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Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Print number 5534b
- Amend (t) and recommit to social services
- Print number 5534a
- Amend and recommit to social services
- Referred to social services
- Referred to social services
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to establishing access to benefits and services for people with HIV in each local department of social services
Purpose
To establish access to benefits and services, including housing, transportation and nutrition assistance, to every eligible person infected with HIV, in each local department of social services statewide.
Summary of provisions
Section One adds a new section 138 to the Social Services law directing the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) to direct local Departments of Social Services (LDSS) to establish and maintain access to benefits and services to every person in New York State infected with HIV, who requests assistance, and shall ensure the provision of benefits and services to eligible persons.
Read the full memo (641 words)
The Commissioner shall direct OTDA or LDSS to provide access to benefits and services to every eligible person infected with HIV who requests assistance, and shall ensure the provision of benefits to eligible persons. Such benefits shall include, but not be limited to, medically appropriate transitional and permanent housing, Medicaid and other health related services: long term care and services provided by a certified home health agency, long term home health care program or AIDS home care program; food stamps; preventative services, including rent subsidies; financial benefits; and intensive care management. The Commissioner shall have the authority to provide access to additional benefits and services and ensure the provision of such additional benefits and services whenever deemed appropriate.
The requirements with respect to such access and eligibility of benefits shall not be more than those requirements mandated by state or federal statute, law, rule or regulation.
The bill provides that there shall be an advisory board to advise the Commissioner on the provision of benefits and services and access to benefits and services to persons with HIV or AIDS.
This bill amends section 131-a of the social services law to provide that each person infected with HIV and otherwise eligible for benefits and services herein not pay more than 30% of his or her monthly earned income toward the cost of rent that such person has a direct obligation to pay.
Additionally, this bill provides that New York State provide reimbursement of 50% to local departments of social services with a population over five million and 100% reimbursement for local departments of social services with a population under five million.
Justification
The ability to meet basic subsistence needs - safe, affordable housing, food, transportation - is essential for any person with HIV to access and benefit from antiretroviral treatment. New York State's Blueprint for Ending the AIDS Epidemic (ETE) by 2020 recognizes that action to ensure greater housing stability is key to engaging and retaining many low-income persons with HIV in the care needed to stay healthy and prevent further transmission.
We simply cannot end the NYS AIDS epidemic while 10,000 or more individuals and families with HIV across the state remain homeless or unstably housed. Research findings strongly link unstable housing to poor health outcomes, detectable viral load, HIV risk behaviors, and increased rates of HIV infection. It can be conservatively estimated that leaving 10,000 New Yorkers with HIV without stable housing will result in at least 1,000 avoidable new HIV infections between now and 2020, undermining the ability to achieve our ETE goals.
Furthermore, there are estimated 4,000 homeless or unstably housed people with HIV in the balance of the State outside New York City. Localities outside NYC are not able to generate the revenue needed to support the provision of the services referenced in this bill and thus it is essential that the State provide the funding necessary for implementation.
Legislative history
S.7943 of 2014 (Hoylman): Died in Rules
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.