Bailey House Blog

Bailey House, the landmark agency that has provided housing and supportive services to people impacted by HIV/AIDS for the past 30 years, has been awarded a $1.12M grant from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS) program to expand its groundbreaking STARS (Success Through Accessing Rental Assistance and Support) initiative. STARS is a supportive housing program for formerly homeless HIV+ youth in New York City, including lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual (LGBT) individuals. The grant will allow Bailey House to fund an additional 25 units of supportive housing; the STARS program will now encompass 53 apartments for homeless HIV+ youth including 10 apartments solely for homeless transgender youth.

Regina Quattrochi, Bailey House CEO, commented, “This new grant will help us expand our supportive housing for homeless HIV+ youth and support more young people to access the care and support they need to thrive. We are very excited to be a leader in addressing this critical need in New York City.”

STARS fills a critical gap in services for this population, and is the latest addition to Bailey House’s supportive housing portfolio. Bailey House started in 1983 when a group of community activists, spurred by the lack of adequate housing, care, and support for people who were then living – and dying – of an unknown disease, responded by creating their own solution: SHAP (Supportive Housing Apartment Program).  As the nation’s first housing provider for people living with HIV/AIDS, Bailey House pioneered a housing model that has been emulated worldwide, and cited for best practices by HUD (U.S. Housing and Urban Development) and the New York State AIDS Institute.

Less than 200 municipal shelter beds are available for homeless youth in New York City, while even fewer options are available for those living with HIV/AIDS.  In response to the need for stable housing and care coordination for HIV+ homeless youth, Bailey House launched STARS in 2009. A HUD-SPNS (Special Project of National Significance) initiative, STARS originally consisted of 20 apartments. Because there is a significant dearth of services for homeless young adults of transgender experience, eight additional units specifically for transgender youth were added last year. STARS is one of the only programs in the city that provides permanent housing for the transgender community, and this new grant allows Bailey House to expand its housing for transgender youth as well as its housing for the HIV+ homeless youth population as a whole.

Bailey House, which has served low-income homeless and unstably housed men, women and families living with and affected by HIV/AIDS since 1983 and The Center for Independence of the Disabled, NY (CIDNY), a leading advocate for people with disabilities that has worked for over 30 years to remove physical and social barriers and to ensure that people with disabilities have the tools they need to live independently, provide for financial needs, and enjoy equal opportunities, announce a strategic alliance to improve the health outcomes of low-income men and women living with all types of disabilities – physical, sensory, cognitive, developmental and psychiatric. The two agencies are launching this initiative, Health Matters - which combines their expertise in housing, case management, health coverage navigation, entitlement advocacy and legal advocacy – to end barriers to care for affected New Yorkers with disabilities.

Goals of the alliance include ending barriers to health care for disabled New Yorkers who are often forced to use costly emergency and acute care because they are unable to easily access primary care or mental health services in their communities. Three key factors that increase emergency department care by adults with disabilities include lack of access to care and prescription medications, the complexity of individuals’ health profiles, and disability status itself.

Susan Dooha, Executive Director of CIDNY, describes the alliance: “Our partnership will help break through the barriers that low-income New Yorkers with disabilities face as they try to maintain their health.  Working with our partner Bailey House will ensure that people with the toughest health access challenges get prompt attention and services as a matter of course.”

Regina Quattrochi, Bailey House’s CEO, explains the objective of the collaboration: “We are excited to join forces with CIDNY to tackle health disparities often faced by New Yorkers living with disabilities. We know from the recent experience post Superstorm Sandy that some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers – the unstably housed, people with disabilities and the elderly – faced insurmountable barriers to obtaining critical care and services during a crisis. What’s more disturbing, however, is that many face the same insurmountable barriers even when the City is operating normally. Health Matters will serve as a model of what can be done when two agencies with strong track records join forces.”

Contact:

Bailey House

Lauren Pallies, Assistant Director, Community Health

(212) 633-2500 x332 or lpallies at baileyhouse.org

CIDNY

Margi Trapani, Director of Communications

646-442-4154 or mtrapani at cidny.org

The Bailey House Top 10 Champions and Scoundrels for 2012

2012 was a year packed with triumph and disasters from political conventions and Hurricane Sandy to HIV activists doing civil disobedience in the buff in Congressman Boehner’s office.  This was also a year filled with bittersweet memories of the early epidemic and Act-Up in David France’s “How to Survive a Plague”  and the smashing success of  the National AIDS Housing Coalition’s North American HIV/AIDS Housing and Healthcare Summit, which brought together 100’s of researchers, international policy makers and activists at the World Bank.

