Science honors HIV/AIDS advances

Science honors HIV/AIDS advances

Science honors HIV/AIDS advances

Science honors HIV/AIDS advances

Science honors HIV/AIDS advances

Science honors HIV/AIDS advances

Die-in at Pelosi’s office for HIV/AIDS medication funding

NY Senate passes PWA rent-control bill

The New York State Senate voted today to pass a bill protecting New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS from having to choose between paying rent and buying groceries.

Says NY City Council Speaker Christine Quinn:

“I thank and applaud the New York State Senate for overwhelmingly voting today to provide affordable housing protection to over 11,000 New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS, many of whom are on the verge of eviction. State Senator Tom Duane and Assembly Member Deborah Glick deserve particular praise for skillfully sheparding this bill through the legislature.

“By voting in favor of a 30 percent income contribution cap for New York State’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) clients, the legislature is coming to the aid of New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS who currently pay as much as 70 percent of their benefits toward rent, leaving many of them to live on a little over $11 per day.

“It is my hope that Governor Paterson will sign this bill into law soon. We must stand for fair and equitable housing policy. By making this bill a law, much needed relief will be provided to a most vulnerable community.”

A post on HousingWorks.org [1]gives the background:

Nearly 11,000 low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS are at risk of becoming homeless due to a flaw in the HIV/AIDS Services Administration’s (HASA) rental assistance program. HASA clients receiving rental subsidies pay between 50 to 85 percent of their disability income (SSI, SSDI, Veteran’s Benefits) towards rent each month, which leads to high rates of arrears, evictions and homelessness. Those who keep their apartments are forced to choose between paying their rent or buying essential household items like soap and toilet paper.

This bill was originally introduced in 2006, and came about after the State and City announced that they would no longer honor the federal law that caps rental contribution at no more than 30 percent of income for approximately 2,200 HASA clients living in federally subsidized housing. Some clients would see a 200 percent increase in rent virtually overnight.

With a few days to spare, Housing Works and co-counsel Matthew Brinckerhoff rushed to federal court and secured an injunction against the proposed policy, preventing the rental increases. Thereafter, with the injunction in place, the City and State agreed to abandon the proposed policy and honor the 30 percent federal rent cap. They continue to do so to this day. But the 30 percent cap only covered clients in federally funded housing, and that this essential protection should be extended to all HASA clients under New York State law as well. So Housing Works’ Legal Department worked with State legislators to draft a new State law extending the 30 percent rent cap to all HASA clients, and not merely those in federally funded housing.

Momentum has been growing over the last year. The Assembly passed the affordable housing bill [2], and the Senate already passed it by a margin of 52 to 1 [3] once last July. Governor Paterson told NYCAHN leaders [4] he would sign the bill when it reached his desk.

[1] http://www.housingworks.org/blogs/detail/action-alert-tell-your-ny-state-senator-to-vote-yes-on-30-rent-cap-bil/
[2] http://www.housingworks.org/blogs/detail/assembly-expected-to-vote-on-30-rent-cap-bill-today/
[3] http://www.housingworks.org/news-press/detail/toms-triumph/
[4] http://www.housingworks.org/blogs/detail/paterson-says-hed-approve-30-percent-rent-cap/

1 in 7 gay men in D.C. are HIV+

About one in seven gay men in Washington, D.C., are HIV positive. That staggering figure was released last week by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration [1], according to a story by The Washington Post [2].

In a study of 500 gay men in the city, more than 40 percent of the participants were unaware of their diagnosis prior to the study. One in three men reported they didn’t know the status of their last partner.

[3]

“This is a wake-up call,” gay D.C. Council member David A. Catania told the Washington Post. “It’s time for my generation to assume greater responsibility for themselves and their partners. Just because we escaped the epidemic of the 1980s doesn’t mean we are immune.”

Last year, the city distributed more 3.5 million condoms and tested 95,000 people for HIV.

While the figures for HIV among gay men in D.C. are high – almost five times higher than the rate of HIV among adults and teens across the city – figures in other cities are higher. In San Francisco, 24 percent of gay men are HIV positive; in New York it’s 25 percent and in Baltimore, an astounding 40 percent.

[1] http://doh.dc.gov/doh/cwp/view,a,1371,q,573205,dohNav_GID,1802.asp
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032503730.html
[3] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-hiv-testing-top.jpg

Doctor sees potential end to AIDS epidemic

A doctor in South Africa is pushing a radical new idea that he believes will wipe out the AIDS epidemic in 40 years.

Brian Williams of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis believes that by testing every person at risk of HIV/AIDS and prescribing anti-retroviral treatment (ART) for …

Groups send aid to Haiti’s HIV/AIDS population

With every hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital and largest city, either damaged or destroyed by the series of devastating earthquakes over a week ago, the nation’s health care system is in shambles.

And with more than 120,000 people in the country infected with HIV or AIDS, access to antiretroviral treatments is …