“For a Few Months of Peace”

Abstract

This article explores the interrelated struggles for housing and HIV/AIDS care during the first decades of the epidemic in New York City. It follows municipal and activist responses to a growing homeless population alongside the work of tenants’ rights advocates to explore the complex dynamics of care, displacement, and austerity that gave shape to the struggles of people living with HIV/AIDS. This article places the 1989 New York State Supreme Court case Braschi v. Stahl, concerning lease succession rights for same-sex partners, as a central text alongside Callahan v. Carey and Mixon v. Grinker litigation to illustrate the possibilities and limitations within coalitions formed between antipoverty activists and LGBTQ rights groups.