AIDS Healthcare Foundation is a housing lifeline. Don't attack it

Letters to the Editor: The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is a housing lifeline. It doesn’t deserve to be attacked

People, some wearing protective masks, hold shovels with dirt next to a sign that says "Renaissance Center"

Nov. 26, 2023 3 AM PT

To the editor: It is disheartening to see The Times attack the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and its Healthy Housing Foundation (HHF) division. (“Inside the world’s largest AIDS charity’s troubled move into homeless housing,” Nov. 16)

AHF is one of the few nonprofit organizations that tries to house the homeless by reducing the eligibility requirements to a drastic minimum, giving people a chance to get on their feet with rents far below average market rates. That, in itself, is a major accomplishment — there is nothing similar in Los Angeles.

AHF and HHF serve a niche of people who can mostly sustain themselves but are underemployed or on Social Security and cannot afford the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which exceeds $2,000 per month. We are a savior to many of our residents just by the fact that we do not request a credit check (another major barrier to getting housed). Due to our model, many people who otherwise would be homeless end up housed.

I am a witness to how many resources AHF continually doles out to upgrade and improve its facilities. Because AHF is not a player in the government bureaucracy, and we are not greedy developers, we do not get our permit requests fast-tracked, which leads to delays in completing upgrades.

Unfortunately, today’s culture prefers to highlight the negatives and refrain from shining light on all the positives of ventures like ours.

Robert Fields, Los Angeles

The writer is housing coordinator for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Healthy Housing Foundation.

To the editor: I’ve never understood how a not-for-profit organization could spend tens of millions of dollars on political campaigns and massive ad buys — clearly at the expense of its actual clients and mission.

But now it all makes sense: The AIDS Healthcare Foundation looks like a predatory landlord in nonprofit camouflage.

AHF President Michael Weinstein’s quote from 2018, “Our idea at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has always been not just to tell them but to show them,” sure was prescient. He showed us exactly who he is and sacrificed all his credibility and pretense of competence in the process.

His hypocrisy is genuine; his concern for vulnerable tenants appears not to be.

Paul Kradin, Santa Ynez