Clay Turner (’19) is the Community Partnerships Account Manager for Housing Works, a New York City-based nonprofit fighting AIDS and homelessness through advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain its efforts.
Turner is tasked with connecting new clients with healthcare services, centered around the organization’s harm-reduction model. Additionally, as part of the Housing Works’ business development division, he is in charge of maintaining relationships with present community partners while fostering relationships with new partners through site visits and presentations of services.
“I was interested in this position because Housing Works came about to serve those deemed too difficult to serve,” Turner said, reflecting on Housing Works’ origins. “Back in the ‘90s, at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, HW became a beacon of hope for a lot of gay men and those in the LGBTQ community who couldn’t receive life-saving services because their own government had failed them. They have an established position in NYC for serving the LGBTQ community, which is the kind of work I wanted to devote my life to, so this position was perfect for me.”
Housing Works was formed in 1990 by members of the AIDS activist group ACT UP in an effort to serve thousands of homeless men, women, and children in New York City living with HIV and AIDS. Its range of services include health care, advocacy, job training, reentry services, harm-reduction services, mental health counseling, and legal aid support, among others.
Housing Works’ entrepreneurial model is part of what makes it unique. The organization runs a bookstore café, a chain of thrift shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and an eShop as social enterprises, allowing them support their work and reduce financial dependency on grants and donations.
Turner, who graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in political science, said that he enjoys the process of connecting individuals with services that can help them acquire housing.
“We are able to connect them with the right communication channels that exponentially increase their chances of obtaining a space of their own, and it feels good to know that I’m a part of that,” Turner said.
A native of Leachville, Ark., Turner credits his experiences at the Clinton School for helping him to build a foundation in serving the LGBTQ community. As part of the school’s public service curriculum, he traveled to Exeter, England, to develop a map of LGBTQ organizations outside of London as potential members for the LGBT Consortium, which supports and offers a range of services to LGBTQ organizations in the United Kingdom.
“Through working with the LGBT Consortium, my International Public Service Project in England, I built my skills in a target-based work environment, which has translated to my job with Housing Works, where we also use a target-based model for measuring the success of each individual Account Manager every month,” Turner said. “My experience in England also gave me the opportunity to work within an area I wasn’t familiar, making it so I was able to carve out my own space. This has come in handy in NYC, where I’ve had to do the same.”
For his final Capstone project, Turner partnered with AsylumConnect, an organization dedicated to facilitating the safe navigation of people fleeing persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“That experience was eye-opening, as I was able to see how LGBTQ individuals outside of the United States experienced persecution and threats to their own rights. It allowed me to build my foundation in immigration, and now I’m able to bring a knowledge of those unique issues to the work that I do today in NYC.”
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