Yesterday, as you may have heard, Housing Works took over Manhattan’s City Hall Park to highlight the detrimental policies in New York and across the country that negative affect people living with HIV/AIDS.

At roughly 10:30am, two Housing Works activists climbed two forty-foot flagpoles and dropped a thirty-five foot banner that read, “Housing is Healthcare: House People Living with HIV/AIDS.” Ignoring the NYPD calls to come down as well as the blustery winter winds, our two brave climbers, Tony and Sharon, stayed perched atop the flagpoles for over an hour, chanting alongside the Housing Works’ protestors on the ground.

By 11:55am, the climbers had come down from their perches and were arrested and taken into custody.

Tony was released around 3:30pm and was charged with trespassing/disorderly conduct. Sharon, however, was a different case. With an out-of-state ID, the police were reluctant to let her go. By 11:30pm, Sharon was finally let out of custody and pled guilty to a minor disorderly conduct.

The Housing Works banner, however, did not fair as well. The banner was confiscated as “evidence of a crime” and may not be returned to us. A shame, given the beauty of its hand-painted artwork. This confiscation is akin to what happened earlier this year at the ACT-UP 25th anniversary protest, when the NYPD confiscated a toilet as evidence of a crime.

We thank our climbers Tony and Sharon, as well as our fearless videographer, Jonah Green, for their work and dedication at yesterday’s protest.

Our thoughts remain with the toilet and the banner. Let’s hope the latter gets to come home.

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