Care For the Homeless

Over 30,000 walkers participated in this past Sunday’s AIDS Walk NYC, including 11 Care for the Homeless staff and client leaders. The 30th anniversary of the event honored Governor Cuomo for his ‘Bend the Curve’ Plan, the governor’s plan to end the AIDS epidemic in New York in by reducing new cases to 750 by 2020. The governor’s three point plan includes identifying people with HIV who remain undiagnosed and linking them to care, retaining people living with HIV with health care services and anti-HIV therapy and providing access to PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) to high-risk individuals to help them remain HIV negative. The annual walk raised record funds for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis as well as over 40 other AIDS services organization in the tri-state area whose services are key to helping bend the curve of new HIV cases in New York.    Care for the Homeless has been on the frontline of the crisis for many years, providing critically needed HIV/AIDS services such ...

 Left from bottom, Client Leader Gayle Dorsky, Staff members Dominiq Williams and Kim Dalve and Client Leader David Broxton at the Capitol  During last week’s National Health Care for the Homeless Conference in Washington D.C. Care for the Homeless’ clients and staff took to the Hill to advocate for the programs and policies that we know can help end homelessness. Throughout the three day conference a Care for the Homeless team made up of Client Leaders David Broxton and Gayle Dorsky and staff members Kim Dalve and Dominiq Williams visited with congressional representatives from all over New York State. “Even small cuts to SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) are really hurting people who rely on them.” Gayle told NY representatives. “Like many New Yorkers, I’ve had to go to food pantries more, but I have friends who don’t have the time to go to food pantries or get turned away from pantries that have limited resources.” In addition to advocatin...

Yesterday, December 1 st , client leaders of Care for the Homeless (CFH) observed World AIDS Day at the CFH offices at 30 E. 33 rd Street in Manhattan. Members of the CFH Consumer Advisory Boards led presentations and discussions about services for people living with AIDS/HIV, current medical programs and advances and the New York State strategy to end the AIDS epidemic in the state by 2020. Clients, CFH staff and others in attendance heard presentations for consumer leaders including Calvin Alston, Gayle Dorsky and George Phipps. They lauded efforts announced by Governor Cuomo to end the AIDS epidemic – which he has defined as reducing new cases to the point where there is no net increase in AIDS cases in the state annually – by 2020. “That’s a lot of ground to cover in the next five or six years,” according to Alston, “but the Governor and the AIDS Task Force have developed a workable three part plan to do just that.” “As part of the Governor’s plan, advocates and act...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy Governor Andrew Cuomo, marching in the New York City Pride Day event on Saturday, committed New York to “bending the curve”on HIV/AIDS policies in order to “end the AIDS epidemic” and assure that those living with HIV/AIDS remain healthy He announced a three point program to “decrease new HIV infections to the point where the number of people living with HIV in New York is reduced for the first time.” The Governor’s plan, much of which has been advocated by Care for the Homeless, includes: 1.        Identifying persons with HIV who remain undiagnosed and linking them to health care (as CFH does through rapid HIV testing, diagnosis and treatment, every day); 2.        Linking and retaining persons diagnosed with HIV to health care and getting them on anti-HIV virus suppression so they remain healthy and prevent further transmission (CFH provides primary care to people living with HIV...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy For the past year, Care for the Homeless client leaders and our certified client advocates have fought for extending a “30% rent cap” to all people living with HIV/AIDS in city subsidized HASA (HIV/AIDS Services Administration) housing programs. So it was with extreme pleasure that we got the word last week that the Mayor and Governor have jointly taken action to guarantee the 30% rent cap to more than 10,000 New Yorkers in HASA housing. Mayor de Blasio hailed the city-state effort, and so do we! Unlike most extremely low income housing and subsidized housing for poor households with disabilities, HASA housing never guaranteed a 30% rent cap. It always should have. Governor Cuomo said, “By implementing a 30% income cap for low-income renters with HIV/AIDS, we are protecting New Yorkers in need and making our communities stronger, healthier, and more compassionate for all.” Our client advocates spoke out for this most recently Wednesday mor...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy “57,000 is 57,000 too many.” That’s what the sign said that a Care for the Homeless client leader held up   last year at a rally (featured   here ) on the steps of New York’s City Hall, after the media brought us the bad news that we’d set yet another record for the number of people experiencing homelessness in New York City shelters. Last year over 111,000 people spent time in our city’s homeless shelters. More than 40,000 of them were children. Those figures, too, represent new high census figures for shelter populations. Another way to think about it is that in HUD’s recently released Point-in-Time survey for a given day in January of 2013, there were 64,060 people in New York City’s homeless shelters or living on the streets. That’s a 13% increase in City homelessness, year-over-year, at the same time the country as a whole decreased homelessness by 4%.   That study found about 1-in-10 homeless people in America was in New Yor...

