April 19, 2008
ACTION ALERT: ASK YOUR SENATOR TO BOOST SECTION 8 HOUSING!
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Collins and Feingold support boosting Section 8 (your Senator could be that other guy) |
Often, when we think AIDS housing, we think HOPWA and Ryan White. But because of the relative smallness of both, programs such as the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program are needed to fill in the funding holes for low-income people with HIV/AIDS.
But Section 8 hasn't kept pace with the nationwide rise in real estate prices, making truly affordable housing harder and harder to find. To help alleviate the affordable housing crisis, Sens. Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are circulating the below letter for signatures. It urges the Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee to increase funding for the tenant-based Section 8 program for FY 2009. The letter closes on Thursday, April 24, so contact your Senator this very moment. Currently Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), John Warner (R-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Carl Levin (D-MI), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Joseph Lieberman (D Independent-CT) have signed on.
New Yorkers, note that Sen. Chuck Schumer hasn’t yet signed the letter, so his office could definitely use your call!
Here's what to do:
1. Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and ask to be transferred to your Senator's office. (Don't know who your Senator is? Visit www.senate.gov to find out.)
2. Ask to speak to the staffer in your Senator's office who handles housing issues.
3. Tell the staffer about the importance of Section 8 in providing housing for people with HIV/AIDS in your community.
4. Ask the Senator to sign on to the letter. If the staffer wants more information, Amanda Beaumont is staffing the letter for Feingold and Jen Capriola is staffing the letter for Collins.
5. Please let NAHC know the results of your call by e-`mailing Latoya Thomas at latoya@nationalaidshousing.org.
Dear Chairwoman Murray and Ranking Member Bond:
We are writing to urge you to support the highest fiscally responsible increase in funding for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program in the fiscal year 2009 THUD appropriations bill. We ask that you include funding sufficient to renew existing vouchers as well as fund new vouchers in fiscal year 2009. Increasing numbers of American families are facing housing affordability challenges, whether they are renters or homeowners, and we are concerned that the current level of funding for the Section 8 program does not come close to meeting the existing rental assistance need in communities nationwide. The housing affordability burden continues to fall most heavily on low-income renters throughout the country and increased funding for the Section 8 program will help meet the affordable rental housing needs of these American families.
The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, originally created in 1974, is the largest Federal housing program in terms of HUD's budget with approximately two million vouchers currently authorized. Yet the current number of vouchers does not come close to meeting the demand that exists in communities around our country including urban, suburban, and rural areas. We have heard from advocates in our states about the increased need for additional funding for the tenant-based program – not only to fund existing vouchers in use, but to also fund new, incremental tenant-based vouchers for low-income families currently unable to be served by the program. Advocates in our states also continue to tell us about the increasing numbers of families on waiting lists for vouchers and unfortunately, these waiting lists will only grow longer if the Section 8 program does not receive increased funding.
A number of different government agencies and advocacy organizations all cite the effectiveness of Section 8 in assisting low-income families in meeting some of their housing needs. In 2002, the Millennial Housing Commission reported to Congress that the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is “flexible, cost-effective, and successful in its mission,” and that the vouchers “should continue to be the linchpin of a national policy providing very low-income renters access to the privately owned housing stock.” The Commission also called on Congress to provide a substantial investment in the tenant-based Section 8 program in the future.
In order to address the growing need for affordable housing, we urge you to include the highest fiscally responsible increase for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program in the fiscal year 2009 THUD appropriations bill that will not only fully fund existing vouchers, but also provide funding for new Section 8 vouchers in 2009. We commend you for the support that you provided to the Section 8 tenant-based program in the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution for fiscal year 2007 as well as the Consolidated Appropriations Act in fiscal year 2008. We look forward to working with you to not only boost funding for this valuable federal program that helps millions of American families secure affordable housing, but also promote responsible reforms to the Section 8 program that will allow the program to better serve the needs of American families for years to come.
Thank you for your consideration to our request. Your continued leadership on affordable housing issues is appreciated.
April 18, 2008
ACTION ALERT: TELL YOUR SENATORS TO INCLUDE ADAP AS TrOOP!
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Don't let anyone slip into the donut hole! |
Want to improve the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and help people with AIDS on Medicare in one swipe? Here's how!
