GMHC Board, Clients to Discuss Move

Following weeks of internal turmoil, Gay Men's Health Crisis board members will meet Thursday evening with client representatives and other stakeholders, including donors, to discuss a controversial plan to move the New York City-based HIV/AIDS service organization from its Chelsea location to the far West Side of Manhattan.

"This is a special board of directors meeting that the board called because of CAB demand," said Marcelo Maia, chairman of the Consumer Advisory Board, which represents clients, staff, and volunteers. "It is a very unique opportunity to educate the board about the issues."

A vocal contingent of clients and activists, including GMHC cofounder Larry Kramer, argues that the proposed move, which the board voted unanimously to pursue, would negatively affect core services, including a popular hot lunch program, and impose restrictions that impede the organization's ability to fulfill its mission.

Founded in 1982 as a pioneering AIDS service group for gay men stricken by a new epidemic, GMHC now annually serves 15,000 clients, including many people of color and low-income New Yorkers from the city's outer boroughs. Insiders say that sweeping demographic changes and funding challenges of recent years have ratcheted up the pressure on the high-profile organization.

"There is an enormous amount of expectations for GMHC, and they have a huge variety of stakeholders, some of whom are quite loudmouthed," said one observer who declined to be identified.

Faced with lease expiration and rising rents by year's end at its current headquarters on 24th Street, GMHC is in negotiations to sublease space from public television station WNET 13 in an office building near 10th Avenue and 33rd Street. Critics say that in addition to a less central location, new building requirements could negate any long-term savings by forcing GMHC to forgo a full industrial kitchen, install a separate entrance for clients, eliminate on-site HIV testing, and endanger its connection to a primary care and research clinic operated in the current building by New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

"This is detrimental to GMHC clients and GMHC itself," said Maia, who noted the community's anxious mood following the recent closure of St. Vincent's Hospital, which housed a renowned HIV/AIDS clinic. "They are going to end up losing money."

Marjorie Hill, Ph.D, CEO of GMHC, declined to discuss financial aspects of the potential deal in an interview last week, citing confidentiality agreements. But people familiar with the negotiations say that the new costs would be around $7.5 million per year, compared to $9.6 million in the current location after the 15-year lease expires and hikes take effect in 2011.

"We have current occupancy costs that in the new arrangement would be about 30% less," said Hill. "We are continuing negotiations, and until that's finalized I really can't talk about details, but there is a great deal of excitement about having a potential new facility. We are still having negotiations with the landlord."

Hill said the new location would consist of two floors and more space than the 144,000 square feet GMHC currently occupies across 12 floors. Insiders put the new figure at 165,000 square feet.

Hill also lauded the separate entrance for clients that Kramer has denounced as a "Jim Crow" tactic.

"We asked for a separate entrance because we thought it would be easier for our clients and for our branding," said Hill, who added that the entrance would be clearly identifiable. "We negotiated an elevator that only goes to the GMHC floor. It's a real advantage, having 500 or 600 people come through their own entrance with receptionists that know them and the express floor."

Hill acknowledged that the new building's structure would make it extremely expensive to install a full industrial kitchen, but she said the highly utilized meal service would still adhere to government requirements and remain a social centerpiece.

"The actual meals will be a little different but will meet the guidelines and will be an appetizing and appealing meal," she said. "One of the things we're looking at is possibly gourmet sandwiches, chilis, soups, and stews."

Hill also said that research would continue, and she praised the potential introduction of off-site HIV testing that reaches into communities, calling it more attuned to CDC best practices than the current on-site testing.

"Our 10,000 HIV-positive clients don't need an HIV test," said Hill.

The specifics of the new arrangement aside, critics have condemned the process leading up to the move as lacking transparency. They accuse Hill and the board of refusing to seek assistance from elected officials and real estate industry connections in order to negotiate with the current landlord or find a more favorable situation.

"It's a Kafka nightmare that we're living there," said Maia. "Nobody understands why we have to go to this place. Nobody understands why they don't ask for help from the community."

Hill dismissed the notion.

"This is another myth that's going around that we don't want help from our elected officials," she said. "We always talk to elected officials. Why wouldn't I want to talk to elected officials, particularly those who represent this district and particularly those who represent HIV-positive people?"

Spokespeople for city council speaker Christine Quinn and state senator Tom Duane, gay officials who represent the area, declined to comment.

Kramer, who left GMHC and went on to form the more militant ACT UP, drops the serious allegation that other potential landlords passed over the group because of its minority and low-income client base, and he faulted the board for not exposing discrimination.

"That's why they've been turned down everywhere," he said. "When one after another refuses to rent to them because of who they are, you've got to make this public. That is illegal."

Once again, Hill deflected the criticism.

"As an African-American woman, I can go into a store and feel weird, but people might not have done anything," she said. "We understand and sense that our landlords were nervous about a social service agency. We did not have anyone make a statement or do anything that we would run out and do a lawsuit."

Asked her opinion of Kramer, who urged Hill and board cochairs to resign at an emotional CAB meeting last Thursday, she said, "We think of him as the grandfather of GMHC and that he has made enormous contributions to the gay community, to GMHC, and to public health."

Some say the respective positions of the board and clients, as represented by Hill and Kramer, simply reveal different ways of trying to achieve what they believe is best for the esteemed AIDS service provider in difficult times.

"Marjorie is dealing with the nitty-gritty of a lease, of paying bills, of meeting budgets and so forth," said Larry Mass, MD, a GMHC cofounder who voiced his respect for both parties. "Larry is more the idealist in terms of greater levels of struggle against discrimination and for client services and for gay people and for people living with AIDS."

When the board and stakeholders meet behind closed doors Thursday evening, client representatives said they look forward to an educational discussion, but they intend to hold firm, including a plan for a potential protest outside the new building this Wednesday if there demands are not met.

What they want could prove a tall order for the GMHC board as it continues to negotiate with its potential new landlord.

"We demanded a meeting with the board, and this will continue until the lease is dropped," said Maia.