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AIDS Advocates Protest New York City Mayor's Cuts to Housing, Services
for People Living With HIV/AIDS
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source: Kaiser Daily AIDS/HIV Report
http://www.kaisernetwork.org
HIV/AIDS advocates yesterday rallied at New York's City Hall to protest
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's (R) proposed cuts to housing and other services
for people living with HIV/AIDS, Long Island Newsday reports. Thirty
demonstrators -- chanting "Bloomberg, billionaire! People with AIDS, he
don't care!" -- were arrested for disorderly conduct after blocking the
entrance to the building. Bloomberg's budget proposal for the fiscal year
beginning July 1 includes $18 million in cuts from the HIV/AIDS Services
Administration by transferring case management for 30,000 people to
community-based organizations. Bloomberg is also calling for a 10%
decrease in housing benefits for 4,000 people with AIDS, Newsday reports
(Ramirez, Long Island Newsday, 5/14). He also is seeking to transfer the
Mayor's Office on AIDS Policy Coordination and the city's HIV Planning
Council to the Department of Health. The planning council, which is made
up of 45 community AIDS workers and advocates, currently has control over
how the city's more than $100 million a year in federal AIDS funds should
be spent. Although the council is overseen by the Mayor's Office on AIDS,
it has its own staff and operates independently. City officials said that
merging the two groups into a new Commission on HIV/AIDS under the health
department would save the city an estimated $1 million and is part of $600
million in citywide cuts (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/29).
Reaction
Advocates said the proposed cuts could lead to more HIV-positive people
becoming homeless, adding that the transfer of the Mayor's Office on AIDS
Policy Coordination and the city's HIV Planning Council to the health
department would "make it harder for [the city] to keep track of how funds
are spent," according to Newsday. Charles King, co-president of Housing
Works, a not-for-profit community-based organization, said that Bloomberg
"doesn't have a clue what it's like to be on the streets living with AIDS
and HIV" (Long Island Newsday, 5/14). Housing Works, which provides
housing, health and job services to homeless people with HIV and AIDS, has
a "long history" of holding rallies and "other confrontations," the New
York Daily News reports (Lombardi, New York Daily News, 5/15). Joe
Pressley, executive director of the New York AIDS Coalition, said that
Bloomberg had told community leaders two months ago that case management
services "were secure," according to Newsday. "The mayor basically lied to
our community. ... We're not going to take these changes lying down,"
Pressley said, but he added, "We are saying to the administration 'talk to
us.' We are willing to have a conversation. Let us know what's going on.
We are the experts" (Long Island Newsday, 5/14).
Pataki Vetoes
In related news, New York Gov. George Pataki (R) yesterday vetoed 119
pieces of spending and tax legislation, including legislation that would
allocate more than $30 million to HIV/AIDS programs, the Albany Times-Union
reports (Benjamin, Albany Times Union, 5/15). Nine of Pataki's vetoes
affect HIV/AIDS programs, according to a Housing Works release. Pataki
vetoed $25.7 million in funds for cost-of-living adjustments for more than
60,000 elderly, blind and disabled, including AIDS patients, who receive
supplemental security income from the government. In addition, the
governor vetoed restored funding for community-based AIDS services and
funding to combat the disease in minority communities throughout the state,
among other HIV/AIDS programs (Housing Works release, 5/14). New York
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno
(R) said that they plan to override the vetoes today, the New York Daily
News reports. The lawmakers said that both chambers have the two-thirds
majority necessary to override Pataki's vetoes (Mahoney, New York Daily
News, 5/15). The lawmakers said they would finish the process by the end
of the week (Housing Works release, 5/14).
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