May 9, 2008
HOTEL HELL
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HASA client Abrams shares his housing nightmare at the Saturday rally |
A spirited rally last Saturday targeted landlord Hank Freid for illegally converting commercial single room occupancies (SROs) meant for low-income people, many with HIV, into hotels for tourists.
"It's a crime and a shame," said Eric Abrams, a HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) client who is suing Freid to stay in his room at Freid's Broadway Hotel on Broadway & 101st Street. More than 50 people attended the rally, organized by the Goddard Riverside West Side SRO Law Project, New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), City Councilmembers Melissa Mark Viverito and Gail Brewer, the Housing Conservation Coordinators and the West Side Neighborhood Alliance, and included a skit featuring a HASA representative throwing money at a scary, giant Freid.(see below).
.In 2005 and 2006, Freid illegally used the government's hefty investment—up to $2,400 a room for HASA clients—to turn three properties into cash-only tourist hotels where Abrams and other permanent residents aren't allowed to use amenities like a computer lounge. For pictures of the discrepancies in conditions, click here. HASA pays Freid $2,100 a month for Abrams' apartment. And while that's already pricey, Freid now gets $159 a night for a single room from unsuspecting tourists. (Incidentally, Freid doesn't get high marks from past guests).
Although there are many properties in New York being turned into hotels, Freid, ranked #5 on Housing Here and Now's "Worst NYC Landlords" list, has long been one of the most egregious violators of city policy, and advocates are trying to take him to task. "He took HASA money and didn't invest in this building," said Yarrow Willman-Cole, a tenant organizer at Goddard Riverside West Side SRO Law Project. "His buildings have long had all these drug problems and crimes. And now he's trying to improve his image? It's, like, 'Wait, back up!' It's illegal. He's still bending the laws and getting away with this."
Freid told the New York Observer, that he caught heat both when he housed people with AIDS and when he kicked them out. "I was only trying to help, and it backfired on me," he said. "So I went the other way."
Bullied out the door
When Abrams moved into the Broadway Hotel in July 2003, he was one of 80 people with HIV/AIDS living there as part of a "memorandum of understanding" (MOU)—essentially a gentleman's agreement that allows either HASA or the landlord to back out at any time. Abrams is now the only HASA client in the Broadway Hotel. His rent-stabilized neighbors have diminished to about a dozen, with many former tenants living on the streets because of the lack of affordable housing in the neighborhood.
Before being turned into a hotel, like many SROs in the city, the Broadway Hotel was a mecca for crime, and conditions were unsanitary. Abrams said he could "buy drugs and sell AIDS meds at the same time." Nonetheless, it was better than the permanent housing HASA offered him, where doors didn't lock in neighborhoods that felt unsafe. "At a certain point I had to start living my life right now," he said. Through a private lawyer, Abrams has been in housing court for more than a year in order to stay at the Broadway Hotel, despite threats to evict him. Tenants have been locked out of the building, offered repeated buy outs and otherwise bullied into leaving. Tenants at Freid's Malibu Hotel worked with Housing Works lawyers after they were given 30 days to leave. The case settled out of court.
Bloomberg and the City Council are making some attempts to stop the despicable practices of landlords like Freid. In October a judge ruled on a case, brought by the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement that three converted SROs were illegally converted into hotels because of zoning violations. Councilmember Gail Brewer is also sponsoring a bill (Intro 534) that would substantially increase penalties for landlords that flout these rules from a one-time fee of $800 to $10,000 per converted unit.
Complications
New York City, and particularly HASA, has had a complicated relationship with SROs long before the issue of illegal hotels. In 1987 the city contracted with commercial landlords to provide homeless and low-income people with access to no-frills housing, with shared bathrooms and kitchens. The Comptroller issued a scathing audit way back in 1999,. Since then there has been some improvement in the SRO conditions."
"The central problem we used to have was substandard conditions in the building. Now the landlords are willing to put it more resources, but for newcomers or tourists, not for the residents," said John Raskin, at the Housing Conservation Coordinators.
