1. Press Release

Jun 08, 2026

ETE Coalition: New York State Budget Profoundly Fails New Yorkers With HIV

ETE Coalition: New York State Budget Profoundly Fails New Yorkers With HIV

For Immediate Release: June 8, 2026

The Fiscal Year 2027 New York State Budget Profoundly Fails New Yorkers With HIV

As Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature celebrate a $268.5 Million Budget Deal, New Yorkers with HIV are left questioning the disappearance of New York’s historic leadership in the HIV response. Despite real progress towards the goals of our State’s Ending the HIV Epidemic plan launched ten years ago, our State’s AIDS crisis is not over.

In just four years we were able to “bend the curve” of the epidemic so that the number of New Yorkers finally began to decline. Alarmingly, however, under the Governor, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, we have begun to lose ground, with three years of rising new HIV diagnoses after decades of decline, and worsening HIV health disparities. In 2024, rates of new HIV diagnoses among Black and Latino New Yorkers 9.2 and 5.4 times higher than among White New Yorkers. We cannot treat the epidemic as over just because 75% of the 106,754 New Yorkers living with diagnosed HIV are Black and Latino and over half are men who have sex with men. These inequities persist despite even though highly effectively prevention and treatment are readily available—if people can access and benefit from them.

Yet, again this year the FY27 New York State budget includes no new investments in HIV prevention or care, failing to advance the State’s commitment to end the epidemic despite clear and urgent priorities from the End AIDS NY Coalition and the NYS AIDS Advisory Council:

  • HIV housing inequity remains unaddressed. Despite overwhelming evidence and years of advocacy, the FY27 budget once again denies people with HIV experiencing homelessness and housing instability equal access to an existing statewide program of housing assistance, leaving as many as 2,800 public assistance eligible New Yorkers living with HIV outside NYC without stable, affordable housing—critical to treatment adherence and viral suppression. Recent research authored by researchers affiliated with our own NYS AIDS Institute found that “Any level of unstable housing—ranging from temporary accommodation to homelessness—negatively affects antiretroviral therapy adherence, retention in care, and viral suppression….underscoring the importance of interventions that prioritize safe, stable, and affordable housing as foundational components of effective HIV management and health equity."
  • No new funding to advance equity in access to pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, even though Black and Latino New Yorkers accounted for 78% of new HIV diagnoses in 2024, but only 22% of PrEP prescriptions.
  • No additional investment in the HIV peer workforce, a proven, community-based strategy demonstrated to improve engagement in care.
  • No new funding to support older adults living with HIV, who represent over half of New Yorkers with HIV, and whose complex care needs remain gravely under-resourced.
  • Core Medicaid and AIDS Institute Ending the Epidemic initiatives remain flat funded at essentially the same level for the past decade, with a second year of cuts to legislative support for essential community-based HIV care that had been stable for decades prior to the FY26 NYS Budget.

These are policy choices that will worsen HIV health inequities, drive poor individual health outcomes, increase preventable new HIV infections, and undermine the heroic efforts of health departments and community-based providers to end our HIV epidemic. By maintaining the status quo, State leadership have missed a critical opportunity to accelerate progress, reduce disparities, and fully fund the roadmap to end HIV in New York.

This failure is especially concerning as we enter Pride month—a time for celebration, but rooted in action for survival, equity, and healthcare justice. Amid growing federal threats to HIV care and LGBTQ communities, New York State should be leading the fight to support and advance evidence-based strategies. Instead, the Governor and Legislature have missed a critical chance to stand with New Yorkers with HIV.

We have the science, tools and strategies needed to end our New York State HIV epidemic. This goal remains within our reach, but only if we make meaningful investments to fully realize the recommendations set out in our historic Blueprint for Ending the Epidemic.

We urgently call on Governor Hochul and Legislative Leadership to work with the End AIDS Community Coalition and other members of the New York State HIV community over the coming months to push back against Federal indifference and attacks by recommitting with meaningful investments in the evidence-based strategies critical to realizing our joint goal to end our New York HIV epidemic in every community and population.

The End AIDS NY Community Coalition is a group of over 90 health care centers, hospitals, community-based organizations and advocates across the State that are fully committed to realizing the goals of our historic State Blueprint for Ending the Epidemic for all New Yorkers.

###