Cited Work Source

"In response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, dozens of community-based organizations in New York City and the surrounding areas have been established to deliver services to people living with HIV/AIDS and to their loved ones. The New York Academy of Medicine Library responded to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by serving as a primary source of information to community-based organizations. Subsequently, the HIV/AIDS Information Outreach Project of The New York Academy of Medicine Library was formally created in 1994 with grants from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and AT&T, with additional funding from the Academy and Citibank to assist these NYC-area CBOs in providing vital services. The Outreach Project was designed as a means of putting community based AIDS organizations in touch with an extensive medical research collection. It is founded on the premise that information will support and strengthen those people affected by HIV/AIDS and those who work to provide for their needs.
The New York Academy of Medicine is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public and, in particular, to addressing issues in urban health. The Academy is a leader in the field of Public Health, and an independent voice to advance the well being of all people. With over 800,000 volumes and 1,400 journals, it is one of the largest medical libraries in the world, and is the only medical research library in New York that is open to the general public. The Academy Library maintains strong and important collections in areas associated with HIV/AIDS and has staff with expertise in HIV information resources. Since its inception, the information services and technical support have been provided through the New York Academy of Medicine Library, and staffed largely by the Academy’s librarians.The HIV/AIDS Information Outreach Project participating organizations are all located in the New York metropolitan area. Basic services include research and document delivery as well as borrowing privileges for materials in the Academy Library collection. The Academy Library continues to work with participating organizations to find new and better ways of meeting their information needs."

A Rising Epidemic

New York City remains the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. More than 100,000 New Yorkers are living with HIV, but thousands don’t know they’re infected. New York City has the highest AIDS case rate in the country, with more AIDS cases than Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Washington DC combined. HIV is the 3rd leading cause of death below age 65 in New York City. HIV is also the health problem with the largest racial disparity; 80% of new AIDS diagnoses and deaths are among African Americans and Hispanics. Prevention, testing, and treatment programs are being expanded, but more must be done.

We Have A Mission

Resources are Available

Who Is In Need Of These Special Services?

Latino and black men were the first people of color to show high incidences of HIV/AIDS infections. As early as October 1986, the cumulative incidence of AIDS among blacks and Latinos registered at more than three times the incidence rate for whites. In 1988, the Centers for Disease Control had determined that African American men and women each accounted for 70 percent of all AIDS cases in their respective gender groups. By 1999, experts were estimating that 1 out of every 50 African American men and 1 of every 160 African American women was infected with HIV. Yet among whites, 1 in 250 white men and one in 3,000 white women were infected.
HIV/AIDS infections have been on the increase in New York City's communities of color since the start of the syndrome's crisis.But initially, most of the funding for prevention and for education programs to combat the disease was directed toward organizations that had little contact with people of color.As statistics came out showing that in certain communities the rates of HIV/AIDS was rising, and that in others a large decrease could be seen, the obvious question became why weren't monies being provided to the communities where HIV/AIDS was having the most devastating effect? But of course, no one has the answer. In fact, they cannot answer because this can and should have been prevented

There Is Help Out There

The New York City Aids Housing Network, known as the NYCAHN, is one of the many organizations established in an attempt to help people living with HIV and AIDS.The New York City AIDS Housing Network is comprised and led by low-income people living with HIV/AIDS working in a unique coalition with nonprofit housing providers and AIDS service organizations.

The people working in the NYCAHN believe that housing is a human right, and that it is their mission to empower low income people living with HIV/AIDS. Defining the issue of low income people because they are their main focus. This is including the non-profits that serve them, to advocate for more housing, better housing, and sound public policies for all people living with HIV/AIDS.

In the belief that real social change will not come about unless those who are most disenfranchised and the most directly impacted by public policies are the ones that take action, we engage in community organizing, direct action organizing, advocacy, popular education and participatory research. "We seek to address the ROOT CAUSES OF THE ISSUES THAT AFFECT THE LIVES OF OUR MEMBERS, so we make the connection between human rights, civil & political rights and we see the link between housing & homelessness, criminal justice, welfare, immigration, AIDS & healthcare."

NYCAHN Creates A Means To An End

The New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN) is a grassroots community coalition established in 1998 consisting of homeless and formerly homeless people living with HIV/AIDS, nonprofit AIDS housing providers, and AIDS service organizations. With the belief that housing is a basic human right, the group’s mission is to empower low-income people living with AIDS to organize their community, including the nonprofits that serve them, to advocate for more and better housing, and sound public policies for New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. NYCAHN is committed to ending homelessness and attempts to address the root causes—racial inequality, poverty and social injustice—by engaging in bottom up advocacy and community organizing. NYCAHN is comprised primarily of low-income people living with HIV/AIDS.

NYCAHN’s POWER (People with AIDS Organizing for Welfare Equal Rights) provides advocacy and community organizing training for low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. Its Human Rights Watch project does outreach at welfare centers and participated in a successful lawsuit against the City for failing to provide homeless people with AIDS legally required same-day, medically appropriate emergency housing. Other successful initiatives include campaigns to increase government funding for housing, the Parolee Human Rights Project fighting for housing and health care for parolees and prisoners with HIV/AIDS, and an oral history project transcribing stories of homeless people living with HIV that are shared with the general public. NYCAHN also distributes food and clothing and makes housing referrals.