AIDS Healthcare Foundation

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AbbreviationAHF
FormationFebruary 1987; 37 years ago (1987-02)
FounderChris Brownlie
Michael Weinstein
Typenonprofit organization
95-4112121[1]
Legal status501(c)(3)
PurposeTo provide medical care for people living with HIV or AIDS. The organization aims to eradicate HIV/AIDS through its network of health care centers, pharmacies, prevention and testing services, healthcare contracts and other strategic partnerships.[2]
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California, U.S.
Coordinates34°05′56″N 118°19′33″W / 34.098787°N 118.325725°W / 34.098787; -118.325725
SubsidiariesAHF Pharmacy
Out of the Closet thrift stores
Positive Healthcare
Housing is a Human Right
Healthy Housing Foundation
Revenue (2020)
$1,766,598,821[2]
Expenses (2020)$1,635,146,022[2]
Employees (2019)
2,446[3]
Websiteahf.org

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and advocacy services.[4] As of 2024, AHF operates about 400 clinics, 69 outpatient healthcare centers, 62 pharmacies, and 22 Out of the Closet thrift stores across 15 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 46 countries, with over 5,000 employees, and provides care to more than two million patients.[5][6][7][8] The organization's aim is to end the AIDS epidemic by ensuring access to quality healthcare, including HIV and STD testing, prescription of medications like Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), and referrals to specialty pharmacies.[9][10][11] AHF is the largest provider of PrEP in the United States, though its founder Michael Weinstein has received criticism for his past opposition to the drug.

Since 2012, AHF has become highly active in sponsoring and exclusively financing multiple high-profile ballot initiatives in two states, starting with a successful Los Angeles County initiative to require condoms in adult films (2012 Los Angeles Measure B), and then a similar statewide initiative which failed (2016 California Proposition 60). They also ran two measures seeking to cap prescription drug prices (California Proposition 61 (2016) and Ohio Issue 2 (2017)), both of which failed.

In 2017, AHF created a new organization named the Healthy Housing Foundation, which has been creating housing for homeless and low-income individuals, primarily in Los Angeles. AHF also shifted its political focus to attempting to block housing construction through lawsuits against several new projects, as well as an initiative seeking to block local development in Los Angeles (2017 Los Angeles Measure S), and two seeking to allow for the expansion of rent control in California (2018 California Proposition 10 and 2020 California Proposition 21); these three failed at the polls.[12] Regarding the housing initiatives, critics have questioned whether the group is misusing foundation and taxpayer money by sponsoring ballot initiatives they consider unrelated to the stated mission of the organization.[13][14][15] Weinstein argues, however, that housing is linked to a "sustainable public health structure."[16]

AHF is a supporter of the Justice for Renters Act, a 2024 California ballot measure—officially known as Proposition 33—that would enable expanded rent control in the state.

  1. ^ "AIDS Healthcare Foundation". Tax Exempt Organization Search. Internal Revenue Service. August 18, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c "Form 990: Audit for period ending December 2020". AIDS Healthcare Foundation. December 31, 2020.
  3. ^ "Form 990 for period ending December 2019". AIDS Healthcare Foundation. December 31, 2019.
  4. ^ "PAHO and AIDS Healthcare Foundation to collaborate on elimination of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean - PAHO/WHO | Pan American Health Organization". www.paho.org. May 2, 2023. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  5. ^ Asch, Andrew (October 20, 2023). "AIDs Healthcare Foundation Buys $20M Warehouse in Carson". The Real Deal. Retrieved October 23, 2023. The Healthy Housing Foundation has spent more than $183 million on the purchase and renovation of older properties in Los Angeles,...
  6. ^ Bates, Oliver (October 4, 2023). "AHF Opens New State-of-the-Art Capitol Hill Facility". Metro Weekly. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  7. ^ "Janet Jackson headlines huge World AIDS Day concert in Houston this December - CultureMap Houston". houston.culturemap.com. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  8. ^ "HIV/AIDS: AHF celebrates over 2 million lives in care". The Nation Newspaper.
  9. ^ Reyes, Emily Alpert (September 13, 2023). "STDs have been on the rise. Who should pick up the tab for testing?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  10. ^ "New Clinic Opens In St. Petersburg Ahead Of National HIV Testing Day". WUSF. June 25, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  11. ^ Staff reports (March 9, 2022). "AIDS Healthcare Foundation opens first Healthcare Center in Virginia". www.washingtonblade.com. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  12. ^ See the section: Ballot_initiatives for more information and sources.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference LAT_2017-02-24 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "World's Largest AIDS Organization Just Flushed Millions Down the Toilet". www.advocate.com. March 8, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference LABlade_2019-12-06 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).