Housing Works, a non-profit which provides vital services to homeless New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS, has transformed from crisis and near extinction to profitability and independence. Housing Works was founded in June 1990 as an outgrowth of the Housing Committee of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), to address the burgeoning crises of homelessness and AIDS, and to restore the fundamental human rights of homeless people with AIDS and HIV through innovative advocacy and direct service programs. A switch from cost-reimbursement Medicaid contracts to fee for service contracts and the development of four highly profitable businesss took Housing Works from being totally dependent upon external funding and financial aid to being almost totally self-sustaining today.
Innovation
When Housing Works was created, there were fewer than 350 units of supportive housing for the estimated 30,000 homelss people with AIDS and HIV who were living in New York City. AIDS was fast becoming the primary cause of homelessness in the United States. Thousands lived on the streets or in dangerous, squalid, and disease-ridden shelters in New York City with no access to health care or social services. A lack of effective HIV prevention/education programs and escalating incidents of intravenous drug use and survival sex were leading to dramatic increases in HIV-infection among the city's homeless. Housing Works ensures that adequate housing, food, social services, harm reduction and other drug treatment services, medical and mental health care, and employment opportunities are available to homeless persons living with AIDS and HIV and to their families as they define them.
Housing Works used innovative business ventures to create a sustainable financial model for its operations. Five such ventures are its four highly profitable thrift shops as well as a used bookstore and café. In addition, Housing Works' switch to fee-for-service contracts with Medicaid meant that the group’s services – which include advocacy, case management, needle exchange, and housing – could also be a source of profit. Cost-reimbursement contracts rarely pay for the whole cost of the service, whereas fee-for-service contracts are designed to allow profit if a service can be provided efficiently.
Relying on its multiple revenue streams, Housing Works fought back from the loss of a $6.5 million city funding contract. Today, Housing Works is on sound financial footing, with a $27 million annual budget and only 15 percent of its funding coming from government cost-reimbursement contracts; 30 percent is profit from its businesses, 50 percent comes from fee-for-service government contracts, and the rest from donations. In May 2005, Housing Works settled two federal lawsuits against the City of New York for $4.8 million after it was determined that City Administration officials unlawfully cut of the groups housing and social services contracts to punish it for its aggressive, vocal advocacy of its clients.
In particular, it is Housing Works purpose to serve those persons who have difficulty obtaining services elsewhere, especially those whose difficulty is a consequence of mental illness or chemical dependence. Committed to accomplishing its purpose in the context of a self-sustaining, healing community that maximizes the potential of the people it serves. Housing Works believes it accomplishes this purpose through advocacy that aggressively challenges perceptions about homeless people living with AIDS and HIV, both within their indigenous communities and in the larger society. It directly provides innovative models of housing and services, facilitation of access to other appropriate systems of care, and the development and operation of entrepreneurial enterprises that support Housing Works while providing employment opportunities for the people Housing Works serves.
Impact
Today, Housing Works is the nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS service organization. It reaches the most vulnerable and underserved among those affected by the AIDS epidemic in New York City—primarily homeless persons of color whose positive HIV diagnoses are complicated by a history of chronic mental illness and/or chemical dependence—and provides them with a comprehensive range of services designed to help them gain stability, independence, and dignity, and improve their overall health.
Over the past ten years Housing Works estimates it has housed over 2,500 individuals and provided one-time or ongoing services for an additional 5,000; attracted nationwide recognition for developing innovative, client-centered models of housing and services for hard-to-reach populations; been consistently regarded as the leading advocate in New York State for the rights of its constituency; created New York State's first and most successful job training and placement program for homeless people with AIDS/HIV; and become pioneers in the nonprofit trend toward social entrepreneurship.
Inspiration
Housing Works is dedicated to developing and refining a self-sustaining model of housing, serving, and advocating for homeless people with AIDS and HIV—and remains firmly devoted to ending the twin crises of homelessness and AIDS.
“Without our entrepreneurial ventures, we would have very easily gone under,” says Charles King, co-founder of Housing Works and, until last year, co-president with his partner, Keith Cylar, who died in April 2004.
The World Inquiry editorial team edited this profile from the original submission of the interviewer or other source. The views expressed do not necessarily represent Case Western Reserve University, the Weatherhead School of Management or the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. More >>
