Charles King is one of the founders and the CEO of Housing Works, Inc. a community- based, not-for-profit organization that provides a full range of services for people with HIV/AIDS and other chronic conditions, including housing, health care, mental health care, harm reduction services, and legal, advocacy, job training and employment services.
In 2014, Charles served as community co-chair of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Task Force and he currently co-chairs the Ending the Epidemic Subcommittee of the New York State (NYS) AIDS Advisory Council. He has been a vocal proponent of expanding HIV rental assistance statewide. In November 2018, Charles was appointed to the first-ever State Hepatitis C Elimination Task Force and he has been a vocal proponent of expanding access to the cure for hepatitis C.
Charles authored the 2012 MRT proposal to have OASAS recognize harm reduction as a drug treatment modality and then led the effort to develop the first OASAS-approved harm reduction policy and procedure manual, pioneering the use of harm reduction in an 822 program. He is also the founding chair of the Board of Research for a Safer New York, an entity seeking to introduce overdose prevention centers as a harm reduction service in New York State.
Charles also serves on the Value Based Payment (VBP) Workgroup charged with reforming the State’s health care system to improve health outcomes for patients and decrease avoidable emergency room visits. He co-chaired the VBP subcommittees on Social Determinants of Health and Privacy and Protection of Patient Information.
At the national level, Charles currently co-chairs the ACT Now: End AIDS Coalition, a national ending the epidemic coalition that has worked alongside sixteen states and jurisdictions to create and announce plans to end their local HIV/AIDS epidemics. He is also on the Visioning Committee of the National AIDS Housing Coalition, and served on the governing body of UNAIDS as a member of the NGO Delegation to the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB).
Charles holds both a Law Degree and a Master of Divinity from Yale University, and is an ordained Baptist Minister.