The New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN) became VOCAL in fall 2010 to better reflect our multi-issue, multi-constituency organizing work in New York’s most marginalized communities. Our members also recognized that the issues and identities we organized around were interconnected and part of a broader movement for social justice.
First founded by a committee of progressive AIDS housing providers in the mid-1990s, NYCAHN members always recognized that HIV/AIDS was not an isolated health issue but rather a symptom of injustices rooted in race, gender and economic inequalities. Through the early involvement of Joe Bostic and Jose Capestany, two HIV-positive injection drug users who were formerly incarcerated, NYCAHN began focusing on community organizing and political education to build power among marginalized New Yorkers. NYCAHN formally incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2000.
Read profiles of co-founders Jose Capestany and Joe Bostic, who passed away in 2003 and 2004 respectively, written by Jennifer Flynn, who served as our Executive Director until 2007. [WILL UPLOAD DOCUMENTS AND ADD LINKS LATER]
All of our current and past programs emerged from our mission to concretely improve the lives of marginalized New Yorkers through community organizing and leadership development. Jose Capestany modified an early version of our leadership training program to create the POWER Academy curriculum we still use today. Joe Bostic formed one of our first programs called the Parolee Human Rights Project, which organized people who were formerly incarcerated to advocate for parole reform and better housing conditions.
Both Jose and Joe with Jennifer Flynn, NYCAHN’s first Director, to lead the HASA Human Rights Project, which monitored the atrocious conditions in the city’s welfare system for people with HIV/AIDS, including commercial Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels where the city’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) still places homeless clients. And our network of housing providers continued to meet as the NYC HIV/AIDS Housing Advocacy Coalition to push for bold policies that reduced homelessness among people with HIV/AIDS in New York.
The NY Users Union became a program of NYCAHN in 2006 in order to incorporate more community organizing and social change advocacy into their work. The NY Users Union was first organized by NYCAHN leaders as a committee of syringe exchange participants interested in advocating around hepatitis C.
