AFC News

The HIV Resource Coordination HUB (the HUB) is Chicago’s one-stop shop for comprehensive healthcare, regardless of HIV status.  We know that navigating healthcare sucks – and the HIV Hub is helping to change that.  Now approaching its fourth anniversary, the HUB is a community partnership between AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) and the Center on Halsted to…

Johnny Pitts has faced numerous challenges in his life, beginning with the loss of his mother to an AIDS-related illness, but he has always found the strength to overcome them. Having received an HIV diagnosis himself in his late twenties, Johnny always feared that he would share the same fate as his mother, so he…

On Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) and the Center for Housing and Health (CHH), along with advocates and grassroots leaders, would like to honor and remember our neighbors who have died houseless. We mourn their lives and the potential and creativity lost in our communities every time we lose a life to…

The Chicago 400, with support from AIDS Foundation Chicago and the Center for Housing and Health, is working to end housing banishment laws in Illinois with a bill in the IL Senate, SB2158. Housing banishment results from unjust laws that trap people in a cycle of homelessness and incarceration. In Illinois, people who are listed…

By Livvie Avrick  Did you know just under half of people newly diagnosed with HIV in Illinois are young people ages 13-29, and youth living with HIV are disproportionately Black? Yes! Read that again. This data from the Getting to Zero Illinois Dashboard collected in 2020 highlights the impact of racism as a public health…

The Center for Housing and Health (CHH) is proud to report that the Flexible Housing Pool (FHP) has housed its 1,000th person this month!  Since the first participant reached home in April 2019, the Flexible Housing Pool has been committed to serving people experiencing homelessness who live with chronic health conditions, and those who cycle…

This year’s US Conference on HIV and AIDS was held on the island of Puerto Rico in its capital city, San Juan. The island is rich in history with San Juan (founded in 1521) being the oldest city in the US territory and the island itself, after being colonized by Spain and later the US…

By Indigo Quashie  Peter Toepfer, Executive Director, Center for Housing and Health  “One of the hallmarks of White Supremacy is fixing the problem and trying to directly come to a solution rather than sit with the discomfort. Rather than taking the time to really do things right and allow for different levels of work.” When…

AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) is proud to announce its 2022 state legislative policy agenda. Grounded in racial health equity, these legislative priorities are and will help advance the goals and priorities of the Getting to Zero Illinois (GTZ-IL) plan to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.  We are extremely grateful for the collaboration of the community…

By Ella Shapiro  Growing up in Garfield Park, Zahara Bassett remembers having to frequently travel to the North Side of Chicago to access gender-affirming spaces and receive medical care, food and housing assistance. Despite loving her neighborhood, it was clear to Zahara, as a Black transgender woman, that it lacked necessary resources for her and many others, especially services specifically tailored to Black transgender and non-binary residents.   Zahara knew that things needed to change, so she began conducting direct community outreach on the West…

By Ella Shapiro For those of us working to end the HIV epidemic it is not news that housing is health care, but perhaps for others that connection is not so obvious.   When you have a house, steady employment and a primary care provider it becomes easy to prioritize your health because your basic needs are being met. When those same basic needs are not met, it becomes challenging, and…