February 15, 2008
I JUST WANNA TESTIFY
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Hear ye, hear ye! Housing, health and welfare! |
For the past 14 years, Housing Works clients and staff have testified in Albany at legislative budget hearings to give front-line details on the impact of proposed cuts, increases and reform on people living with HIV/AIDS in New York. This year was a triple play: Housing, human services and health care all got the HW treatment.
And real-person testimony was the best part. Housing Works peer Mike Bona talked about his current experiences as a homeless youth while testifying in support of Governor Spitzer's $400 million Housing Opportunity Fund. And Gay Men's Health Crisis client Alan Perez (testifying with Housing Works counsel Michael Kink) gave a first-hand account of his harrowing wait for HASA services while testifying in favor of "HASA for All" legislation in the human services hearings.
Full details and downloads of testimony:
Housing
Our praise for Governor Spitzer's budgeted $400 million Housing Opportunity Fund was shared by advocacy groups, not-for-profit developers and individuals across the state. Dozens of organizations emphasized the dire need for affordable housing, particularly low-income housing in New York City, Upstate and on Long Island.
The $400 million Housing Opportunity Fund included in the executive budget will provide for significant improvements and additions to the low-income housing stock, and help existing high-rent-burdened households while strengthening targeted efforts to fight homelessness and unstable housing among people living with HIV/AIDS.
The danger of unstable housing and homelessness was clearly explained by Bona, who spoke of his experiences and daily struggles to find and keep work, find an affordable apartment and remain healthy. As a person without stable, permanent housing, he explained that opportunities come up every day that would ultimately compromise his safety and health.
Human services
Download testimony hereOn welfare and human services, we gave clear testimony on the life-and-death impacts of decisions to be made on existing funds and the clear need for new streams that will help fight AIDS in New York State.
Housing Works has supported an increase in the basic welfare grant for poor New Yorkers—it hasn't been adjusted in 18 years. And we're pushing for the statewide HASA for All initiative: Perez, a client of GMHC told the Joint Fiscal Committee about his health, his experiences in unstable housing and how HASA services have kept him from getting sick and helped him maintain stable housing.
Health care and Medicaid
The status of people living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS in New York State is linked directly to health care access, stable housing, effective prevention, expanded testing and building on the current system to ensure that everyone has access to life-saving treatments.
Testimony before the Joint Fiscal Committees on health care praised Spitzer's patient-first Medicaid reform efforts, including enhanced reimbursement rates, prescription drug cost containment, expansion of care to children and working families and the Doctors Across New York initiative which provides incentives for physicians to provide primary care at community-based settings in underserved areas. One thing still needed: A crucial rate increase for COBRA that hasn't occurred in ten years.