Housing for low-income Granite Staters with HIV and AIDS is at risk after funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development expired Wednesday with no explanation from the government.
The department’s Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS grant program pays for housing services for people with HIV and AIDS across the country. Harbor Care in Nashua is the only organization in the state that is affected by the immediate delay in funding, although other states are impacted.
Harbor Care and the city of Nashua have received funding through the grant program for decades. The money goes towards clients’ security deposits, rental assistance, transportation to medical appointments and pharmacies, and salaries of their Harbor Care case managers.
Wendy LeBlanc, the director of HIV Services at Harbor Care, said when their grant expires this week, six households in southern New Hampshire will be going without the federal assistance.
“I know that if they didn't have this assistance, they would be on the street,” LeBlanc said. Her clients who receive the grant funds are almost all low-income and disabled.
LeBlanc said the government usually sends information on how people can renew their grants six months to a year before the expiration date, and Harbor Care has successfully applied for the funding on time. However, the federal housing department hasn’t sent any information this year to Harbor Care on how to continue with the grants or whether there will be any funding in the future.
The press office for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told NHPR that it will publish the grant renewal notice when “the necessary internal and interagency steps have been completed.” It did not respond to NHPR’s request for specificity on those steps or their timeline.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s office said it can take several months to receive funding after organizations complete the application process.
“They don't even have a car. Where would they go? I don't even know the answer,” LeBlanc said. “I've been losing sleep.”
How housing and HIV and AIDS transmission are connected
The Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS grant program was created by Congress in the 1990s to address the HIV epidemic by providing affordable housing for people with HIV and AIDS.
People living with HIV and AIDS need to take medicine at the exact same time daily to suppress the virus and prevent transmission, and housing is key to making that possible.
“If you don't have a safe place to sleep or enough food to eat, you're not going to be thinking about where you're going to store your medicine, or if you've taken your pill at the same time today that you took it yesterday,” LeBlanc said.
Harbor Care’s services, including housing assistance, have helped contribute to a 95% viral suppression rate for its clients. That means clients have mostly been able to consistently take HIV medicine and no longer transmit the virus.
“I have friends living with HIV. They have a job, they have health insurance, they go to the doctor, they take their pill, they live their life,” LeBlanc said. But she warned that stable housing and income is what allows that normalcy.
“Most of the folks that we serve [with the grant program] are folks that are living in poverty,” LeBlanc said, and they have a years-long waitlist of people living with HIV or AIDS who are seeking those services.
According to LeBlanc, about 1,500 people in New Hampshire are living with HIV, and the state sees between 40 and 50 new cases of people living with HIV each year.
Funds stalled for assistance across the country
The National HIV/AIDS Housing Coalition wrote in an email to subscribers Monday that all ongoing grants through May 2027 are stalled at HUD. The Coalition estimated that $35.7 million in funding is at risk, affecting 2,548 people receiving funds already appropriated by Congress.
Over 50 members of Congress, led by New Hampshire’s delegation, sent a letter to HUD Secretary Scott Turner Wednesday arguing that the department’s delay could leave some Americans homeless.
“We understand that the awarding process takes careful review,” the letter reads. “But because these applicants are all seeking renewals, they have already been vetted and approved by your department. We urge you to expedite this process immediately and release awards as soon as possible.”
LeBlanc initially contacted Shaheen’s office when she realized HUD wouldn’t give Harbor Care a chance to renew its funding on time.
“The constant delays, lack of communication and overall disarray we have seen from the Department of Housing and Urban Development is unacceptable,” Shaheen said in a statement to NHPR.
Politico reported this summer that the Trump administration has cut over 30% of HUD’s workforce in just three years, and federal lawmakers were concerned that the department is understaffed.
A temporary solution
Shaheen’s office put LeBlanc in touch with private foundations as a stop-gap solution for Harbor Care’s clients who are no longer getting federal assistance. One gave $10,000 to the organization Tuesday, which will cover rent for their clients for October. After that, LeBlanc said Harbor Care will dip into its cash reserves to try to keep the assistance coming.
LeBlanc is also eyeing another grant that is set to expire in April. That grant, also through HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS program, provides $1,532,092 towards Harbor Care’s services and funds the rental assistance for 30 - 35 households in Nashua. If the government also allows that grant to expire, LeBlanc said she will have to lay off case managers, and their clients’ housing future will be uncertain.
