Photo: Courtesy of rochesterhomepage.net
Housing Works Applauds Governor Cuomo’s Opportunity Agenda
NEW YORK, NY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2015. Housing Works is thrilled to endorse Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s 2015 Opportunity Agenda—the Anti-Poverty Opportunity Agenda, a 10-point plan to combat poverty and fight inequality, which includes more than $486 million in new funding for affordable and supportive housing. This plan will include at least 5,000 new units of supportive housing for people with various chronic conditions around New York State. Also included in the Opportunity Agenda are significant new investments in subsidies for employment of youth of color and well as a new investment in anti-hunger efforts.
Housing Works President and CEO Charles King has been chairing the Ending the Epidemic Task Force, which intends to deliver a blueprint within the next two weeks to meet the Governor’s goal of ending AIDS as an epidemic in New York State by 2020. As the Governor affirmed in his inaugural address, he intends to make New York State the first jurisdiction in the United States to end the AIDS epidemic. Although the Opportunity Agenda initiatives announced today were not specifically targeted at people living with HIV and AIDS or those at risk, they address some of the concrete recommendations being made by the Ending the Epidemic Task Force, including housing for people living with HIV and those most at risk of infection, employment opportunities for youth at risk as well as those living with the virus, and food security, which are essential for people to stay adherent to anti-retroviral treatment.
Said King, “We are excited by these initiatives and look forward to additional initiatives directly aimed at ending the AIDS epidemic once the Governor has had an opportunity to review our blueprint and recommendations. We are excited by the leadership this governor has shown, investing in peoples’ lives not only because that is the right thing to do morally but because it is the smart thing to do for the future of all New Yorkers.”
Housing Works is one of New York State’s largest providers of health care, housing, employment opportunities, and other vital services for homeless people living with HIV and other chronic conditions.
CONTACT: Charles King, Housing Works CEO Tel.: 917-747-0102, Email: king@housingworks.org; Mikola De Roo, Housing Works VP Communications & Marketing, Tel: 347-585-6051, Email: m.deroo@housingworks.org
