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Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) is moving into new office space in Manhattan, in the process making changes that worry some advocates and infuriate the organization's co-founder.
"We did make some adjustments in order to secure what is a very good deal, and I have no regrets," said GMHC CEO Dr. Marjorie Hill, in response to objections from, among others, co-founder Larry Kramer.
From its current site at 119 W. 24th St., GMHC will move on Jan. 1 about one mile north and west to 450 W. 33rd St. The relocation was prompted by an increase in GMHC's annual rent from $6 million to more than $8 million.
At its new location, GMHC's neighbors include the Associated Press, the Daily News of New York and public broadcaster WNET, from which it is subletting 165,000 square feet of space. In order to get approval for the deal from the building's owner, GMHC made a series of concessions that have raised eyebrows in the community.
Unlike its current site, GMHC's new location will not allow on-site medical services. About 650 GMHC patients use the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center clinic at the 24th Street site, said center representative Kathleen Robinson.
The loss of clinic facilities is "regrettable but not fatal" to GMHC, Hill said.
GMHC clients will enter the new site through a private entrance. While Kramer likened this to a Jim Crow-like stigmatization, Hill said the separate entrance provides clients with easy and private access.
Kitchen facilities at the new site are scaled down from the industrial-type arrangement at the existing location, but GMHC still will offer hot meals as it always has, Hill said.
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