an overall 15 percent drop in street homelessness.
According to DHS, Brooklyn led the way, with a whopping 43 percent drop in street homelessness since 2010. The Bronx reported a 34 percent reduction; Manhattan, a 31 percent reduction; Staten Island, a 27 percent reduction; and Queens, a 9 percent reduction.
We’d laugh, except that we expected this. Each year, the city conducts the federally mandated street homeless count—and then uses the results to demonstrate how it is fighting homelessness. Unfortunately, DHS fails to mention in the release of this year’s results that the number of people in shelters has soared …
Posted on May 2, 2011 at 7:29 pm
-
ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Hits 7,762
As of April 28, the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs had hit 7,762 people across 11 states.
The number of people waiting to receive medication through state-run AIDS drug programs has increased nearly 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 Friday morning newsletter.
-
Federal Judge Orders Bloomberg to Restore AIDS Funding
In a major win for New Yorkers who depend on the city’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration, a federal judge ruled that she will not allow the Bloomberg administration to make a massive staff cut to the agency.
“There cannot be reductions in HASA staff, there just cannot be,” Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak announced at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court.
Earlier this month, Housing Works and co-counsel Matthew Brinckerhoff (of Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff & Abady), the HIV Law Project, and attorney Virginia Shubert filed for a temporary restraining order against both New York City and New York State, a move meant to stop the illegal implementation of a proposed Bloomberg budget cut to HASA. That cut would have been devastating, chopping 254 …
Posted on April 27, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Donate Today
Join our healing community by becoming a member today