Under a court mandate that all people with AIDS in the city be housed, HASA grabbed many of those rooms and entered into MOUs to pay per diem rates well-above market value. Currently the average monthly rate per room is $1,1650 a month, and can be as high as $2500 a month—compared to $400 to $500 for other low-income tenants. For this price, clients receive no support services, and even normal amenities are subpar.According to Barbara Brancaccio, HRA executive deputy commissioner, "These facilities offer several advantages at a reasonable cost to the City as it works collaboratively with clients to identify and secure the most appropriate, sustainable long-term housing option."
HASA has done a better job at placing people in long-term housing in recent years, reducing its dependence on SROs. HASA had 940 clients in SROs in April 2008, down from 1,1182 clients in SROs in 1998. In addition HASA has MOU agreements with 37 SRO facilities, down from 72 in 2004.
NYCAHN organizer Jeremy Saunders said, "SROs are notorious for not being well-maintained, for drug use, and other flaws. And landlords are making a lot of money off of SROs. But at the same time, we need them,"
May 2, 2008
LESS MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS
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HASA clients are ending up at the back of the rental line |
AIDS housing providers are demanding that the city level the affordable-housing playing field for poor people living with AIDS. This week, advocates sent a letter to the New York City Human Resources Administration (NYCHRA) and the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) asking for a long-overdue rate increase for HASA scatter site housing. Because HASA reimburses landlords at woefully outdated rates, HASA clients are losing out to tenants eligible for Section 8 housing.
"HASA's payment standards are now grossly outdated, and their declining value has become a major impediment to securing adequate housing for clients seeking private market apartments," read a letter sent Monday to NYCHRA Commissioner Robert Doar and HASA Deputy Commissioner Matthew Brune and signed by housing providers including the African Services Committee, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Harlem United, Housing Works and the New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN). The Scattersite II Coalition sent a separate letter to HRA/HASA Director of Housing John Ruscillo also asking for a rate increase.
Currently, HASA provides rental assistance at 2002 levels, while Section 8 housing rates have increased 17 percent since 2002. Providers want HRA to peg its level of enhanced rental assistance to 110 percent of the Housing and Urban Development established fair market rents (FMR) and index the rental assistance to FMR levels in the future. The FMR for a one-bedroom in New York counties is $1,185. HASA's current rate for a one-bedroom is approximately $940. If HASA raises its rate according to advocate demands, that amount would rise to $1300 for a one bedroom.
Advocates have long lobbied for the HASA increase, but, according to Marina Oteiza, program director at Weston United Community Focus Program and one of the founders of the Scattersite II Coalition, the city always points the finger at the feds' flat funding. The time for excuses, however, has passed. "For a while, clients were still kind of managing," Oteiza said. "Slowly but surely, we were trying to stay competitive and housing stock kept diminishing and diminishing."
Insiders say that HRA knows its rates for HASA aren't competitive and have to do something—the question is, will they raise rates high enough to remedy the problem?
"We need to make sure it's more than a token increase," said NYCAHN co-director Sean Barry.
For more information about getting involved with this effort, contact Sean Barry at barry@nycahn.org or Marina Oteiza at moteiza@westonunited.org.
April 18, 2008
PAYING IT BACKWARDS
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Taking money from poor people isn't how the City and State should pay for their mistakes |
In the first step towards an important victory for poor New Yorkers, on Wednesday a New York State Supreme Court Justice denied the City and State's motion to dismiss Williams v. Hansell, a case challenging the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) for taking more than $3,000 from James Williams, a poor person living with AIDS, to recoup money lost through its own errors. Justice Paul G. Fineman ruled that "the issue is one of importance and novelty" and is allowing the case to go forward.
In 2004, Williams applied for federal SSI benefits. Because that process can take more than a year, in the meantime, Williams signed up for interim HASA benefits. Although Williams informed HASA that the federal Section 8 program was paying his rent, HASA sent duplicative rent checks to his landlord. The landlord unsurprisingly cashed more than $3,000 in checks from HASA even though Williams' rent was being paid by the federal government.
