New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and most Senate Republicans defeated a bill that would ensure low-income people with HIV/AIDS who qualify for rental assistance pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward their rent, the standard for affordable housing in every other low-income housing program in the state, according to a VOCAL-NY statement. The vote goes against the wishes of openly gay and HIV-positive Senator Thomas K. Duane, a Democrat, who is retiring at the end of this year.

To read the VOCAL-NY statement, click here.