There were also other moments, some national and others close to home that caught our attention. As we dangle off the fiscal cliff in this last week of December, we want to share our Top 10 Champions and Scoundrels:

Champions

1.  Tied for #1 are Governor Cuomo and Speaker Christine Quinn for their staff’s work in getting us the equipment we needed to do the initial clean-up of Bailey-Holt House and for advocating for us with state and city agencies
2.  Bailey-Holt House residents who are managing being displaced and staying connected to us and each other
3.  M*A*C  AIDS Fund, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Rocking Moon Foundation and other donors for generous contributions to the Bailey-Holt House Emergency Fund
4.  The Imperial Court of New York for all of their support and campy entertainment
5.  NYC’s Rapid Repair program for replacing all of the Bailey-Holt House boilers with new, shiny ones
6.  VOCAL, Housing Works and Health Gap for their yearlong advocacy efforts
7.  The Bailey House 30^th Gala and Auction Committee for planning what will be an amazing event on 3/28/13
8.  DIFFA and Broadway Cares for playing Santa with plentiful gifts for all BHH residents
9.  The “30 for 30” Campaign for relentless advocacy on behalf of HIV+ women
10.  NYS Office of Mental Health staff, who helped us open the new Behavioral Health Center in East Harlem

Scoundrels

1.  Hurricane Sandy and HASA tie for #1 for Sandy’s storm surge and for HASA’s refusal to reimburse us for over $300,000 in supportive services and operational expenses incurred post Sandy
2.  HASA for failing to cut red tape or assist with the Bailey-Holt House evacuation and rehousing effort after Sandy
3.  HASA staff who didn’t  seem to know that on October 29, 30^th and 31^st no one living in or near Bailey-Holt House could  call the HASA Service Line because their cell phones were dead and all the land lines were out
4.  NYC  Water Board for sending us a whopping November water bill for Bailey-Holt House even though it was vacant
5.  NYS Office of Medicaid Redesign for implementing the Health Home model without thinking through critical aspects of funding and care
6.  Congress for dangling all of us off the fiscal cliff
7.  Alabama, Georgia and other states, which are refusing Medicaid expansion while having some of the highest per capita rates of HIV infection in the nation
8.  “Test and Treat” proponents who fail to address homelessness
9.  Proponents of abstinence based programs for their willful disregard of evidence based HIV prevention
10.  The Westboro Baptist Church for just about everything

As we look forward to our 30^th anniversary in 2013, we remain committed to helping men, women and young adults living with HIV/AIDS get housing and have access to care and services. After all these years we know more than ever that “The Future Starts with A Place to Live”. Happy New Year from all of us at Bailey House and here’s hoping that in 2013 the champions far outnumber the scoundrels in your life!

On Friday 12/21/12, some predict the end of the world, citing the end of the Mayan calendar. Others say that the Mayan calendar is infinite and that 12/21 signifies not the end but a new beginning. Perhaps the Mayans were saying change is good and that sometimes we have to let go of the box, not merely step out of it.

On Tuesday we learned of the death of Spencer Cox, one of the founders of Act-Up and TAG.  Spencer and many others in the early days of AIDS kicked the box aside and made the blueprint. They crafted it out of their anger, their desperation and their love.  For them and for Bailey House’s founders, silence and inaction were not choices.

On March 28^th we will be celebrating our 30^th anniversary by giving the “First Decade Award” to 30 individuals, who along with us made defiance and action the mantra. In 1983, when we started, holding someone dying of AIDS was an act of defiance in a room full of doctors dressed in Hazmat suits.  Providing someone dying of AIDS with permanent housing was considered a waste of resources – bureaucrats said they would die anyway. We kicked that box so hard it splintered into a thousand pieces – almost as many as there were Bailey House residents who proved them wrong.

