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September 7, 2007
SWEET HOME ALABAMA
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C2EA jumps right in! |
It was a typical Labor Day scene: A man repeatedly lifting and lowering a giggling little boy into a swimming pool on a hot day, surrounded by charmed onlookers. What wasn't simple was who they all were, and how they all got there: The man was Housing Works President and CEO Charles King, the little boy was Caleb Glover, the HIV-positive toddler who had been banned from that very pool two months ago, and the onlookers were activists from the Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA) who had traveled from all over the country to witness this swimming lesson.
"Watching Caleb swimming in the pool shows that stigma can be lifted and that we made a difference," said Serita Agnew, a 53-year old C2EA member who drove from Dallas. "When one HIV positive person is hurt or discriminated against, it hurts all of us."
Ken Zadnichek, the owner of the Wales West RV Resort in Silverhill, Alabama, outraged people living with HIV/AIDS and everyday folks across the nation in July when he banned Caleb from the pool, showers and other common areas of Wales West after he found out about Caleb's HIV status. The incident made national headlines, and when Zadnichek failed to fully apologize for his actions, C2EA began planning its Labor Day "family reunion," at Wales West to call attention to AIDS stigma. This week, it went off without a hitch. Around 60 members of the C2EA arrived from as far away as San Diego and Columbus Ohio, many traveling in all-night caravans from Nashville, Houston, Dallas, Washington D.C., Miami, for a day of camping, barbecuing, awareness-raising and, of course, swimming with Caleb, as his foster mother Silvia looked on.
"Whether or not we affected people's prejudices, and I seriously doubt we have changed Mr. Zadnichek in his heart, we've shown Alabama businesses that if they discriminate against people with HIV there will be a response that will be embarrassing to them," said Charles King, president and CEO of Housing Works, a member of the C2EA network...
Read the rest: "SWEET HOME ALABAMA"
AIDS ADVOCATES HAIL INTRODUCTION OF HASA FOR ALL ACT IN NYC COUNCIL
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Annabel Palma: HASA For All heroine |
Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), The New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), and Housing Works welcomed the introduction of the HASA for All Act in the New York City Council. The landmark legislation, introduced yesterday by Councilmember Annabel Palma, would extend rental assistance and other needed benefits to all low-income and homeless HIV-positive New Yorkers, regardless of their AIDS diagnosis.
"GMHC joins with advocates throughout the city in supporting this critical piece of public health legislation, and we urge the City Council to hold hearings immediately so that the needs of people living with HIV are met," said Marjorie J. Hill, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of GMHC. "New Yorkers with HIV should not have to risk their lives in order to receive basic benefits. HASA for All would allow low-income, HIV-positive individuals the stability needed to maintain their health and to prevent them from progressing to AIDS in the first place."
"We're grateful for Councilmember Palma's leadership in fighting HIV/AIDS in our city, and we urge her colleagues to join her in recognizing the right to housing for people living with HIV," said NYCAHN co-director Shirlene Cooper. "As a person living with AIDS, I know how cruel it is to be told you can't qualify for HASA housing assistance because you're not 'sick enough.' One way to make sure people get sick is to force them to survive on the streets or in shelters. Our city's current policy of only offering housing to people with full-blown AIDS makes no sense."...
Read the rest: "AIDS ADVOCATES HAIL INTRODUCTION OF HASA FOR ALL ACT IN NYC COUNCIL"
WHY HOUSING EQUALS HEALTH CARE
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Holtgrave explains importance of housing at community meeting |
In July when New York City Speaker Christine Quinn said she didn't believe housing was an HIV prevention tool, Housing Works, GMHC and New York City AIDS Housing Network knew they had to make clear that the evidence speaks for itself. Yesterday the advocates brought in Drs. David Holtgrave and Angela Aidala, two of America's leading experts on the importance of housing for people living with HIV/AIDS, to speak both to Quinn and the community about the prevention and health care benefits and economic benefits of housing for people with HIV. The hope is that the speaker will put her full weight behind the HASA for All Act.
Even with the new evidence, Quinn hasn't yet come down firmly for the HASA for All Act, but participants of the meeting agreed she was more receptive than she had been in the past. "I was pleased with the outcome," said Charles King, Housing Works President and CEO. "I think it would be very hard at this point for Speaker Quinn to argue, like she has in the past, that housing as prevention is a radical idea."
NYCAHN co-director Shirlene Cooper also agreed that the meeting with Quinn was well worth it. "She listened and raised good questions and it was a little more productive than the meetings we've had before," said Cooper, who told her personal story to Quinn and her staff. "While (Holtgrave and Aidala) were going through their presentations, I said 'You just told the story of my life. Each one of those studies fits me perfectly. If I hadn't had housing, I wouldn't be here in this meeting. I wouldn't be here today. I am proof that housing saves lives.'"
HASA for All would extend full HASA benefits to poor New Yorkers living with HIV. Currently, people must progress to an AIDS diagnosis to get the full benefits that could actually keep them from progressing to AIDS in the first place. The expansion of HASA benefits would potentially help some 9,000 people with HIV get the housing, transportation, nutrition and other benefits essential to their long term health, as well as limit the costs the city spends on HIV services and cut down on new infections. Yesterday Councilmember Annabel Palma introduced legislation for the HASA for All Act. (See "AIDS ADVOCATES HAIL INTRODUCTION OF HASA FOR ALL ACT IN NYC COUNCIL")...
Read the rest: "WHY HOUSING EQUALS HEALTH CARE"
HARM REDUCTION JUNCTION
Protect your neck, practice harm reduction! |
Seat belts, bike helmets, needle exchange, high-quality housing and services for all, Narcan on hand just in case, safe sex education for sex workers, good hot food at the crack users' breakfast and new advocacy efforts to fight discrimination and stigma. It's all harm reduction and we're all about harm reduction at Housing Works— especially this month.
September is our first-ever Harm Reduction Month, and clients and staff are being swept up in an activist-driven wave of education, events and an agency wide rededication to practical—and lifesaving—harm reduction principles.
"Housing Works was created to house active drug users when no one else would—harm reduction is in our DNA," said Nina Herzog, Housing Works' Vice President of Harm Reduction Programs. "This month is all about making sure we're serving users well, and that every person who works or volunteers here knows what it takes to do that."
Herzog has helped lead months of planning by a harm reduction task force that has brought together dozens of clients, staff and volunteers from HW's housing, health care, advocacy, marketing departments and thrift shops to boost harm reduction principles, services, education and advocacy all over the agency.
The team has scheduled discussion groups, trainings at all Housing Works sites, movies, in-house blogs and new advocacy efforts (like fighting discrimination that withholds benefits from some active users at the NYC HIV/AIDS Services Administration), all designed to get the harm reduction message to every one of our 403 employees and to our thousands of clients.
(You can see the schedule here.)...Read the rest: "HARM REDUCTION JUNCTION"