Petrelis Files

$69M Housing Works AIDS Group Must Post IRS 990s on Their Site

The following letter was emailed this afternoon to Housing Works, a Brooklyn-based AIDS nonprofit.

Dear Housing Works Leaders,

I recently checked out your Annual Reports page and was disappointed to see supposed listings for six years of IRS 990s, there was only a single tax filing and it was for 2007, while the other five links went to consolidated audited reports.

Over at the Guide Star site, I found a total of fifteen Housing Works affiliates listed of which thirteen showed income in 2013. Here are the rounded income numbers from Guide Star:

1. Housing Works Thrift Store
$32,652,000

2. Housing Works Inc
$10,306,000

3. Housing Works Services II
$5,806,000

4. Housing Works Book Store & Cafe
$4,882,000

5. Housing Works Health Services
$4,582,000

6. Housing Works Services Inc
$3,472,000

7. Housing Works Food Services
$2,576,000

8. Housing Works Jefferson Housing Development
$1,878,000

9. Housing Works Housing Development 
$966,000

10. Housing Works East New York Housing Development
$920,00

11. Housing Works Lexington Housing Development
$784,000

12. Housing Works Harlem Housing Development
$645,000

13. Housing Works Pitkin Housing
$81,000

Total: $69,560,000

As you may know, many HIV/AIDS service and advocacy organizations voluntarily post at least three years' worth of IRS 990s on their web sites, including tax filings of their affiliates, and these nonprofits include AmFAR, GMHC, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Project Inform, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and many others.

Today, in the service of full transparency to the community, your donors and clients, I am requesting that Housing Works and all of its affiliated arms immediately post a minimum of three years' of IRS 990s on your primary site.

Please let me know if you'll grant my request. Thanks.

Best regards,
Michael Petrelis