Good evening. My name is Norma Samame and I am the Housing Manager at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). AFC promotes collaboration of services through its Service Providers Council (SPC), a membership association of 135 local organizations providing HIV/AIDS services and conducting HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs in the Chicago metropolitan area. SPC members help establish AFC's grantmaking and advocacy priorities and works collectively to identify service gaps and expand and improve HIV care and education programs. The SPC Housing Committee is made up of AIDS housing providers and focuses on the housing needs of people living with HIV/AIDS.

I am here tonight to speak on behalf of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the City of Chicago. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and its SPC Housing Committee believe that housing is an essential gateway to healthcare, and we want to ensure that the housing needs of people living with HIV/AIDS are adequately addressed in the City's housing planning strategy. There are three topics I will address: (1) Increased funding is needed for the rental assistance program of the Low Income Trust Fund; (2) the City of Chicago ought to develop a homeless prevention fund to supplement the newly initiated statewide homeless prevention fund; and (3) Support for the continuation and development of transitional shelters for disabled people, especially the medically frail, is desperately needed.

Recently, the SPC Housing Committee and an ad-hoc Steering Committee conducted a strategic planning process to assess the housing needs of people living with AIDS, and to make recommendations for development and expansion of services for the next five years. This planning process included a comprehensive housing needs assessment survey of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Chicago metropolitan area as well as data culled from two other consumer surveys conducted within the last two years, interviews with over 50 key informants who are considered stakeholders in the housing and service fields, and a resource inventory of available housing for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Of the four critical issues identified by the Housing Committee and documented in the Five- Year HIV/AIDS Housing Strategic Plan as affecting housing accessibility for people living with HIV/AIDS, the most important is the lack of stable, affordable housing for all Chicago- area low-income residents, including those living with HIV/AIDS.

As shown in the report "Out of Reach 2000" by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, if the head of household earns minimum wage and is living in a two-bedroom unit at the fair market rent of $788 per month, the worker would have to work 118 hours a week in order to afford their rent at a reasonable cost burden, which is federally determined at 30% of income. To think of it another way, for an extremely low-income household earning 30% of area median income, they can only afford to rent a two-bedroom unit at no more than $542 a month. In Chicago, only 34% of all renters can afford to rent a one-bedroom unit at the fair market rent and only 40% can afford a two-bedroom unit.

For people living on a fixed income, such as people living HIV/AIDS or other disabilities, the situation is even more dire. At $531 a month, the maximum SSI payment in the state of Illinois, an individual can only afford to pay $159 a month for rent at a housing cost burden of 30%. As the HIV infection rate grows, more and more households will face shrinking income levels and experience the dilemma of finding affordable and appropriate housing in Chicago. In addition, HIV infections are now on the rise among the most vulnerable and underserved in our population such as injection drug users, people of color - especially women - people who are mentally ill, and people who are homeless, contributing to their inability to have adequate financial and supportive resources to maintain stable housing.

Although great strides have been made in the last several years to develop additional housing resources for people living with HIV/AIDS, the Five-Year HIV/AIDS Housing Strategic Plan estimates that over 5,400 individuals living with HIV/AIDS will need some form of housing assistance within the next several years. Mainstream housing resources are crucial in filling the gap for these individuals.

Unfortunately, these numbers only reflect a portion of the population facing difficulties in obtaining housing. Homeless people in Chicago also need a place to go once they leave the shelter system and need adequate financial resources to maintain their housing. By preventing homelessness, resources that otherwise would go towards a stopgap measure such as emergency housing can be redirected to long-term options provided by permanent housing.

Rental assistance programs aim to prevent homelessness by assisting the neediest households to maintain their homes with financial resources. For people living with HIV/AIDS, there is the federally funded rental assistance program coordinated by AFC, which currently serves more than 600 households a year in the Chicago metropolitan area. Due to eligibility requirements and other rules established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the program can only serve a small segment of the population. The Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund's Rent Subsidy Program administered by the Chicago Department of Housing is a much larger program available to all low-income households and with much more flexible requirements. The Fund's Rental Subsidy program serves approximately 2,000 households a year. This program's success is mainly due to its flexibility and local administration, and the City is to be applauded for it.

Unfortunately, it is still insufficient to meet the demand. Therefore, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, along with member of its SPC Housing Committee, encourage the City of Chicago to continue to increase the amount of funding dedicated to the Low-Income Housing Trust Fund in order to provide rent subsidies for an additional 2,000 families. By relieving some of the affordable housing pressure for low-income households, all special needs populations, including people living with HIV/AIDS, will benefit.

Another homeless prevention initiative that has proved to be highly successful is the newly enacted homeless prevention fund by the State of Illinois. Of the $1 million in emergency housing and utility financial assistance provided, $300,000 was allocated to the City of Chicago in its first year. All low-income households facing homelessness were eligible to apply for funds - approximately 350 households applied and received assistance. Again, this is still insufficient to meet demand. The fund was depleted before the end of its first year, and could no longer provide assistance until new money was allocated the following fiscal year. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and members of its SPC Housing Committee believe this is a viable resource that can alleviate some of the housing cost burden so many low-income households face today and strongly advocate the creation of a similar program in the City of Chicago to supplement the State's funding stream.

For those who fall through the cracks and wind up in the emergency shelter system, the service they receive are critical in helping them move through the system as quickly as possible and eventually obtain stable housing appropriate for their needs. More and more individuals who are HIV-positive are experiencing homelessness at some point during their lives. Two of the surveys used in the Five-Year HIV/AIDS Housing Plan found that at least one-third of participants had experienced homelessness within two years prior to the survey.

For those who become homeless and are medically frail or who are on a complex medication regime, Interfaith House is the only emergency shelter available in Chicago to accommodate their needs. In 1992, when Interfaith House first opened, only 8% of those they served were HIV-positive; today, about 20% of their population is HIV-positive. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and members of its SPC Housing Committee encourage the city to maintain and increase support of emergency facilities like Interfaith House to provide supportive services to help people with special needs overcome the barriers they face in obtaining long-term housing.

By recognizing the housing needs of all Chicagoans through careful planning of available resources, we believe the City of Chicago can successfully assist all those in need while ensuring quality of life.

Thank you for providing this opportunity to comment on the 2002 Preliminary Action Plan for the City of Chicago.