In a lively Reddit forum yesterday, mayoral frontrunner Bill de Blasio affirmed that he supports letting low-income HIV-positive clients in assisted housing (or HASA) not spend more than 30 percent of their income on their rent. Housing Works and other groups, including VOCAL-NY, have been lobbying on this issue for years: Ending the cruel exception that HASA clients are among the only low-income New Yorkers with housing assistance whose rent is not capped at 30 percent of their income. This means that some HASA clients have to live on as little as $12 a day.
The section of the Reddit forum involving the rent cap went like this:
[–]bearvivant 10 points 1 day ago
Hi Bill, I voted for you in the primary! How will you help end the HIV/AIDS crisis, stigma, discrimination, and criminalization that help fuel its existence?
[–]deBlasio[S] 12 points 1 day ago
Thanks for your support! I think part of the answer is to acknowledge publicly and consistently that the HIV/AIDS crisis continues, that we have to continue to innovate better public health and outreach policies. For folks living with HIV, there’s more we can do to provide affordable housing, most notably implement a 30% rent cap for HASA clients. And finally, I want the city government to listen to people with HIV and AIDS in this city more, and learn from what they say about how we can better serve them.
Says terri smith-caronia, HW’s veep for NY advocacy and public policy, “De Blasio has always been an avid supporter in the quest to ensure a good quality of life for New Yorkers living with AIDS and HIV. So while it isn’t surprising to us that his progressive agenda includes people living with AIDS, we’re pleased that he, as the city’s probable next mayor, is willing to have NYC finally support legislation that calls for a capping of the rent to 30 percent for PWAs that receive rental enhancements thru HASA.”
She continued: “For seven years, the Bloomberg administration has been advocating against this, thwarting efforts by advocates and albany legislators to pass this rent cap legislation, which has received overwhelming bipartisan support in both the Assembly and Senate.”
Well, hang on folks—change is a-comin’…we hope!
