Help HIPS Secure DC's Harm Reduction Home

HIPS (Honoring Individual Power & Strength), needs our help.

Funds raised via this GoFundMe will be put towards the down payment that will, in turn, make financing this building a reality. Raising $350,000 or more by July 30th will allow us to secure the financing needed to make this purchase.

HIPS’s current home is at risk.

Together, we can help HIPS raise the money for the needed down payment on the place that has been our home for the past 8 years. We've done our research, we are in negotiations, and we just need a little help from the community.

For the past 30 years, HIPS has been the driving force for harm reduction and respectful, compassionate services to people who do sex work, people who use drugs, and the unhoused LGBTQ+ community in Washington DC. Quite simply, we do the work no one else does.

We envision a world where all people engaged in sex work and drug use are empowered and can live healthy, self-determined, and self-sufficient lives free from stigma, violence, criminalization, or oppression.

More than just providing excellent services - HIPS has become more than that! We have built a community that values and uplifts the voices of those most marginalized. HIPS advocacy efforts have led to the public funding and expansion of needle exchange in DC, increased availability of naloxone, the repeal of prostitution-free zones - and so much more.

HIPS has accomplished our mission, of advancing the health, rights, and dignity, of people and communities impacted by sex work or drug use, by providing non-judgmental harm reduction services, advocacy, and community engagement, led by those with lived experience.

HIPS lives our values through delivering high-quality direct services at our Center, providing drop-in services, clinical services, substance use treatment, and more. In addition, our extensive mobile services program brings our work to the streets 7 days a week, including overnights. We reach over 15,000 folks a year, 24 hours a day bringing harm reduction, love, and lube to folks often left behind.

We also are who we serve. On average, 85% of HIPS staff have lived experience in our issues, 60% or more have received services from HIPS in the past. We value and promote the leadership of BIPOC LGBTQ within our spaces and the community. We are the largest local employer of BIPOC LGBTQ individuals in the city!

Once financing is secured, HIPS will have the resources to easily pay the mortgage. In fact, it will allow us to spend more money on our programming. We won’t be forced to move due to an inevitable future building sale, and we will be able to plan for the long-term expansion of services and opportunities for the community.

HIPS has given so much to the DC community - please help us make our dreams of a DC harm reduction home a reality.