We wish the Mayans were here to give us some insight, but since they are not we will create our own. As we move towards 12/21/12 and 2013, we’d like to quote our favorite seer – His Holiness the Dalai Lama: “It’s not enough to be compassionate. You must act.” We wish you and your loved ones a very happy holiday season and as you ring in the New Year we hope that you will put box kicking and making positive change on your list of 2013 resolutions. With your support they are at the top of ours.

ABC Channel 7 ran a story on Bailey-Holt House and its recovery from Sandy on Monday, December 3rd. Bailey-Holt House has been receiving other press as well, and we wanted to share a few of the interviews and articles.  Other than ABC Channel 7, NY1, WCBS Radio 880 and WBAI Out FM Radio have also run stories; both Gay City News and DNAinfo.com have posted articles. Please see below for the links.

There is still a lot of work to be done on Bailey-Holt House; the building remains uninhabitable. We need your support more than ever. Donate to the Bailey-Holt House Emergency Fund, and know you are helping to bring our residents home.

ABC Channel 7 with Lisa Colagrossi

CBS Radio with Alex Silverman

NY1 with Kristen Shaughnessy

WBAI Out FM with Chris Thomas

DNAinfo.com

Gay City News

Carrie from Homeland

Bailey House observes the 25^th annual World AIDS Day by opening our first major expansion in over a decade – the new Behavioral Health Clinic in East Harlem, a neighborhood with the City’s highest rate of psychiatric hospitalizations and the second highest rate of HIV incidence. It will be housed at our Rand Harlan Center for Housing, Wellness and Community, and will provide a variety of mental health and other services by licensed therapists sensitive to the challenges of low-income people living with HIV/AIDS traumatized by poverty, violence, incarceration and chronic illnesses. The clinic will be LGBT inclusive, harm-reduction based, trauma-informed and open to all.

Why mental health services now? For 30 years we have watched stable housing transform lives. Whether in 1984 when AIDS was considered terminal and some residents lived only weeks or three weeks ago when some residents marked their 20 anniversary in our supportive housing. The miracle of a permanent home is clear.

Since we opened in 1983, and our clients started to lived longer, we also began to see what gets in the way. Depression, anxiety disorders, untreated bipolar or other chronic mental illness destabilize and are major barriers to accessing and staying in healthcare. Often these treatable illnesses, if left un-managed. are also a major barrier to housing retention, stability and the future.  They ruin lives.

As a fans of Carrie, the bipolar CIA agent on TV’s Homeland, know, treatment makes a powerful difference. Our Homeland heroine, when she’s stable, saves the country from clandestine terrorists. When she goes off medication, she’s her own worst enemy.  The good news is that like the fictional Carrie, millions of people live functional, successful lives with the help of good mental health care. Our current and future clients deserve no less.

We dedicate this opening to Rodger McFarlane, a legendary HIV/AIDS activist and one of the first board members of Bailey House. Four years ago, Rodger, after a brilliant career including positions in Navy Special Ops, GMHC, Broadway Cares and the Gill Foundation, took his own life.  The once brilliant man who we loved so much couldn’t see a future beyond his depression, physical or psychic pain. By opening this clinic today, we hope we can help others move past similar challenges to the point where life, stable housing, wellness and community are their future.

This holiday season, we have much to be thankful for.  Our Bailey-Holt House residents still cannot return to their home, but the outpouring of support we have received for our Bailey-Holt House Emergency Fund has inspired us and allowed us to push on in our mission to reopen Bailey-Holt House as soon as possible.

It’s been over three weeks since the evacuation of Bailey-Holt House and the yearning for home grows strong.  Early this week, residents were able to go back and retrieve a few things from their rooms.  One reminded us that when you’ve been homeless, every leaving is traumatic because you just never know.

I made a pledge last week that I will spend New Year’s Eve with the women and men who live at Bailey-Holt House. I intend to keep my promise. With enough support and funding we can replace our ruined infrastructure and reopen. The holidays are a hard time for many, and to separate them from their community only makes it harder.

Maya Angelou perhaps says it best, “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” It’s time to come home.

Attention Bailey-Holt House residents: Keep the Community Alive!

Announcing a weekly breakfast drop-in group for the residents of Bailey-Holt House.

Thursdays: 10-11AM, 1751 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor

Come visit and re-connect with Friends and Neighbors during this time of separation. Stay informed: learn the latest updates on the status of your home. We hope to see you on Thursday!