Yet once HASA realized its mistake, instead of going after the landlord, it took the money from Williams. When Williams filed a Fair Hearing to challenge the City, the State refused to hear his challenge and failed to document the grounds upon which it did so, depriving Williams of due process.
Once Housing Works sued the City and the State on behalf of Williams in April 2007, however, HASA immediately reimbursed Williams. "What the government often does is, when they know they will lose on the law, they say, 'Here's your 3,000 dollars. Let's make the case go away,'" said Housing Works staff attorney Robert Bacigalupi, lead counsel on the case. "It's called 'favorable mooting.''"
Though typically a case no longer has standing once the plaintiff recovers his money, Justice Fineman agreed with Housing Works' argument that because the case is both important and likely to reoccur, the court can proceed to decide this issue on behalf of other poor people, an exception to the so-called "mootness doctrine." Bacigalupi argued effectively that the government attempting to recover money it paid in error is a common problem in the City and State.
"The great thing about this decision is that the justice credited the solid evidence that this is a recurrent problem in his decision, which makes it hard for the City and State to contest the decision," Bacigalupi said.
But that doesn't mean they won't try. Hopefully, though, they will realize that poor people shouldn't pay for their errors and think better of any further challenges.
March 28, 2008
TAKING THE FUN OUT OF FUNDING
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And Communities of Color funding allocation will start...soon |
After almost ten months of City Council-imposed delays, 31 organizations finally received letters of notification Monday that they will receive $40,000-minimum grants as part of the $2.6 million HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education program, better known as the Communities of Color (COC) funding. COC dollars are intended to combat HIV/AIDS mortality and morbidity rates in minority communities in New York City, but the City Council has undermined the effective use of the money by holding up its release: AIDS groups will only have until June 30, 2008—at the very most three months—to spend all their COC money, despite the fact that the programs it supports often run year-round.
A day after the grant letters were delivered, Public Health Solutions, formerly the Medical and Health Research Association (MHRA), announced a Request for Applications (RFA), for organizations from Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island to apply for COC funding. The timing is not a coincidence: As the Update reported last month, millions in COC money appears to have been delayed until City Council could ensure that PHS would reach out to AIDS groups in those three boroughs—and appease the Council Members that represent them. The new RFA process is expected to add about 20 more organizations to the list of groups getting COC money. Depending on how many new groups actually apply by the April 8 deadline, the 31 organizations that are already set to receive funding could see their awards increase. If your organization would like to apply for a grant, for the full RFA, click here.
Sixteen of the organizations receiving COC grants were funded last year. In order to grow the number of groups participating in the program, the City handed out more and smaller awards, allowing it to fund 15 more groups that were denied money last year.
Guillermo Cruz, Jr., Deputy Director of Procurement and Contracts Administration, Public Health Solutions/HIV Care Services assured the Update that PHS will speedily expedite the new RFAs. The groups that have received funding in the past have yet to get their contracts, but won't have to submit new proposals to receive funding. New groups will be encouraged to apply with a pared-down RFA—purposely not called a Request for Proposals (RFP) to highlight this fact— composed mostly of yes and no questions.
"We're trying to do this as simply as possible," Cruz said. "We're very sensitive to the fact that the notifications are going out very late. It's too late to process a full RFP for this."
System is broken
The damage is already done. Grantees will then have to go on spending sprees until June 30, 2008 to use the money that was intended to span a year.
"It's a shame, because Communities of Color funding is a great initiative and I think organizations as a whole have done very well with the money," said Chris Norwood, executive director of Health People Inc. in the Bronx, which will receive a grant again this year. "Last year we did outreach like SWAT teams and got people into care. Even though it's not a large sum, we've been able to get a lot accomplished."
But as Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Thomas Frieden told the City Council a nine month delay in funding "is not a process that leads itself to effective programming."
