Deal Us In
Keith Cylar was a co-founder and co-president of Housing Works, a leading AIDS service provider in NYT. Keith Cylar was a Black, gay, HIV positive, drug user, and social worker who was co-founder of Housing Works, a New York City-based HIV/AIDS service provider committed to ending the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS.
In 1990, Cylar founded Housing Works with his longtime partner Charles King, as well as Eric Sawyer, and Virginia Shubert in order to serve people living with HIV in New York City. The founders believed that providing stable housing for people with HIV would help them live healthier lives and reduce the spread of the virus. This housing model is known as Housing First.
After Cylar’s death, Dennis DeLeon said in a written statement that:
Keith Cylar was “loud when others remained silent…he could shame any bureaucrat into action by any means necessary…There are few people who worked as tirelessly as Keith on behalf of the poor, L.G.B.T. people, men and women who use drugs, the homeless, the disenfranchised, people with H.I.V., people of color, and just about anybody who did not have a voice”
For more info about Housing Works: About Us