GMHC Now Offers Housing for People With HIV

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All of the current HIV-positive residents were undocumented immigrants when they moved in.

October 5, 2016

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Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) now offers housing and related supportive services for high-risk populations living with HIV in New York City. On Oct. 1, the AIDS service organization took over a contract for 25 units located across Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, according to a GMHC press release. The units are already occupied.

In addition to living with HIV, the residents were undocumented when they moved in. GMHC is providing immigration legal services to those wishing to gain legal status.

To provide housing, GMHC partnered with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with HIV/AIDS (HOPWA) program.

“The top concern for the 10,000 clients GMHC sees every year is housing,” said GMHC CEO Kelsey Louie in the press release. “This is an issue that was brought to me on my very first day as CEO of GMHC. I am thrilled to finally have an opportunity to provide housing to a population desperately in need of services. The legal, cultural, public health, and socioeconomic barriers created by the nation’s current immigration system have created substantial obstacles for people living with HIV to access treatment and care.

“It is our belief,” Louie continued, “that housing equals health care and this new program will provide residents with the around-the-clock support needed to ensure treatment adherence, while simultaneously providing them with everything from legal services and case management to employment training and hot meals. It is my hope that this program will be the first step in a long-term plan to expand housing opportunities for our clients at GMHC because we refuse to let HIV put people on the streets.”

GMHC will expand its housing ventures in the near future. Earlier this year, the U.S. federal government awarded the organization nearly $1.3 million to start a housing program for low-income HIV-positive survivors of intimate partner violence. The pilot program is called Safety in Housing.

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