And unfortunately, as community-based organizations that regularly deal with City Council-financed programs know, the hold-up isn't unique. African Services Committee Co-executive Director Kim Nichols said her group receives about $600,000 in City Council money, but, thanks to chronic funding delays, it must find its own advance funding for its treatment adherence program, legal services, ESL and other programs. "We've spent tens of thousands on late fees and services. I shudder to think how much I spend on that over the years. We incur all kinds of interest and fees in borrowing money."
"I don't think we need to say, 'This is just how bureaucracy has to work,'" Nichols said. "The federal government does a better job with their contracts, and they have a lot more to process. It's a problem specific to New York City."
March 14, 2008
WHAT A DRAG
Council Members livid at delay in prevention funds
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Frieden defended the DOH |
The ongoing nine month delay in distributing $2.7 million dollars intended to fight HIV/AIDS among communities of color "is not a process that leads itself to effective programming," Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Tom Frieden said Tuesday in his address at the City Council preliminary budget hearing for the Committee on Health. And, as Frieden noted, "In this instance, it's not the fault of the Department of Health."
Since its inception, the City has taken so long to distribute its HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education program money, better known as the Communities of Color, or COC, funds, that the deserving organizations who desperately need the dollars will have to scramble to spend them before the June 30 fiscal year deadline. This diminishes their ability to serve the folks the money is intended to help. Frieden diplomatically didn't point fingers, but we can: City Council is responsible for the hold-up.
As the Update reported last month, the COC funding, which was approved during the June 2007 New York City budget agreement, has been held up unconscionably long year after year. This year, according to the City Council finance department, request for proposals (RFPs) were delayed because the City Council solicited more community-based organizations from Queens, since no groups from the borough applied last year. This lag was intended to expand the geographic scope of participating organizations—and the number of council members' districts.
According to City Council Finance and Public Health Solutions (more commonly known as its former name MHRA) which distributes the awards, the 12 groups in Manhattan and Brooklyn that received funding last year are going to receive letters in the next couple of weeks notifying them about their awards. The awards are expected to be reduced from $75,000-$125,000 to $40,000-$50,000 this year, in order to add to funds for new groups from the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.
The four groups from Staten Island and the Bronx that received funding last year— Community Health Action Of Staten Island and in the Health People Inc. New York Harm Reduction Educators, Inc and New York Harm Reduction Educators—are not expected to receive funding this year.
The actual funding comes through in April—meaning the groups, many of them with tiny budgets—will have at most three months to implement programs and spend the money by June 30, when the funding expires. As Ding Pharjaron, director of development at the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition in HIV/AIDS, told the Update last month, "We're just waiting. It's very difficult to create a program when there's such a short period of time to implement it. It all depends on what the City Council wants. Maybe they'll be able to do it, maybe not."
Make some noise
Many City Council members were unaware City Council was responsible for this year's delay in COC money. Council Member Kendall Stewart, who had asked Frieden about the COC funding, blamed the Department of Health until a member of the City Council Finance department clarified the situation. After he learned that it was the Council delaying the money, Stewart told the Update, "I'm going to make a lot of noise to make sure this doesn't happen again. It's not just this funding. A lot of agencies seem not to get the money they need. There needs to be a structure."
When Council Member Rosie Mendez was told about the short time frame groups would have to spend money, she said, "We need to figure out a new system."
Council Member Diana Reyna said the delay in funding is a perpetual problem, and pressure needs to be put on Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "It's a disservice to the communities, both people who use the services and the non-profits that have less time to provide the much-needed services. I hope Council leadership will impose serious deadlines on distributing funding," she said. "Even a good time-table is January."
When asked for a response, Quinn's office only issued the following statement: "In the next few weeks, Public Health Solutions will be conducting a mini-solicitation of groups to ensure that all five boroughs have equitable access to funding. Once that solicitation is complete, we'll be able to allocate funding to qualified organizations."
Housing Works has an idea: For next year (FY 2008 - 2009), City Council should renew for the groups in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island that scored well enough to receive funding this year. The pot of money should be increased from $2.7 million to $4.2 million (a $1.5 million dollar add) and the extra funds should be used to solicit new providers from all five years boroughs. The same system could be put in place for the next year. Should Council members want a new group from their respective districts to receive funding, the funding levels would need to be increased.