Care for the Homeless Observes World AIDS Day World AIDS Day has been observed across the world on December 1 st each year starting in 1988 (making this the 25 th observance). Care for the Homeless and our clients have been actively participating in it for almost as long.  On World AIDS Day we unite in the fight against HIV/AIDS. It’s a fight Care for the Homeless has fought for years. Our clinicians perform HIV testing. Our clients provide peer support and education. Our providers treat it and counsel those infected. Our clinics and health educators dispense information and education. We advocate for policies to assist in the fight.    World AIDS Day is also a time to remember those we’ve lost to this terrible disease. Worldwide over 25 million have been lost to AIDS. In 2013, Care for the Homeless lost two wonderful members of our client leadership boards. New York City has over 110,000 HIV cases. Modern Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy is eff...

Sunday, Care for the Homeless participated in the annual AIDS Walk NYC through Central Park. Walking with staff, clients and volunteers, we joined more than 30,000 other walkers on the street of Manhattan. We walked to take a stand for the homeless New Yorkers we serve who are dealing with the disease. Care for the Homeless works with homeless HIV-positive individuals and people living with AIDS everyday.  The importance of HIV education can not be understated, and our Health Education and Social Services teams work diligently to ensure our clients are tested as well as informed on how to stay safe from contracting HIV. Find out more about our HIV services HERE . For more pictures from our walk, check out our Facebook page and be sure to join us next year in walking and raising money to find a cure.

“ Homelessness can be a virtual death sentence for a person living with HIV/AIDS .”  More Than A Home – How Affordable Housing for New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS Will Prevent Homelessness, Improve Health and Reduce Costs”, Report from VOCAL-NY and the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center, May 17, 2013. A new study released last week by activist group VOCAL-NY and the Urban Justice Center called for limiting the rent-to-income ratio for poor people living with HIV/AIDS to no more than 30%. Those who follow housing issues know they aren’t alone; spending no more than 30% of income on housing is HUD’s definition of affordable housing. Care for the Homeless clients, staff and volunteers braved the elements on Sunday to raise the profile on AIDS issues and raise money for AIDS programs. But in New York City’s “independent living” rental assistance program for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS, administered by the city HIV/AIDS Services Adminis...

Several Care for the Homeless clients and staff traveled to Washington, D.C., last Friday, to meet with members of the New York Congressional delegation or their staff to ask for support of programs and human services vital to homeless and poor people. These issues hold a special importance right now as the U.S. Senate and House are working on government funding for the remainder of the federal fiscal year, through September 30, 2013.  We were able to meet with New York Representatives or staff in the offices of Representatives Nydia Velazquez, Hakeem Jeffries, Jose Serrano, Charles Rangel, Bill Owens and Nita M. Lowey. Funding cutbacks pose a real and imminent threat to programs homeless and poor people count on including health and human services for homerless people, funding for AIDS testing and services, mental health funding, substance abuse treatment, and virtually every program for housing, tenant assistance and affordable housing. It threatens grants for homeless chil...

The Care for the Homeless Health Education team is always busy, but in February, the team had three large-scale initiatives they implemented at many of our service sites.  Teen Dating Violence and Healthy Relationships Workshops were delivered to: •        Increase understanding of teen dating abuse •        Identify and define roles of abuse •        Identify warning signs of an abusive partner •        Explore reasons why people stay in abusive relationships •        Increase help-seeking behavior among teens involved in abusive dating relationships •        Promote healthier approaches to dating relationships and conflicts •        Help teens understand their rights and responsibilities in a relationship. HIV Awareness Workshop delivered to: •...

Working as a Medicaid consultant, Leslie Bell had been to Susan’s Place while doing chart reviews, but it was a chance conversation with Lesley Moody, a Health Educator for CFH, that really showed her what Susan’s Place and CFH was all about. Drawn by wanting to help the women there, she applied for an available position with the agency and after waiting for months, she got the call she had been hoping for. “I just knew I was going to be here. When I got that phone call to come in, I didn’t just come over, I ran over,” she laughs. “It’s a blessing because I’ve always been interested in working with the homeless population.” Leslie’s passion for helping people emerged years earlier, when her sister passed away after a battle with HIV.  She promised her sister she would learn more about HIV and how to help others with the disease. “I was there every step of the way with her,” Leslie said. “I was interested in working with the AIDS population because it hit close to home. Seve...

Raised in northern California, Jessica Faville studied International Development and Economics at UCLA but she realized early on that she was loving her international health classes. “All my extra-curriculars were health based,” she said. “That’s where my interests were. I was involved with organizations on campus that raised money for pediatric AIDS and I interned for an organization that does summer camps for HIV positive youth. I always knew I wanted to work with HIV. It was the first real disease I saw as a kid. My uncle died of HIV so it drove me to want to do health care.” From there, she spent time working with HIV and AIDS promotion in a village in Tanzania, working in schools with kids doing health education and was working in San Francisco at a homeless clinic and in a shelter when she heard about CFH. Now, as a part of the health education team at CFH, Faville works with families, senior citizens and LGBT youth, trying to help homeless people understand the importance ...