Call your two U.S. Senators in their Washington, DC office, and ask to speak to the legislative aide who handles health care issues. Whether you speak to him/her live or leave a voicemail, say:
"My name is _________ and I live in (your state). The Senate is working on a Medicare reform bill and I would like a provision included that would allow AIDS Drug Assistance Program spending to count towards Medicare Part D "true out of pocket" costs. This would greatly help people with HIV/AIDS have better access to lifesaving treatment. It would also free up scarce Ryan White dollars to provide lifesaving treatment to uninsured people with HIV/AIDS. I urge Senator______________ to do everything in his/her power to make this important fix to the Medicare drug benefit."
To reach your senators, call the Capitol Switchboard toll-free at (800) 828-0498. Ask to be connected to your senator's office. If you don't know who your senators are, go to www.congress.org and enter your zip code in the upper left corner.
Background:
HIV/AIDS advocates around the country are working hard to convince Congress to pass a law that would close an important gap in treatment access for people with HIV/AIDS.
In 2008, many people who get their HIV drugs through the Medicare prescription drug benefit reach what is called the "donut hole" or coverage gap which can only be surpassed if they can afford a whopping $4,500 required for them to reach catastrophic coverage.
They reach the donut hole after their total drug costs reach $2,510. This happens for many people with HIV/AIDS within the first two months of their coverage. At that time, the individual must pay the full cost of his drugs or rely on another program, such as the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). Once individuals have paid $4,050 out of pocket for their drug costs (referred to as true out of pocket costs or TrOOP), their Medicare Part D coverage resumes.
Current law doesn't allow ADAP spending to count towards TrOOP. This means that when an ADAP helps a Medicare beneficiary pay for their drugs during the coverage gap, the client remains in the coverage gap for the remainder of the year. People with HIV/AIDS who should be able to get the full benefit of Medicare Part D are then forced to rely on the underfunded ADAP program, which in nearly all states also has a much more limited drug formulary. It also means that ADAPs around the country must spend money for these clients that could be used to expand access to other uninsured or underinsured individuals. If ADAP were allowed to count as TrOOP, it would save about $50 million per year.
The U.S. Senate will soon debate Medicare reform legislation and can play a major role in fixing this problem by including the ADAP as TrOOP provision. The House of Representatives has already approved this provision. The Senate needs to hear that this is a priority for people with HIV/AIDS and a fix that is badly needed. Please take the time to make these two important calls!
For more information, contact Ryan Clary at rclary@projectinform.org.
April 13, 2008
ACTION ALERT: ANOTHER CHANCE TO STOP VICIOUS MEDICAID CHANGES AND PROTECT COBRA!
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Call up the folks in there and tell them to cosponsor! |
Representative John Dingell (D-MI) is sponsoring legislation (H.R. 5613) that would delay the implementation of cruel regulations by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). These regulations would cut essential services for Medicaid recipients. Such changes could mean a huge hit for New York’s COBRA case management programs, which provide critical, lifesaving support for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS. COBRA is already in financial peril!
164 cosponsors have signed on to H.R. 5613. Take a moment to call your representatives and make sure they have done so. If they haven’t, urge them to get on board!
The new CMS regulations would eliminate reimbursement for targeted case management, essential outpatient services such as administration of vaccinations, vision screening and rehabilitation services, and other crucial health benefits. Dingell’s bill would delay implementation of the changes until 2009 so their potential impact can be assessed. Right now, all that's clear is that the proposed CMS cuts will save a few dollars for the federal government, while shifting a greater financial burden to the poor.
Contact your Congressional Representatives and tell them to cosponsor H.R. 5613! To find out who your representatives are, click here. If your rep is already a cosponsor, click here to see, you can still call and give your thanks. To learn more about this legislation, read this article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal.
March 28, 2008
ACTION ALERT: CONTACT KEY REPS AND ASK FOR A COBRA RATE INCREASE!
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Pick up the phone ASAP |
The State budget conferences started this morning and will be moving like mad all through the weekend, with major decisions being made before Monday. The health budget has enough money to keep COBRA under consideration for a rate increase. Assemblymember Dick Gottfried knows this, but he needs the support of his colleagues!
Now is your final chance to contact powerful members of the Senate and Assembly (listed below) and tell them that now is the time for a long overdue rate increase to COBRA case management.
COBRA programs bring essential case management to poor people with HIV/AIDS, and because of the lack of a rate increase, most COBRA programs are in deficit.