The 44 men and women living with AIDS who call Bailey-Holt House their home are distraught. It’s 10 days since their home was struck by Sandy. It’s 7 days that they have been separated from each other.

The Bailey-Holt House community is a microcosm of NYC … black, white, Latino, Asian, straight, gay, lesbian, transgender, young and old. Many lived on the street before, surviving a life of violence, despair, drug use and mental illness.  The glue that holds them together is community.

Scattered through NYC in evacuation shelters, temporary housing and long term care, residents are reliving the trauma of the past. Every day I get calls from them pleading to go back … at least to retrieve an item that will give some comfort. I have to say, “No”.

Patricia longs for the computer she abandoned that holds her photos; Peter needs his music to get through this time; Leon misses his favorite hoodie. It’s heartbreaking. I am stunned how each phone call tears me apart.

Bailey-Holt House is uninhabitable right now. We need to get it back.  I want good news for our folks. They deserve nothing less. “The future starts with a place to live” was never truer.

I would like to extend a special thank-you to Speaker Christine Quinn, whose attention has been instrumental in getting a quick early assessment of the damage to the building.  She and her staff have had our backs since the day before the storm.

Today, we still need your help to bring our friends back home.  The response so far has been remarkable, but we have much further to go.

Please make a donation today to the Bailey-Holt House Emergency Fund (BHEF): your pledge will go directly to finance extensive repairs to the building in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

Thank you, as always, for your overwhelming support and friendship when we need you most.

We Need a Little Help From Our Friends…

It’s Day #6 post Hurricane Sandy and the outlook for Bailey-Holt House is grim. Although power was restored to most of the City, we’re learning that in a building like ours, it’s not as simple as turning on the lights.

The steps to recovery for Bailey-Holt House are excruciatingly complex and time-consuming. First we must obtain a 75,000 watt generator, which I’ve learned arrives on a flat bed truck because of its size. Then electricians have to hook up temporary lighting so a licensed debris removal company can clear damp, salt-water soaked debris from the basement and ground floor offices.

Next comes the hard part. Once debris is cleared, electricians and plumbers have to assess damages to major building systems from basement to roof and see if the elevator can be repaired. We have already been told to replace the two boilers in the basement. They, along with washers and dryers, sat in tidal basin water for 48 hours.

This process could take weeks or months. We have to order new equipment, which may be scarce, have it installed and possibly replace the electrical system and elevator. Residents cannot return until all of this is done.

We found temporary housing for all 44 of the men and women who reside at Bailey-Holt House but many of these accommodations are unsuitable long-term. Many of our folks not only have AIDS but also kidney, liver, pulmonary, cardiac diseases and cancer. Some have two or three. Several rely on life-prolonging dialysis, methadone, mental health services and drug treatment. Without full subway service and staff nearby, these services can be difficult to access.

Friends and family who offered a night or two of respite are tired. Some are asking our folks to leave. Many hosts too are poor and cannot afford to feed another mouth. One client reported that her ex-husband took her in only to demand she pay him. Our female and transgender clients are particularly vulnerable given the violence many have suffered in their past. For some, the only place to go is back to former friends or partners in situations where they may be exposed to domestic violence or drug use. The trauma of losing the one place they felt safe will take its toll.

Bailey House staff are working double-time to try to rehouse folks and find them the second and perhaps third placement in only six days. We have been hampered, like everyone else, with the loss of subway service and internet access. Cell phones are dead. Some City agency programs are also down or closed.

Everyone misses home, Bailey-Holt House that majestic mothership of AIDS housing that sits at the bottom of Christopher Street. Ironically its location across from the river that makes it magical was its Achilles heel. We will reopen, hopefully soon. We are survivors.

We are incredibly grateful to Speaker Christine Quinn and her amazing staff. They have been with us every step of the way. We also extend our thanks to Representative Jerrold Nadler, whose staff will help us start the hard work of filing for relief. More thanks goes out to the Imperial Court of NY, the first organization to donate funds, and to the M*A*C* AIDS Fund, which followed with a $25,000 grant pledge. You are our angels in the storm!

Please donate to help us bring our folks back home. $5, $10, $100 or $500 will help with the recovery efforts. Estimates run as high as $500,000 for repairs and that could grow. We need a little help from our friends.