Sense of House Regarding Housing Funding to Combat AIDS
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Mr. NADLER of New York. I thank the gentleman from Indiana for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my resolution, H. Con. Res. 137, which expresses the sense of Congress that housing is a key component of combating the war against HIV and AIDS.
I want to thank Chairman Frank and my colleagues, both parties on the Financial Services Committee, for bringing this resolution to the floor, and I call on my colleagues to join me in supporting this important resolution.
It is remarkable how far we have come as a society in our understanding of the HIV virus. In the early 1980s and well into the 1990s, an HIV-positive diagnosis was seen as a death sentence.
But nearly three decades after the launch of a global campaign to study the disease, to develop and disseminate treatment, and to teach prevention, those who contract HIV now have more than just an elusive hope for the future. They have a natural reality of living healthy and productive lives for decades.
Today we have an entire medical, organizational, and legislative foundation from which we can provide information, medication, and health care to those who have contracted the disease. Yet, just as advances are being made to extend and enhance the lives of those living with HIV and AIDS, we still have a long way to go in the United States in order to make sure that everyone benefits.
While we now have effective HIV medications, there are still many complicating factors in making sure that everyone can get and successfully use those medications. These drugs can be very expensive, forcing people to choose between lifesaving drugs and other essentials such as food, clothing, and housing. In addition, these complex medications often require refrigeration and precise daily routines and mealtimes for their administration.
Successfully integrating these drugs into anyone's life has its complications. For those who are homeless, or who don't know where they will be sleeping day to day or month to month, the situation is extremely difficult and often, sadly, life threatening.
Study after study has confirmed the connection between the ability to remain healthy after being diagnosed with HIV and access to stable housing.
Here are just a few statistics. According to a 2007 study in the American Journal of Public Health, housing status is a more significant predictor of health care access and outcomes than individual characteristics, insurance status, substance abuse, and mental health comorbidities, or even service utilization.
Up to 70 percent of all people living with HIV report a lifetime experience of homelessness or housing instability.
Rates of HIV infection are 16 times higher, 16 times higher, among those who are homeless or unstably housed compared to similarly situated people with stable housing.
Up to 14 percent of all homeless people are HIV positive, 10 times the rate in the general population.
The death rate due to HIV or AIDS among homeless people living with HIV is seven to nine times the death rate due to HIV-AIDS among the general population.
The studies are equally clear that ensuring access to stable housing is cost-effective. According to economic evaluation studies done by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, providing housing to those who are HIV positive either helps to save costs associated with treating these patients, or has similar effects such as those associated with kidney dialysis and screening for breast and colon cancer.
If we are to tackle the spread and treatment of HIV and AIDS in our society, we absolutely must address the need for stable housing for people with HIV and AIDS. Housing is not a luxury; it's a necessity. And with stable, safe housing comes better health and healthier habits, especially for those living with HIV-AIDS.
So I ask my colleagues in both parties to support this resolution so that we can move toward a sound and comprehensive policy for the prevention and treatment of HIV-AIDS.
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