Please take 45 seconds and call one or all of these offices to demand a $4 miilion Medicaid rate increase for COBRA case management:
Assemblymembers
Joseph Morelli: 518-455-5373
J.Gary Pretlow: 518-455-5291
Joan Millman: 518-455-5426
Barbara Clarke: 518-455-4711
Senators
John Samson:518-455-2788
Jeff Klein: 518-455-3595
March 17, 2008
ACTION ALERT: TELL NYS LEGISLATORS TO EXPAND COBRA CASE MANAGEMENT
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COBRA needs to be fed |
COBRA case management is a critical tool that helps poor people with HIV/AIDS get and stay in care and get healthy. But COBRA is in danger. COBRA programs, which provide psychosocial case management for low-income people living with AIDS and HIV, haven't seen a rate increase in almost a decade, even as COBRA providers are seeing more and more people that are poorer and sicker each year. Most COBRA providers are running huge deficits.
Assembly member Dick Gottfried, chair of the Assembly Health Committee, has expressed interest in introducing language into the Assembly budget to provide for the necessary $4 million rate increase to COBRA. The New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute staff has made internal reform proposals that could pay for the increase. These include elimination of two COBRA programs that have failed to meet quality standards ($1 million/year savings) and regulatory streamlining that would allow two-person COBRA teams rather than three-person units and staff redeployment ($2.5-3 million/year savings). But Gottfried needs the support of his colleagues. That's where you can help!
Call your assembly member (State Assembly switchboard: 518-455-4100) and senator (State Senate Switchboard: 518-455-2800) BY FRIDAY and ask them to support a much-needed increase to COBRA case management that won't increase costs. To find out who your Assembly member is click here and for the name of your senator click here. While you've dialed the 518, you can also call Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (518-455-3791) and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (518-455-3191) and tell them why COBRA rate increases are so essential.
A little more about COBRA...
COBRA programs provide access to services that foster independence and self-sufficiency, work to ensure adherence to care and treatment, prevent or delay institutionalization, increase universal access to HIV-related services and promote early intervention.
The Community Health Advisory & Information Network (CHAIN) Project, an ongoing prospective study of a representative samples of persons living with HIV/AIDS in New York City and the Tri-County region of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties conducted by researchers from Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, reported late last year that psychosocial case management services were the most effective at ensuring entry into medical care and entry into HIV care that meets clinical standards.
"The client needs are more complex then they've ever been," said Michael Clarke, Housing Works' Vice President of COBRA. "It's not only HIV we're seeing, but issues with mental health and poverty. We're trying to do more with less and it's just not enough."
November 9, 2007
FIGHTING BACK FOR PUERTO RICO
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People are dying of AIDS in Puerto Rico |
Despite claims to the contrary by the Puerto Rican government, the island’s ongoing AIDS catastrophe shows no signs of abating. That’s why activists are once again banding together to demand that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Puerto Rican government address the mismanagement and fraud preventing Puerto Ricans living with HIV/AIDS from accessing basic services and lifesaving medications.
On Tuesday, November 13, Housing Works, the Latino Commission on AIDS, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, UDCAS NY and UDCAS Puerto Rico will collaborate on a phone zap targeting Puerto Rican Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila and San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini Padilla to tell them people in Puerto Rico are dying of AIDS because of their negligence. In October, a phone zap of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt's office on Latino AIDS Awareness Day, had HHS phones ringing every five minutes, ensuring that the department was aware of Puerto Rico’s troubles.
On Wednesday November 14, in New York City, Housing Works, UDCAS New York, and the Washington Heights CORNER Project will hold a press conference at Foley Square (location pending permit), demanding immediate federal control of AIDS funding in Puerto Rico; an independent authority to investigate AIDS funds mismanagement and come up with a plan to end it; and immediate action to provide HIV prevention tools to IV drug users, who account for the majority of new infections in Puerto Rico.
Since 2006, AIDS services and treatment in Puerto Rico have been crippled by neglect and criminal activity. Audit after audit by the federal government of millions in U.S. tax dollars has documented Puerto Rico’s failure to provide basic care to people with HIV/AIDS. In December, the FBI raided four San Juan Health Department offices, freezing million of dollars in Ryan White CARE Act Title I funds. While the Puerto Rican Health Department claims there is no longer an AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waiting list for medications, activists have documented hundreds of people who are still waiting to receive medications.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has the power to instruct the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the division of HHS that oversees HIV/AIDS in all U.S. states and territories, to take over the dispersal of millions in Ryan White CARE Act funds in Puerto Rico. HRSA has taken such action in U.S cities such as Washington, D.C, Baltimore and Orlando. So far HRSA has refused to get involved in Puerto Rico, stating in a press release, “Each [Ryan White] grantee is ultimately responsible for planning allocating, and administering its funds.”