Other news...
Although many issues were discussed at the health committee hearing on the preliminary budget—from putting fruit in grocery stores to restaurant health inspections to smoking cessation to the excessive number of rats in New York City apartments—HIV prevention was the only topic that came with party favors. When Frieden discussed DOH's record 17,770 condoms distributed in 2007, his aides handed out the new NYC rubbers to all council members, some of whom took multiple handfuls, like Council Members Simcha Felder and John Liu. Liu joked, "I'm going to need more of these."
In all seriousness, Frieden noted that while HIV prevention across the board in New York City has seen improvements—with the number of new AIDS diagnoses decreasing from 4,345 in 2005 to 3,750 in 2007, and new pediatric AIDS cases in 2007 only numbering 2—the increase of sexually transmitted infections among young men who have sex with men is troubling. "It seems that we have an age effect where men who have come of age recently and weren't directly affected by the AIDS epidemic are less likely to use condoms," Frieden said."We've got good HIV treatment, but we need to get the message across differently that treatment is no picnic." New infections among MSM under age 30 have increased by 33 percent during the past six years, according to the DOH, from 374 in 2001 to almost 500 in 2006.
In addition, Frieden said that DOH is looking at ways to spend prevention dollars more effectively. "We're spending a lot of money on prevention, but we're not getting the return we should," he said. He said he welcomed continuing discussion on the issue with the Council and community-based organizations.
HOUSING HUDDLE
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AIDS housing providers put their heads together this week. |
On Tuesday, for the first time since the dissolution of the New York City Planning Council housing work group, AIDS housing organizations came together for an AIDS Housing Advocacy Summit to compare notes on a host of issues preventing poor people living with HIV/AIDS from getting adequate housing.
Statewide, about 10,000 low-income people with HIV/AIDS are forced to live on an unlivable budget of $330 a month because all of their other income, such as SSI benefits, must go towards their rent. That leaves almost nothing—$11 a day to be precise—for nutrition, transportation and everything else. "A client told me, 'I'll budget my money when I have money to budget,'" Bailey House Executive Director Gina Quattrochi said, a story familiar to other housing providers in attendance.
The summit, which was organized by the New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), attracted more than 40 representatives from 24 groups, including Harlem United, Services for the Underserved, West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing(WSFSSH), Gay Men's Health Crisis, and the Hudson Planning Group.Quattrochi and others say the egregiously low living allowances for poor folks with HIV/AIDS in state-subsidized housing can be solved if state legislators will pass legislation capping their rents at 30 percent. New York's HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA), which provides housing assistance to low-income people with AIDS, is the only rental program in the state that doesn't implement such a cap in accordance with Housing and Urban Development guidelines. Another way to ease the burden on people with HIV/AIDS would be to increase the public assistance base grant levels, which haven't seen an increase in 17 years.
Two other major housing obstacles were on the summit agenda. One was HASA's outdated rental allowance reimbursement, which still follows 2002 Section 8 fair market guidelines and doesn't keep pace with apartment prices, even as other Section 8 programs have been adjusted to keep up with housing prices. People with AIDS are competing for rental units with people who have hundreds more dollars to spend each month—forcing them to move far away from health care providers and support. "It's a ripple effect," said NYCAHN co-director Sean Barry. "We're not just talking about 10 minutes more on the subway." Barry and other attendees want HASA to peg their rental increases to 110 percent of the Housing and Urban Development fair market rents.
Numerous roadblocks
The other daunting challenge was the longstanding state law that says when a non-profit organization leases a rent-controlled apartment, once the first contract of the lease is completed, the unit is immediately deregulated. This affects scattersite housing as the market increases, and agencies must move clients because they can no longer afford the rents.
