Homeless with AIDS: the poor have to lock arms

Latest

 
BOSTON, MA — Willy (not his real name) was evicted from his apartment, robbed twice after sleeping on the streets of Boston homeless, and missed enough dosages of his HIV medications to endanger his survival medically. He has now become another statistic to be added to the 300+ homeless people living with HIV in Boston. Many, like Willy, are African-American.
But nothing could prepare him for this. After ten hours in the Emergency Room at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with severe neuropathy in his feet, he was discharged to the street even though he could not walk without the aid of someone. At his last blood work, he had 800,000 copies of HIV and 14 t-cells in his blood—a nearly destroyed immune system.
Willy was found lifeless in a food court and a good Samaritan used his phone to call his cousin who called me. We are a group of three close friends who had been helping Willy survive. As quick as I could, I got to the food court and helped Willy get to the street and a cab to get to a clinic where he could be seen. From there we went to the nearby Boston Medical Center Emergency Room. After four hours, a medical assistant confided in us that Willy would not be able to even stay the night in the waiting room until morning when he had a bed waiting for him at the Barbara McGinnes respite program. He had to get there by 7 a.m. Being admitted there was out of the question. Willy had no insurable illness. I brought Willy home with me and in the morning my husband drove us to Barbara McGinnes where Willy was, mercifully, admitted.
Willy left that program after a few days and got a bed at Pine Street Inn, Boston’s oldest emergency shelter. He had been banned permanently a few weeks before from the 450-bed Boston Public Health Commission-run Southampton shelter for bringing in a peach (no food is allowed to be brought in there). He argued with one of the staff and tossed a towel at him (which missed). He had just completed the required seven day stay in the emergency bed section of the shelter before allowed into the HIV Safe Harbor program where he would get a contract (guaranteed) bed and not have to line up every day at 3 p.m. to stay in line for a bed.
This is what can happen to the most oppressed among us, even in progressive Boston, the only state in the U.S. that requires public authorities to provide emergency shelters for the homeless. This is what can happen in Massachusetts where HIV incidence has fallen to a “mere” 650 a year and where access to HIV medications is universal. This is what can happen when the average one-bedroom apartment rents for $2300/year.
This is what does happen when the economic system we live under must, as a condition of its success, generate unemployment and homelessness to survive. But this system’s days are numbered so long as the poor, the exploited and the oppressed lock arms in solidarity and fight for true liberation!

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Pushing People into a Really Bad System Will End Really Badly

President Trump's executive order fuses drug use and homelessness, ignoring that homelessness can cause or exacerbate substance use because people use drugs to cope with pain. Forced institutional settings rather than housing will not help the ill or unhoused.

Chicago Resistance Speaks: ‘Until All Are Free, None Are Free’

An uprising is growing as the government tries to impose a dictatorship. Chicago resistance leaders recently offered their thoughts in public remarks made at demonstrations and press conferences.

Los Angeles Continues to Rebuild and Resist

Angelinos, suffering from the profit over people economy, continue to rebuild after the fires and to protest immigration raids, while also experiencing joy in such difficult times.

Chicago Teachers Union Says: Trump, Stay Out of Our City

Chicago Teachers Union rejects any unlawful federal occupation of their city, while welcoming federal leadership that fully funds public education, restores SNAP, and expands Medicaid to healthcare for all.

Journalist Says Why ‘I Can No Longer Work With Reuters’

A photojournalist says why it is impossible for her to maintain a relationship with Reuters "given its role in justifying and enabling the systematic assassination of 245 journalists in Gaza."

More from the People's Tribune