Our healthcare crisis is a matter of equity and justice. This World AIDS Day, Heartland Alliance hopes to provide at least some perspective into the intersectionality of the AIDS crisis. Without considering how the epidemic has disproportionately impacted people of color and people from vulnerable populations, we will never end this epidemic – or any other.
As we face a second global health crisis, we must listen to those most impacted to find solutions. Ryan is a participant with Heartland Alliance’s Supportive Housing Services, a supportive housing program dedicated to those living with HIV/AIDS. He has been a longtime advocate and volunteer for healthcare institutions like Access Community Health Network, Howard Brown, Brothers Health Collective, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and the Black Gay Men’s Caucus, just to name a few.
We asked Ryan, who has now experienced life with both HIV and COVID-19, to share his thoughts on why Black and Brown communities seem to be most impacted by these viruses – and what we must do to combat the crises.
Why do you think so many young people of color struggle with housing insecurity?
The realest answer that I can give is: look at the history of this country. How it was never created for the economic and mental increase of Black and Brown people. You take this city, and think about the political, financial and racial schematics of this city, it was built on poverty and disparity – and it builds this system.
So many Black men and women – starting as teenagers and throughout their lives – struggle with affordable housing because they struggle with obtaining wealth. The wealth is focused on specific places, and it’s not focused in Black neighborhoods. Once upon a time, they made the suburbs expensive so only white people lived in the burbs. Now, when white people wanted the city again, they gentrified our homes – they made the suburbs cheaper, and kicked up the taxes to make it harder to commute back into the cities.
It’s sad, I work on the north side and I see a lot of racism directed towards me, and then I come home and see how we aren’t recognized just because of the color of our skin. Sad.
These last four years in particular have been really hard. Never have I felt so ostracized for having the color of my skin. Never have I been fetishized before like I have been in these last four years. That racism has been supported and fed by the people in power. Sure, it was already here – but it’s more lively now. The flames burn brighter with hate, and that’s scary to realize these days.
Why is it so important to make sure people live with HIV are housing secure?
You know, not all housing is healthy housing. Independent supportive housing is important for peace of mind and stability. Especially right now, we have these COVID numbers rising. Having a compromised immune system AND being a person of color in a city like Chicago, it’s an imperative to have a home. This personal space for myself is deeply important.
Also, when you live with HIV and live with other people, sometimes privacy can be difficult. People don’t understand what you’re going through. People can bash you, make fun of you, be scared of you. Having your own home helps you build your strength.
What should Chicago be doing to make sure this doesn’t happen anymore?
I honestly think that the biggest solution is to provide more funding for communities of color for housing and healthcare. If you want to provide housing on the north side of Chicago, and provide for any and everybody; how about you provide the finances necessary to allow the south and west sides to thrive.
Stop giving Black people the bare minimum. Invest in us the way you do in white communities. When you increase the finances and the opportunity and actually assemble buildings that will help people get the things they need, then people will thrive – and we all deserve to thrive in these dark times.
