The Big Real Estate billionaires don’t believe that an organization birthed as the LGBTQ community’s response to a deadly epidemic should continue to exist. Intentional neglect born of homophobia fueled the criminally negligent AIDS response in the 1980s, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) emerged during that time to provide care when no one else would.
Now Big Real Estate is intent on destroying AHF and denying care to tens of thousands of Californians with HIV or at risk. They are indifferent to the fact that patients may languish or die. They are placing an initiative on the November 2024 ballot, Proposition 34, to strip AHF of all its licenses and non-profit status, seeking to destroy the largest AIDS organization in California.
They don’t have the spine to declare their true intent—shutting down AHF—so they are claiming to be protecting patients. Don’t be fooled by their lies perpetuated by $100 million in false advertising. The billionaire boys club cannot stand for the community to have power and resources. They, alone, are determined to own all the levers of power.
Big Real Estate has told their members that they are putting forth this proposition to counter the Yes on Prop 33 rent control initiative this November. Publicly, they are saying that they are merely protecting patients. Don’t be fooled.
So why is an AIDS organization fighting for housing justice? Because we cannot deliver the care that our patients need if they are homeless. The same outrage that we felt when gay men were left to die in the hallways of the county hospital in the ’80s motivates us to confront the humanitarian crisis of homelessness.
Our fight against the greed of drug companies that consigned millions of Africans and poor people to death from profiteering inspires us to stand up against the Big Real Estate merchants of death. Six homeless people die on the streets of Los Angeles every day.
AHF’s fight against these robber barons is every caring person’s battle. If they succeed in picking us off, what hope is there for smaller, less powerful defenders of the voiceless.
Our democracy is under attack from all directions. AHF’s core value is fighting for what’s right. Don’t let the forces of greed silence our voice or yours.