Chelsea Council Member Corey Johnson Offers ​Monthly Housing Clinic

CHELSEA, NY — City Council Member Corey Johnson, who represents Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Hudson Square and parts of SoHo and the Upper West Side, will hold his monthly housing clinic on Tuesday, Jan. 10, his office confirmed to Patch.

Housing attorneys will be available at 224 W. 30th St. between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to see individuals on a first-come, first-serve basis. The clinic is offered on the second Tuesday of every month.

Johnson, the only openly HIV-positive elected official in the state, continues to be an advocate for increasing access to affordable housing for vulnerable populations. He sponsored "HASA for All," a policy embraced in June by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that allowed all low-income New Yorkers with HIV to obtain critical food, transportation and housing. Previously, HASA (the HIV/AIDS Services Administration) only provided assistance to people who were extremely sick — those with an AIDS diagnosis, a CD4 count of 200 or less or two opportunistic infections. The expansion went into effect on Aug. 29.

"The bottom line is this," Johnson, who serves as chair of the Committee on Health, wrote in an op-ed. "Housing is health care[...]I can safely say that if I did not have stable housing while seeking treatment, particularly in the earliest days of my diagnosis, I would not be where I am today."

But ideally, of course, people would be able to get housing before they even get sick.

"We have seen that homelessness has a direct and staggering impact on people's health," Johnson wrote. "A large body of research demonstrates that homelessness and unstable housing are strongly associated with a greater risk of HIV, inadequate HIV health care, poor health outcomes, and early death."

To find out more information about Tuesday's housing clinic visit this website or call 212-564-7757.

Image via Creative Commons