City of Atlanta Isn’t Paying Its Housing Bill
The room smelled of must from the humidity and trapped air of a broken AC. Patients sat with their heads down, nose covered to protect from the musty aroma the broken air conditioner had trapped inside.
This is how the inter of the most notable AIDs housing programs feel on the inter despite it’s goal to be a welcoming environment. These housing programs have been prevented from reaching that goal and a few others.
Here at the Housing Opportunities for Persons with Aids (HOPWA) on a regular day they sees up to six patients every two hours.
They come in for various resources that the program is trying to provide them with such as: free testing, medical examines, information, and on a good day — housing.
Atlanta has failed to spend $41 million meant to house people with AIDS and HIV during the crisis over unpaid contractors that could potentially lead to 250 clients being evicted, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development figures.
Problems with the federally-funded program, which subsidizes housing for those with HIV and AIDS, have persisted for years. A memo written in 2019 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) leaked revealing that the federally funded, $23 million HOPWA program was unable to perform basic functions.
All of which were meant to help individuals on the streets and provided them the ground work to get on their feet.
HOPWA is a program that focuses its resources on improving living conditions for individuals who suffer from AIDS and HIV. They help other housing programs as well, one of them—Living Room which was shut down due to the funding crisis.
According to the memo the city had used federal dollars to pay for “substandard” housing for its low-income clients and had overcharged them for rent over four years, HUD found.
The rent money is tied up with HOPWA that the city is in charge of administering.
The federal government sends funding to Atlanta, which distributes it to local providers. And they use the money to do things like help people with HIV cover their rent.
Years of dysfunction have damaged the program so deeply that advocates see signs that clients have left the program in frustration. Landlords have grown nervous about renting to HOPWA clients because they are afraid of waiting months for rent payments, an Atlanta Legal Aid attorney said.
“The city has to go back to basics. It’s creating a program from scratch,” said Daniel Driffin, co-founder of Thrive SS, a nonprofit to improve the health of black gay men living with HIV.
Jada Anderson looked up from her phone every time a name was called, eager for hers to be called—she had to get to work.
Let the others waiting to be seen, Anderson had a specific dilemma to deal with. Dilemma in this specific sentence meaning finding somewhere to lay down for when her day came to an end.
Anderson has been jumping from program to program since hers got over populated and resources decreased. She was unable to pinpoint the exact decreases and the program directors were unable to be reached.
Sahsa Marks, walking towards the image, said, “I come here because I ain’t got nowhere else to go.”
Marks is trying to figure out her housing situation. Situation in this context meaning being kicked out of her last home because it was defunded. Her job barely pays her enough to cover a months rent, let alone her medications and treatments. Living Room, the recent shut down housing unit had been her home.
“I didn’t think it would actually shut down.” Marks said, she was astonished that the city couldn’t afford bills.
Stephine Sparks, lawyer that has been in communication with HOPWA and the city of Atlanta says, “It comes down to the city’s priorities.”
Sparks has been helping AIDS housing programs for a few year, with things such as resources, representation, and even as a shoulder for them to lean on.
Her help has prevented further defunding of AIDS programs as of now and she hopes to gain more support from the community to help these programs though these crisis.
Amanda Dawson, a client of Sparks, spoke about her feelings of resentment towards her community. “To them the AIDS epidemic came and went and now we’re all cured. But we’re not, and help would be nice.”
Dawson has been in HOWPA for five years now, working in the program as a volunteer when she is not at her day job. She expressed her gratitude for individuals like Sparks who stick out their necks for people who need it as well as for HOPWA that has given her a home and a purpose.
It’s devastating to walk into a room that has a line of people waiting for help and the place is equipped with minimal to no resources to help them adequately.
Dawson says she is going to apply to a position at HOWPA and hopefully create more change within. She sees families walk in who desperately need the help and she a single and childless woman feels the desire to provide all the help she can.
Dawson asks the community she is in that they stop viewing AIDS as a supernatural disease. She believes that the fear has not diminished and it needs too.
