Providing supportive housing for people living with AIDS, regardless of substance abuse or mental illness, is a cost-effective, life-saving program. The Mayor has instead chosen to spend our money on unsafe, unsustainable shelter systems, on emergency room visits, and in the case of at least eight Philadelphians in the past eighteen months, funerals. Access to safe, permanent housing is a vital component of HIV/AIDS treatment and care. By relying on the shelter system instead of funding a functional supporting housing program for people with AIDS, the mayor has failed on HIV treatment and HIV prevention.
