Housing Works: Housing Prevents AIDS. Housing Improves Health.

Puerto Rico: Medical Care

Despite the fact that injection drug users account for a majority of new infections in Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican government does not use any of the AIDS funding that it receives from the United States on drug-user HIV prevention.

Since 2008, Housing Works has provided technical and fiscal assistance to the Proyecto Casa de Ayuda Intermedia al Menesteroso (CAIM). Located in Fajardo, CAIM provides syringe exchange and food to its clients, as well as links to health care, education, risk-reduction counseling and referrals for social entitlements, rehabilitation/detoxification.

CAIM staff serves hundreds of drug users in two shooting gallery communities, Pedro Rosario Nieves and Maternillo, helping to reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C in both communities.

The stigma facing CAIM’s clients are such that they are openly disparaged and sometimes refused treatment by medical personnel at the local clinics.

Read more about CAIM and Housing Works advocacy in Puerto Rico.