Report Number Two: Leadership, Legislation and Regulation

visited on the coldest night of the year) were
infected with HIV. While we were there two
homeless men, showing their positive tuberculin
skin tests to us, voiced their concern that --
"people who are extra-susceptible to infections
should never be sleeping in a place like this!"
Fort Washington Armory was not the only
human catastrophe we witnessed. During our
travels we heard about families not only broken
but kept asunder by rigid visitation rules for
addicted mothers --even those under treatment.
We met women with HIV infection who sleep in
shelters during the night and struggle to maintain their health (and their children) on the
streets and in the shelters during the days. We
heard about a supportive housing program that
funds only 140 units when at least 2,400 could
be filled immediately. We talked to teenagers
who trade sex for drugs and money, putting
themselves at risk for HIV infection everyday.
Now referred to as "throwaway kids," these
teenagers seek shelter not only from the cold
but from the Hudson River piers and neighborhood streets where adults visiting from out of
town, out of state, and, in some cases, out of the
country, seek sex for $15 without a condom and
$10 with one.
We met with outreach workers who go
down into the subway tunnels day after day
fighting a battle where they have no ammunition
and, indeed, no battlefield on which to stand.
The outreach workers hope that one day the
"down under" people will come to one of the
day programs offered in the Bowery where they
can receive medical assessment, treatment and
referrals. "Many homeless people are suspicious
of promises made for better lives," staff of the
Bowery Residence Committee (BRC) told the
Commission. "Too often these promises have
been broken." In fact, the promise of health care
for many of the homeless HIV-infected population in New York's Bowery will be further delayed if, as we were told, the federal dollars are
terminated.
In California, New York and New Jersey,
we heard repeatedly about the "disaster relief'
needed from the federal government for those
cities hardest hit by the epidemic.