Testimony presented to the City of Chicago Budget Office For the Public Hearing on the 2002 Preliminary Budget

Norma Samame, Housing Manager
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Wednesday April 24, 2002

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 organizations providing HIV/AIDS services and conducting HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs in the Chicago metropolitan area. The SPC helps establish AFC's grantmaking and advocacy priorities and works collectively to identify service gaps and expand and improve HIV care and education programs. The Housing Committee of AFC's Service Providers Council, which is comprised of AIDS housing providers, focuses on services and policies to meet the housing needs of people 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 members of its SPC Housing Committee believe that housing is an essential gateway to healthcare, and we want to ensure that the housing needs of people with HIV/AIDS are adequately addressed in the City's housing strategy.

In November 2001, AFC released the Five-Year Chicago Area HIV/AIDS Housing Plan, a culmination of a year-long strategic planning process that assesses the housing needs of people living with AIDS and formulates 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, interviews with over 50 key informants who are considered stakeholders in the housing and HIV service fields, and a resource inventory of available housing services for people living with HIV/AIDS. According to the survey, 30% of people living with HIV/AIDS reported that they have been homeless at some point in their lives.

Of the four critical issues identified and documented in the plan, the most important is the lack of stable and affordable housing for all Chicago area low-income residents, including people living with HIV/AIDS. Stable housing helps disabled people keep doctor appointments, maintain adherence to complicated medications, refrigerate medication and nutritious foods, and get enough rest to maintain health and well-being.

Based on the plan's findings, AFC recommends two strategies the City can use to address the housing needs of all Chicago residents with disabilities, including those living with HIV/AIDS: (1) Increase the Chicago Department of Human Service's supplemental assistance to the state's homeless prevention fund; and (2) support the development of transitional and permanent housing programs for disabled people, especially the medically frail.

For people living on a fixed income, such as people living with disabilities including HIV/AIDS, the maximum Social Security Income (SSI) payment in the state of Illinois is $545 a month, which means an individual can only afford to pay $163 a month for rent at a housing cost burden of 30%. As the HIV infection rate grows, more and more households face shrinking income levels and experience difficulties in finding affordable and appropriate housing in Chicago. In addition, the highest rates of HIV occur among some of the most vulnerable and underserved populations including injection drug users, people of color - especially women - people who are mentally ill, and people who are homeless. These individuals may also lack 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 Chicago Area HIV/AIDS Housing Plan estimates that over 5,400 individuals living with HIV/AIDS at any given time need some form of housing assistance. Near flat funding for the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOWPA) program means mainstream housing resources are crucial in filling the gap for these individuals.

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and its Housing Committee believe that the most cost-effective and humane approach to inhibit housing instability is through prevention. By focusing on homeless prevention, resources that otherwise would go towards a stopgap measure such as emergency housing can be redirected to long-term options provided by permanent housing. A homeless prevention initiative that has proven to be highly successful is the homeless prevention fund recently enacted by the state of Illinois and administered at the local level by Chicago Connections with oversight from the Chicago Continuum of Care. Now in its third year, the fund has provided utility and rental assistance to almost 2000 low-income households in Chicago. Unfortunately, the amount allocated to the city is insufficient to meet demand; the fund is consistently depleted of its resources before the end of each fiscal year. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and its 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 urges the City of Chicago to provide additional funding every year to supplement the state's funding stream. In addition, AFC recommends consolidating the emergency assistance program operated by the Chicago Department of Human Services with the prevention fund to ensure timely check disbursements, eliminate duplication of services, and streamline the application process.

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. Last year, HOPWA-funded Housing Advocates in Chicago reported that a sharply increasing number of clients referred to them were experiencing an emergency housing situation. For those who fall through the cracks and wind up in the emergency shelter system, appropriate services are critical in helping them move through the system as quickly as possible to obtain stable housing appropriate for their needs. The Chicago Continuum of Care's new Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness recommends that the city's homeless service system shift to a Housing First model for certain populations to promote housing stability from the very beginning and to provide comprehensive, "wraparound" services in order to maintain that stability for an extended period of time. As a member of the Continuum of Care's Governing Board, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago supports this approach.

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, over 20% of their population is HIV-positive. As part of Chicago's Continuum of Care, Interfaith House has embraced their strategy to end homelessness and is in the process of developing with several service and housing partners a Housing First model for the chronic medically ill, including people living with HIV/AIDS. This model would provide long-term housing with intensive case management services from different systems to support the household until their medical condition is stabilized while addressing other issues that contributed to their homelessness. This proposed model will be a first for the country, and AFC applauds and supports their efforts.

Despite this most recent innovation, it is still not enough to address the needs of chronic, medically ill homeless people. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and its Housing Committee encourage the city to continue and increase their support of emergency and long-term transitional facilities to provide supportive services in a safe, confidential, and accessible environment 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 2003 Preliminary Action Plan for the City of Chicago