Despite the numerous roadbloacks to sane housing policies for low-income and homeless people with HIV/AIDS, the organizations at the summit were relieved to have reconvened. "It has been a while since the providers have been able to get together and share concerns raising different issues," said Barbara Van Buren, AIDS coordinator and director of development for West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing. Her group has 18 units of AIDS housing out of its 1,500 residences. "Usually everyone has their individual problems with HASA, but it's hard to assess which things we should be working on.".
"People were unified in supporting each other," said Barry, who is already planning the next summit, focused on the HASA for All campaign that would extend rental assistance and other important benefits to asymptomatic people with HIV before they get seriously ill, not after. "Even if an issue didn't directly effect an organization, everyone was concerned about how to solve it."
March 7, 2008
PROUD TO DO NOTHING?
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Holley shows her Irish (and HASA for All) pride |
At the St. Pat's for All Parade last Sunday in Sunnyside, Queens, grand marshall Christine Quinn won cheers when she praised the LGBT-inclusive event (she's crusaded against its homophobic 5th Avenue cousin for years). But marchers from Housing Works, the New York City AIDS Housing Network and CitiWide Harm Reduction were on hand to remind the openly gay and openly Irish City Council Speaker that even as she marched for equality, she was leaving poor people with HIV behind.
Fifteen representatives of those AIDS groups used an invitation Housing Works received to participate in the parade to highlight Quinn's opposition to the HASA for All Act, which would extend rental assistance and other benefits to poor people living with HIV before they get sick. Currently, the city's HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) requires people with the virus to get gravely ill before they can access they benefits. The HASA for All marchers handed out pale green fliers bearing Quinn's image with the words "PROUD TO DO NOTHING?" over her eyes and mouth and on the flipside, her shocking quote that "if we housed people with HIV, then we would have to house homeless people with cancer and diabetes, too.""She turned our back to us and told us to kiss her behind," said Laverne Holley, an HIV-positive NYCAHN board member who marched in the parade. "I don't appreciate that. It's going to cost more in the long-run as people get sicker and require more care. It's penny-wise and pound foolish."
Though Quinn isn't convinced of the efficacy of HASA for All, which would help some 7,000 poor people New Yorkers living with HIV and is supported by solid research, the legislation was an easy sell for parade participants and spectators who applauded the HASA for All contingent. Many wondered incredulously why New York City isn't housing all sick people.
"Housing is incredibly important, especially for people with HIV/AIDS, but for everyone who needs housing," said Hugh Ryan, a member of the band and dance troupe Rude Mechanical Orchestra, who helped publicize the HASA for All Campaign by spontaneously strapping one of the green fliers to his suspenders. (See the group's dance below)
A number of other groups used the St. Pat's for All parade to criticize Quinn. The groups, not surprisingly clumped together toward the back of the parade and far from its grand marshal, included the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, the Radical Homosexual Agenda and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC).
The backlash against Quinn, who is widely believed to be eyeing a 2009 mayoral run, was summed up by Tibby Brooks, who was marching with the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition(NYC): "Christine Quinn was a very nice lady until she tasted power," Brooks said.
For more information about the HASA for All campaign contact terri smith-caronia at smith-caronia@housingworks.org
February 22, 2008
PUTTING THE TRANS BACK IN TRANSIT
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Discrimination shouldn't be along for the ride |
Transgender rights are human rights. A New York Supreme Court justice upheld that notion when he ruled on Monday that employees of the New York City Transit Authority aren't exempt from New York City Human Rights Law, and thus can be held liable for discrimination on the basis of gender expression. The ruling means that a lawsuit against a Transit Authority employee for discriminating against transgender subway rider Tracy Bumpus can move forward. It also means that 40,000 Transit Authority employees must abide by New York City's Human Rights Law, which unlike New York State law, protects people on the basis of gender identity.
As Justice Robert J. Miller explained in his detailed decision: "The Human Rights Law affords protection to transgender people in New York City. By riding the subway, a transgender person doesn't become less of a person and lose the protection of the Human Rights Law."
This is the first time that a New York State court has ruled that Transit Authority employees are not exempt from the antidiscrimination provisions of the New York City Human Rights Law.