More than 30,000 people in Puerto Rico with HIV/AIDS are now fighting for their lives. More than 19,000 Puerto Ricans have died from AIDS.
To participate in the press conference, e-mail Tamara Oyola-Santiago at t.oyola-santiago@housingworks.org. More more information on the phone zap, click here or e-mail James Albino at jalbino@nmac.org.
October 12, 2007
NATIONAL LATINO AIDS AWARENESS DAY: MONDAY OCT. 15
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For the last month, people around the country have been celebrating Hispanic Heritage month, but those celebrations will culminate with a call to action: On Monday, October 15, some 1,000 organizations in 350 cities will mark National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD) to bring attention to a disease which affects Latinos in disproportionate numbers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos account for 20 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS but make up only 14 percent of the population. The AIDS case rate among Latino adults/adolescents was the second highest of any racial/ethnic group in the U.S. (25 per 100,000 people) and 3.5 times that of whites in 2004. More than 75,000 Latinos have died of AIDS.
Here in New York City, Latinos account for approximately one-third of the city's 100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. New HIV infections among Latinas have plummeted almost 50 percent since 2002 but most other statistics are less encouraging. The number of new AIDS diagnoses among Latinos (men and women), for example, has barely changed since 2002.
For the last year, Latino AIDS advocates and others in the AIDS community have been galvanized by the ongoing AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico, where mismanagement of AIDS funds has frayed the commonwealth's AIDS infrastructure and left unknown numbers of people without access to medications. A handful of groups are using NLAAD as an opportunity to do a phone zap of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, in hopes of prompting him to take immediate action. If you're interested in joining the Campaign to End AIDS, Puerto Rico and New York chapters of Unidos Dandole Cara La Al SIDA, National Minority AIDS Council and Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project in the phone zap,go to http://www.c2ea.org/subscribe.html
Also in honor of Latino AIDS Awareness Day, today at 2 p.m. ACT UP Philadelphia will mark NLAAD with a press conference at which it will call for intensified action to fight AIDS in the Latino community. Dismantling stigma, increasing access to health care, HIV prevention and competent translation services are among ACT UP's demands. That press conference will be held in front of Taller Puertoqueno, 2751 N. 5th St in Philadelphia. For more information on that press conference, contact Sam Morales at 215-837-9545.
September 28, 2007
COMMITMENT TO CHANGE
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The East New York Gospel Choir shows Housing Works' fighting spirit |
Housing Works is (in)famous for its fierce advocacy so it was no surprise that our annual meeting at Harlem's Schomburg Center on Wednesday highlighted two of our ongoing battles: Making sure that all low-income New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS are protected from Draconian rent increases and expanding New York City's HIV/AIDS Services Administration benefits to include all low-income people with HIV (read all about both in our 2007 Annual Report.)
Although the meeting had its customary celebratory and commemorative mood—established by the East New York Gospel Choir out of our East New York Adult Day Health Center—Housing Works president and CEO Charles King reminded the community from the podium that HASA for All is the "single most important thing we can do to end the AIDS epidemic in New York City." An emotional video chronicled another major 2007 effort: Housing Works' campaign to reverse a Pataki-era policy imposing rent increases on people with HIV living in supportive housing—as well as noting our hopes of expanding rent protections and benefits to all poor people with HIV statewide. And Housing Works Chief Financial Officer Andrew Coamey pointed out that the organization would continue to dedicate five percent of its annual budget (which should work out to more than two million dollars) to advocacy and legal services.
"It was an opportune moment to talk about our advocacy because elected officials who can help us meet our goals were in the audience," said Housing Works Legislative Counsel Michael Kink. In attendance were New York City Councilmember Melissa Mark Viverito and State Senator Bill Perkins, both of whom serve Harlem, as well as a representative from New York congresswoman Yvette Clark's office, and a representative from City Councilmember Inez Dickens' office.
Housing Works annual meeting is an essential part of our calendar because Housing Works is a membership organization and its employees are accountable to its membership, which includes clients and volunteers. Highlights from the annual report brings the Housing Works community up to date on how we're doing, from our services to our human resources to our budget projections to, of course, our advocacy. The annual meeting is also a collective way of remembering those who have passed away in the last year—and throughout all the hard years of the AIDS epidemic.
And, of course, it's a chance to celebrate life: After the ceremony was over, the crowd adjourned to the lobby for dessert and dancing. Even the presence of four firemen who had come investigate a screeching alarm couldn't stop the party.
