May 3, 2005

NYCWatch: MESSAGE TO MICHAEL: THANK YOU!

By Jennifer Flynn

If only he ran for re-election every year.

One of the joys of campaign season is that politicians try to do right by some of their neglected constituents. Take New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who's running for reelection this November. A while back, he announced a plan to build and rehabilitate 65,000 units of affordable housing. I rejoiced for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs). In the past decade, AIDS housing resources in the city have dwindled, thanks to that dastardly Giuliani-era budget maneuver called "the HOPWA swap."

That means that 60 percent of the city's funding from the federal Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Act is diverted from actual AIDS housing to the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA), where they pay case managers' salaries. (Salaries that should be paid out of city tax money, I might add, not housing money for PLWHAs.)

But back to Bloomberg. Soon it became clear that only about 1,200 units in his much-heralded building plan would be for homeless people with special needs like HIV/AIDS. AIDS housing advocates like me were seriously disappointed (OK, some might say disgusted).

Now for the bright side: Last week, in a move that surely looked good to many voters who care about such things, the mayor announced that he was adding $187 million to the Ten Year Capital Plan of the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to build supportive housing (that's housing for people with disabilities like HIV/AIDS). That brings the capital plan's total to $472 million. Even better, Bloomberg announced that the Department of Health had earmarked $25 million in HOPWA money over five years toward development through the HPD of permanent, supportive housing for PLWHAs. This means that HPD can build or renovate more than 240 housing units for New York City PWAs. That's great news.

Bloomberg's earmark isn't a complete reversal of the dastardly "HOPWA swap"—but it does put more of the program's money back where it belongs: into housing for PLWHAs.

Now don't get me wrong: This isn't a complete reversal of the HOPWA swap—but it's a significant increase in funds targeted specifically for HIV/AIDS housing. And that's a good thing. As my colleague Amos Hough, a NYCAHN board member, noted: "We're thrilled that the mayor has begun to use HOPWA funding for its true purpose: housing opportunities for persons with AIDS."

Even sweeter? This victory comes after 1,500 homeless people living with HIV/AIDS and their advocates joined 7,000 other housing activists at City Hall this February for the House Everyone! Campaign, which demanded an end to the HOPWA Swap and a boost in money for supportive housing. I think our recent victory is due at least in part to that blow-out rally. Thanks to all the groups who turned out for it, like NYCAHN, the Center for Urban Community Services, CitiWide Harm Reduction...and of course Housing Works, whose CEO Charles King took time off from his birthday to bring down a busload of staff and clients.

So where do we go from here? Well, expect the City Council to soon increase funding for homeless PLWHAs, too. (Perhaps the mayor wanted to beat them to the punch?) Watch the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update for more information about joining HW, NYCAHN and other groups on the City Hall steps during the upcoming budget vigil to make sure that boost goes through. And don't forget to help us pack the City Council gallery on May 11, when the council is expected to pass two key acts for homeless people with HIVAIDS (see bottom of Frieden's Back-Room Blow-Off in this issue for details).

One more piece of good news: Shortly after Bloomberg announced the increased funding for HPD, he and the New York City controller Bill Thompson agreed to put Battery Park City revenues of $130 million in a trust fund for building and preserving affordable housing. That's the start of fulfilling a $600 million promise made in 1989 under Mayor Koch that every subsequent mayor has broken.

Of course, the Battery Park City Authority must approve the plan, but Thompson declared he was confident that Governor Pataki, who controls the Authority, would OK it. So it looks like we'll have even more money for affordable housing. Let's stay sharp and make sure some of that moolah goes to housing for homeless PLWHAs. Kudos to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Coalition for the Homeless, the Campaign for Inclusionary Zoning and others who took on this fight—and thanks to them for always making sure that the need for AIDS housing is at the forefront of their demands.

Remember to celebrate these victories. They may be rare—after all, there's a mayoral election only every four years!

Jennifer Flynn is executive director of the New York AIDS Housing Coalition (www.nycahn.org), which is led by low-income people living with HIVAIDS who engage in community organizing, advocacy and public education. She has been with NYCAHN since 1998. She also cochairs the Caravans Committee of the Campaign to End AIDS (www.endAIDSnow.org). She can be reached at flynn@nycahn.org.

The Housing Works AIDS Issues Update is reported, written and edited by Diana Scholl, David Thorpe, Phil Fox Rose, Christine Campbell, terri smith-caronia and Housing Works staff. Send your feedback, leads and story ideas to d.scholl@housingworks.org.

You can reach us by phone at 212-967-1500 x168, by fax at 212-868-4222, and by email at d.scholl@housingworks.org. Housing Works provides housing, advocacy and services to homeless people living with AIDS and HIV. Housing Works is the nation's largest community-based AIDS organization and the nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS organization.

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