"This won't just affect Ms. Bumpus but everyone of transgender experience, and puts the ball for transgender justice a little further down the field," said Robert Bacigalupi, staff attorney at Housing Works and counsel for Bumpus. "It establishes that the more than 40,000 employees of the Transit Authority are not immune from liability when discriminating against anyone, whether it be on the basis of race, creed, or, as here, gender identity and expression. This is a welcome precedent."
Bumpus, represented by Housing Works, filed suit against the Transit Authority and one of its employees in 2006, alleging that Transit employees subjected her to a series of transgender-phobic ("transphobic") incidents, beginning with a vicious and sustained transphobic tirade on a subway platform after she requested assistance with her MetroCard.
Next stop, victory
This week's ruling is the latest in a string of victories in the case of Bumpus v. New York City Transit Authority. In separate motions, the Transit Authority had moved to dismiss both the claims against it and its employee. Last month, the Appellate Division unanimously upheld a New York State Supreme Court decision in which it refused to dismiss Bumpus' claim against the Transit Authority for negligent supervision, training, and retention of the lead employee in question.
While Bacigalupi expects that the Transit Authority will appeal the most recent decision, as they did the previous motion, that's not necessarily a bad thing. "That would just mean we'd probably get a decision ruling in our favor at a higher level."
KEITH D. CYLAR AWARDS ANNOUNCED
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Cylar award honoree Williams, with her son Reggie |
When Diane Williams found out that she was being awarded the Keith D. Cylar Housing Works AIDS Activist Award, she thought she might have a heart attack. "I was so excited that I felt dizzy, and then I just started to cry," said Williams, who came to Housing Works in 1993 as a client, graduated from the Second Life Job Training Program in 2003, and has become one of the organization's most visible activists."To come this far and get recognized for something I love doing is overwhelming. It's an honor for all women who are HIV-positive and struggle with this illness."
Williams, who will receive a $5,000 grant as part of the award, is one of the activists who will be honored at the fourth-annual Keith D. Cylar Activist Awards and Benefit Gala on Thursday, April 17, at 6pm, at the Times Center (242 W. 41st Street). (To purchase tickets, click here). In the weeks leading up to the April 17 event, the Update will profile Williams and the other Cylar Award recipients. The other recipients are Esther Boucicault, founder and director of the Fondation Esther Boucicault Stanislas (FEBS), in St. Marc, Haiti and Gloria Gonzalez, an AIDS activist from Fajardo, Puerto Rico.
The Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awards are given to activists who have shown a tireless dedication to combating the pervasive stigma and discrimination faced by people with HIV/AIDS. Their work reflects the spirit of Housing Works cofounder and pioneering AIDS activist Keith D. Cylar, who died of AIDS-related complications in 2004.
"This year's Cylar Awards recipients reflect Keith's determination not to be cowed by the seemingly overwhelming task of ending the AIDS epidemic," says Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. "In Haiti, in Puerto Rico and right here in New York State, these activists have shown that there's no limit to the impact an individual can have in the global effort to fight AIDS."
More about the awardees:
Esther Boucicault International AIDS Activist Award, $10,000 grant. Boucicault was the first person to speak publicly about having HIV in Haiti, where people living with HIV/AIDS are profoundly stigmatized. Boucicault is the founder and director of the Fondation Esther Boucicault Stanislas, which provides pioneering treatment and support services to hundreds of people living with HIV/AIDS in Haiti's Bas-Artibonite region. She also helped create the National Solidarity Association (Haiti's foremost AIDS group led by people living with HIV/AIDS) and regularly speaks throughout the country about HIV prevention, including the still-taboo topic of safer-sex.
Gloria Gonzalez, U.S. AIDS Activist Award, $10,000 grant. Gonzalez is an HIV-positive AIDS activist and former injection-drug user (IDU) who is fighting to bring syringe-exchange, treatment, housing and HIV prevention programs to IDUs in her native Puerto Rico. Despite the fact that IDUs account for 50 percent of new HIV infections on the island, the Puerto Rican government has no IDU prevention programs. Gonzalez dreams of creating housing for IDUs in an abandoned factory not far from a shooting gallery in her hometown of Fajardo.
