November 17, 2005
BIRTHDAY BOY
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BRYANT: He'll shore up activism in key states (photo: Thabi Moyo) |
Time flies when you're advocating for people with AIDS! Believe it or not, Housing Works' federal advocacy office opened in D.C. a year ago this week, and it's been a whirlwind 12 months for the little HW outfit tucked into the digs of the Drug Policy Alliance on lobbyist-rich "K" St., staffed by the hardworking team of HW federal advocacy director Robert Cordero and administrative and organizing assistant Kaytee Riek.
"We acquired the D.C. office, plus a small apartment on Capitol Hill, so we'd have a base from which to put people with HIV/AIDS on Capitol Hill in front of their legislators on a regular, sometimes weekly, basis," says Cordero. "And that's exactly what we've done, making those Hill visits the centerpiece of all our advocacy this year, whether it involved reauthorizing and fully funding the Ryan White CARE Act, stopping Bush's proposed $45 million in Medicaid cuts or making sure the new Medicare drug benefit included all AIDS medications.
"Our D.C. office was the organizational nerve center for the Campaign to End AIDS," continues Cordero, "which only last week funneled hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS into visits with virtually every congressional office to urge funding for the programs we rely on most. That's the kind of full-court press you can achieve when you have a base in D.C." (Those visits kicked off with a press conference at which Del. Donna Christian-Christensen (D-VI) and Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA)—representing the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus—announced this congressional resolution supporting C2EA's core demands.)
NEW FACES
The first-year anniversary of the D.C. office coincides with the hiring of a new staffer (made possible in part by a grant from the Public Welfare Foundation). Larry Bryant, 38, brings a rich background to his new job as HW's national field organizer. A Washington, D.C., native, Bryant was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 while a student and football player at Norfolk State University in Virginia. He was a preschool teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Houston, Texas, before immersing himself in Project LEAP, Houston's acclaimed program that trains people with HIV/AIDS to be community advocates.
"We recognized extraordinary potential in Larry when he emerged as a leader in the early organizing efforts of the Campaign to End AIDS" during last May's NAPWA-sponsored AIDSWatch, says Cordero. Bryant became a principal organizer of "Soul of the South," the C2EA Gulf Coast caravan that took a hit with Hurricane Katrina but still managed to ferry a few dozen folks (including a young HIV-positive mom and her three-year-old son!) up to D.C. for C2EA's Four Days of Action last week. "When Larry and I met with Caroline Gluck, the senior AIDS staffer for minority leader Sen. Harry Reid, it really solidified for his office what C2EA and its goals were all about," says Cordero.
In his new role, Bryant will spent extensive time helping Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and other states highly impacted by HIV/AIDS strengthen the promising advocacy networks they put in place for C2EA. Thus, he'll be traveling quite a bit—but he'll be based back in D.C., where his closest family still lives. (He's spent the past month moving from Houston to a new pad near Howard University, all amid the tumult of C2EA!) "D.C. is ground zero of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States," says Bryant. "So being able to do the work I'll be doing based out of my hometown is kind of special."
Bryant isn't the only fierce activist Housing Works has brought on board recently. There are two very special people AIDS Issues Update will introduce soon, timed to the release of some exciting (and dead-serious) news that again shows HW extending its reach beyond New York City—to defend some of the nation's poorest folks living with HIV/AIDS. Stay tuned.