Commissioner Doar Receives Community Impact Award for Helping Homeless New Yorkers Living with
HIV/AIDS
On Friday, October 28, HRA Commissioner Robert Doar received Comunilife’s Community Impact Award
for efforts on behalf of New York City’s homeless population living with HIV and AIDS. Commissioner
Doar was joined at the event by Mary Harper, Executive Deputy Commissioner of HRA’s Medical
Insurance and Community Services Administration (MICSA), and Jacqueline Dudley, Deputy
Commissioner of HRA’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA). The award was presented at
Comunilife’s annual corporate breakfast, which brings together representatives from New York City’s
business, non-profit, academic and political communities to focus on improving the lives of New Yorkers
living with mental illness and HIV/AIDS.
“I am honored to be here today to accept Comunilife’s Community Impact Award on behalf of HRA’s
HIV/AIDS Services Administration, which has done so much to improve the quality of life for persons
living with AIDS or HIV illness and their families,” said Commissioner Doar in his acceptance speech.
“With the guidance of Executive Deputy Commissioner Harper, Deputy Commissioner Dudley has done a
stellar job of leading the HASA program since she stepped into that role in 2010.”
HRA’s HASA program is the most comprehensive of its kind in the nation. Established in the early
1980’s, it was among the first government organizations to help those with HIV/AIDS, when many
organizations were hesitant to help. HASA provides a full range of services needed for its clients to lead
healthier and more independent lives, including intensive case management, rental assistance,
emergency and non-emergency housing, and assistance with applying for public benefits and services
including Medicaid, food stamps and cash assistance. HASA also provides vocational services that
prepare clients for work.
Thanks to medical advances that have allowed those with HIV and AIDS to live longer, healthier lives,
and to the leadership of Commissioner Doar, Executive Deputy Commissioner Harper and Deputy
Commissioner Dudley, HASA is shifting its focus from crisis management, to helping clients live fuller
lives with the highest degree of self-sufficiency, such as voluntary vocational rehabilitation.
Comunilife is one of HRA’s largest supportive housing vendors, with more than 600 units of transitional,
permanent congregate and scatter-site housing. Just this month, under a contract with HRA, Comunilife
opened a new and newly-constructed residence in the Bronx to provide permanent housing and services
to homeless adults with HIV/AIDS.
“HRA is proud of its partnership with Comunilife, which has been providing supportive housing for HASA
clients for the last 15 years,” said Commissioner Doar. “Through Comunilife, Dr Gil and her staff provide
our most vulnerable clients with quality housing and an array of services to help them become self-
sufficient.”