City Cuts Off Emergency Housing for People Living with HIV/AIDS By Jennifer Flynn

Since late August, clients seeking emergency housing from the city’s Division of AIDS Services and Income Support (DASIS) have been told to sleep in the streets.

One such DASIS client was recently released from St. Vincent’s Hospital. His caseworkers from both a local community organization and the hospital called DASIS to ensure that he would have housing. They were both told that he should come to DASIS’ Amsterdam Maintenance Center at 400 Eighth Ave. Manhattan. When he got there at 11 A.M., he was told that he had arrived too late to be housed. He was given a referral to Open Door, a drop-in center, where he spent the night sleeping in a chair. The next day both he and his case worker returned to the maintenance center, where they were told there was no guarantee that he’d get housing.

Stories like this have been commonplace since August 23, when, after a year and a half of providing emergency housing assistance, DASIS suddenly couldn’t find placements for its clients. The recent crisis finds the agency in direct violation of Local Law 49, which requires that it provide "medically appropriate transitional and permanent housing" to homeless people with AIDS. Recognizing that for a person with AIDS, it is not "medically appropriate" to sleep on the street, DASIS’ own Policy and Procedures Manual says clients should be provided with housing on the same day they request it.

Earlier this month, City Councilmember Christine Quinn and AIDS activists spent two nights in DASIS offices, forcing them to follow the law and provide emergency housing placements. On Friday, Sept. 1, at 7:30 P.M., 11 clients were placed in the Val Arms Hotel. When the clients arrived, they learned that the address they had been given was a bank. They spent the entire Labor Day weekend sleeping in the streets. They returned to the Amsterdam DASIS office and waited for another placement. Again, workers began to give the wrong address until advocates highlighted the mistake. Workers corrected the address, but gave the wrong hotel name. When clients arrived at the address, they were confused by the discrepancy and some returned to the DASIS office.

After a Council oversight hearing, DASIS published an official letter outlining their "change in policy," which included stricter procedures about signing in at hotels and earlier curfews. Yet, they still have not admitted that their centers are simply not providing emergency housing to hundreds of HIV-positive New Yorkers. Activists estimate at least 150 people with AIDS are being turned away from the centers every night.

In response to the city’s inability to provide emergency housing for homeless, HIV-positive New Yorkers, the New York City AIDS Housing Network has established an emergency Center Watch. Volunteers wait with clients to ensure that the Amsterdam Center (the city’s largest DASIS office) remains open until all clients are provided with emergency housing placements. They then accompany the clients to the placements to make sure they can actually get in.

After years of fighting to have people with AIDS placed in decent, medically appropriate housing, activists and PWAs find themselves back at square one.

On Thursday, Sept. 28, the City Council will hold a follow-up oversight hearing at 9:45 a.m. at City Hall. DASIS representatives are expected to testify. AIDS and housing activists are asking all New Yorkers to come out and show their support for the campaign to save the right to emergency housing!

If you are interested in volunteering with the Network’s Center Watch, you can call (212) 260-1558 or e-mail flynn@dti.net Jennifer Flynn is executive director of the New York City AIDS Housing Network.