Diane Williams, Housing Works AIDS Activist Award, $5,000 grant. Williams came to Housing Works as a client in 1994. She has since become one of the most visible members of the Housing Works community. A graduate of our Second Life Job Training Program, Williams works as an administrative assistant to the Senior Vice President for Housing/Chief Financial Officer and regularly participates in Housing Works AIDS advocacy efforts. She has been arrested at numerous civil disobedience actions, including a peaceful take-over of Bush/Cheney campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, in 2004.
The April 17 gala benefit celebrating the Cylar Awards raises money for the Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Fund, which is halfway to reaching a self-sustaining $3 million. Cylar Awardees will also attend a luncheon with representatives from major New York City foundations and go to Washington, D.C., for meetings with policy makers and members of Congress and a reception on Capitol Hill.
For more information about the Cylar Awards go to Cylarawards.com. And read the Update in the weeks to follow for in-depth profiles of the award recipients.
February 15, 2008
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
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Donovan assesses housing progress |
On Wednesday a panel of experts said that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 10-year plan to create or preserve 165,000 affordable housing units by 2013 is on track, with 70,000 units already completed. But advocates for the indigent and homeless say that not enough of the $7.5 billion project brings housing to the homeless.
The presentation summarized the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) report, which was issued at the request of the Women's City Club (WCC) of New York and Housing First! The expert panel included WCC Vice President of Public Policy Barbara Zucker, Housing First! Coordinator David Muchnick, IBO Deputy Director Preston Niblack and New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan.
The panel unanimously praised the progress of the Mayor's plan but expressed concern that as it shifts from restoration of properties to building new apartments, the pace of development could slow. There is no way of knowing if a future mayor will complete the project, but the Mayor's office is hoping to lay the groundwork, citing former Mayor Koch's plan, which was completed by Mayor Dinkins.
Homes for the homeless?
Sixty-eight percent of the planned 165,000 housing units are set aside for "low income" residents—defined as families of four earning $57,000 a year or $39,700 for a single person. Eleven percent of the units are for "moderate income" households—families of four who earn up to $85,080. Twenty-one percent of the housing units will be set aside for "middle income households," or families of four earning between $85,080 and $141,750 for a family of four.
According to the IBO study, of the units completed by 2006, 80 percent were for low-income households. The IBO broke "low-income" down into more specific categories. Of completed low-income residences, 25 percent were for households that make less than $21,270 a year, and another 32 percent were for households that make between $21,270 and $35,450. But the Partnership for the Homeless (PFTH) argues that 75 percent of the planned 165,000 affordable housing units should go to those making between $21,270 and $42,540.
"We work with home health aids and security guards, and we're trying to increase their incomes. In the meantime they need housing," said Heidi Siegfried, a PFTH supervising attorney who attended the panel. "We need new constructions for these families. I don't understand why we are building housing for those who make incomes twice what I make."
Frank Clark, currently homeless and living in the shelter system, agreed. "This presentation didn't answer the question of how to deal with New Yorkers in poverty and the growing homeless population that is a result of the housing market," Clark, a representative with Picture the Homeless, told the Update.
Muchnick, while praising the Mayor's plan, also questioned how well it will address the city's increasing rates of homelessness. According to the HPD, although no housing is specifically set aside for the homeless population there are 3,000 units of supportive housing, plus 9,000 additional units supplied by NY/NY III, a joint city-state housing project.
When Siegfried asked Donovan why housing subsidies are being provided to New Yorkers making six-figures, he responded that the plan attempts to strike a balance between providing housing for low-income residents and the middle-class, who are leaving the city for affordable housing elsewhere. "Twenty years ago, when you asked middle-income people why they are leaving the city, it was because of crime or schools. Now the reason is housing," Donovan said. "When we talk about a housing plan, we're talking about subsidized housing and keeping housing below market values. But within that world there's the broader universe of 'market-based' housing and we can't control that."