September 21, 2006
SENATORS! AMEND DO NOT EXTEND RYAN WHITE!
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Senator Lautenberg leads an effort to turn back the clock on Ryan White. |
Dear Senators,
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is planning to introduce a bill tonight to extend the Ryan White CARE Act through fiscal year 2007. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Menendez (D-NJ), Schumer (D-NY), Clinton (D-NY), Obama (D-IL), Durbin (D-IL), and Nelson (D-FL). Although we applaud efforts to preserve funding at risk in the reauthorization process, Housing Works cannot support a measure that freezes AIDS treatment and care for another year.
For too long, people living with HIV/AIDS and frontline AIDS service providers have all made do with hopelessly inadequate funding. As of last week, nearly 200 people were on the wait list for drugs in South Carolina. Meanwhile, in New York, the over 125,000 people living with HIV/AIDS stand to loose $78 million in Title II funding over the next four years under the current Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 (the bill to reauthorize Ryan White).
The "new" Ryan White cuts funding relied on by PLWAs, primarily in the original epicenters of AIDS. The "old" Ryan White shortchanges people newly infected, primarily living in rural areas and the Deep South. This geographic splitting is partisan politics at play. We will not sacrifice people living with HIV/AIDS anywhere in the country to bolster anyone's ratings at the polls this November.
The reauthorization bill could be on the floor of the Senate tonight. Congress must pass reauthorization before October, but the reauthorization must be just. These four clear fixes can and should be implemented as amendments:
1. EXPAND FUNDING BY $500M TO ENSURE ACCESS TO CARE NATIONWIDE
Stop playing regional politics and get the money we need to care for all Americans living with HIV/AIDS into this bill. We need a total of $500 million in additional funding to eliminate ADAP waiting lists, support areas with emerging epidemics, and protect access and quality in high-prevalence areas. This includes a $70 million increase for Title II base and an additional $197 million for ADAP - the amount identified by treatment experts as needed to allow all states to provide a minimum level of service to those in need.
2. EXTEND "HOLD HARMLESS" PROVISIONS TO FIVE YEARS
We must protect lifesaving HIV care systems from dramatic funding cuts that will put lives at risk - adequate new funding for emerging areas and assurance of continued support for high-prevalence epicenters will mean a reauthorization that everyone can support.
3. REVISE "CORE MEDICAL SERVICES" REQUIREMENT TO ALLOW SERVICES THAT SUPPORT TREATMENT ADHERENCE AND GOOD HEALTH
Housing, food, transportation and legal services are lifesavers - it's hard to stick to your meds if you're homeless, hungry, can't get to the doctor or are in danger of losing your home or kids. We must modify "core medical services" spending requirements to allow spending on supportive services that save lives.
4. KEEP THE FOCUS ON TREATMENT AND CARE - STRIP TESTING LANGUAGE OUT
We must reject attempts to use Ryan White to redirect CDC prevention funding and cement controversial HIV testing policies. Congress should eliminate the "Early Diagnosis Grant Program" section in current drafts of reauthorization legislation.
Housing Works calls on you to build support for a consensus reauthorization plan that will ensure lifesaving, quality HIV care to everyone in our nation living with HIV. Once we've passed the reauthorization, then we can all work towards a plan for universal access by 2010.
Sincerely,
Charles King
President, Housing Works
November 10, 2005
CALL YOUR REP RIGHT NOW!
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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: C2EAers in D.C. this weekend combined Hill visits with nonviolent protests |
Hundreds of Campaign To End AIDS campaigners hit Capitol Hill on Tuesday, visiting virtually all 535 members of Congress with a clear message: It's time to end AIDS.
Senators, Representatives and staff told us over and over again how they'd seen media coverage of the C2EA caravans and the Four Days of Action and how much they admired the folks who fought so hard to get to Washington. The grassroots power of the Campaign to End AIDS is hitting our elected representatives hard—and it's time to keep the pressure on.
Today, the House of Representatives will try to pass a terrible budget package, with billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts aimed directly at people with AIDS, plus more cuts to programs for poor and disabled Americans.
Right now, House leaders don't have the votes to pass their destructive budget—but that could be changing as we speak. That's why every call you make today could make a difference.
Call your Representative toll-free at 888-802-1207 with one simple message:
"Vote NO on the House budget today. It's a matter of life and death for people with AIDS. We can't afford to lose Medicaid and other crucial services that keep us alive."
If you need to find out who represents you in the House of Representatives, visit www.congress.org.