February 16, 2007
NO-QUINN SITUATION
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Did anyone hear the word AIDS? |
Sporting politician pearls and a perfectly coiffed 'do, New York's first female (and lesbian) City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, laid out this year's budget priorities in her first State of the City address on Thursday, without mentioning the word "AIDS," frustrating activists who were hoping to hear Quinn endorse the crucial HASA for All housing campaign.
"I'm incredibly disappointed and dismayed that Speaker Quinn, who in the past so closely identified with the HIV/AIDS movement, didn't mention HIV in her address, much less consider expanding HASA's services to all low-income New Yorkers," laments Charles King, Housing Works' president and CEO. "The City Council needs to address and take concrete steps, not simply confirm their commitment on World AIDS Day."
Quinn's speech was made that much harder to take by largely focusing on housing: tax credits for New York City's 1.1 million renters, landlord harassment legislation, city intervention for apartment repairs, 2300 new vouchers for section 8 units (kudos)—plus Quinn announced a plan for 10 new health care units in low-income communities of need over the next five years (more kudos). We applaud Quinn's commitment to keeping middle- and low-income New Yorkers from getting squeezed out in the housing crunch—but we rue her inattention to the crunch for people with HIV.
The HASA for All campaign, a coalition led by Housing Works and the New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), calls for increased low-income housing benefits for asymptomatic people with HIV. Read more about it here Phil Link http://www.hwadvocacy.com/update/. Under current HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) rules, the city waits to give full housing benefits until folks get sick, instead of ensuring they have housing in order that they don't become sick-or worse. The expansion of benefits would ultimately save lives and dollars.
The HASA for All coalition is planning to launch a major campaign in support of its goals and was hoping that Quinn would signal her leadership role in her address. The HASA for All team has had meetings with Quinn and her staff and urged her to make expanding benefits a priority in her legislative agenda. Activists will certainly continue to hound her for housing throughout the year.
"The speaker really let us down," says NYCAHN's executive director Jennifer Flynn. "Our message for her today is that we're going to go immediately to Councilmember Annabel Palma, who has a personal commitment to HIV/AIDS, to launch legislation for HASA housing for all. We expect Quinn to make it a priority."
Unconscionable Council funny business
Sometimes City Council politics make people sick—literally. It looks like millions allocated for HIV in New York City's communities of color have been held up yet again, which means another day passes in which the hardest-hit folks in the city aren't getting the AIDS services they deserve. The issue hinges on the failure of any Queens groups to apply for the funding. (See Is Justice Delayed Justice Denied?
Just two days ago, we were overjoyed to hear that the long-overdue dollars would no longer languish. Quinn's office called the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as well as the Health and Research Association of NYC to share the news. However, the next morning, buzz kill set in when the agencies were told that the dollars would, in fact, not be released. Apparently, the Council intends to bypass the competitive request-for-proposals process in favor of political pork—they will find Queens recipients before releasing the long sought after dollars in all five boroughs. Oink!