Press Releases

Mayor’s Office of Communications
55 Trinity Avenue, Suite 2500 • Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Mayor Andre Dickens Committed to Moving Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Forward in the City of Atlanta

ATLANTA – Mayor Andre Dickens has committed to supporting and uplifting Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) in the City of Atlanta and the 29-county service area that the city covers.

HOPWA is the vital federal program that provides funding dedicated to support housing needs for people living with HIV and AIDS in Atlanta. Since taking office, Mayor Dickens has kept his promise of ensuring Atlanta’s HOPWA program is up to date, clearing out the full 2019-2021 backlog of payments by June 30. To date, the Department of Grants and Community Development has reimbursed over $11.5 million to HOPWA service providers.

Mayor Dickens visited HOPWA-provider Jerusalem House, Inc., today.

“Seeing the work Jerusalem House has been doing as Atlanta’s oldest and largest HOPWA provider warms my heart and reminds me why this Administration is dedicated to moving HOPWA forward,” Mayor Dickens said. “I’m thankful for the consistent dedication of all HOPWA service providers and the work Commissioner Lonon and her team have done to make sure HOPWA is treated as a priority. While the work to improve our HOPWA efforts is far from over, we remain dedicated to providing quality housing opportunities for everyone.”

During today’s ‘Re-New: A Luncheon Benefitting Jerusalem House’ event, Mayor Dickens outlined the additional work the city is doing to support HOPWA service providers, including having the Department of Grants and Community Development coordinate with procurement, law, and finance to streamline the process for contracting for HOPWA service providers. This streamlining also includes switching to a monitoring-based approach for reimbursement submission, which vastly reduces the burden on HOPWA service providers. Through these efforts, the reimbursement process has been reduced from 144 days to 47-days on average. In addition, the city endeavors to meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 30-day reimbursement requirement and has met that goal for the past two months.

Mayor Dickens also outlined additional investments and efforts the Administration is making to move HOPWA forward and striving to provide quality housing for everyone. One such effort is creating a task force to address the anticipated reduction in HOPWA grant money from the federal government. This task force will include members of the mayor’s senior staff, members of the HOPWA Advisory Committee and other stakeholders. Additionally, Mayor Dickens will be appointing a member of the Department of Grants and Community Development to serve as a member of Fulton County’s Ryan White Council’s Housing Committee.

“I am thankful for Mayor Dickens dedication to moving HOPWA forward and creating additional resources to ensure HOPWA continues to thrive in Atlanta,” said Commissioner Lonon. “Along with the new service provider streamlining process and additional efforts to address HOPWA funding and viability, I look forward to seeing Mayor Dickens appoint a HOPWA Service Provider to a housing focused board/commission to ensure their needs are considered in the city’s overall affordable housing strategy.”

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