It’s a pro-phylactic fiasco.
A nonprofit that receives tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding is facing accusations that it helped fuel sex trafficking in the city’s notorious “Market of Sweethearts” by distributing condoms outside brothels.
Residents said they spotted an AIDS Center of Queens County van parked near a residential block on 41st Avenue as workers handed out condoms to sex workers entering and leaving illicit businesses along the troubled Roosevelt Avenue corridor.
“Residents call us every day about crime, drugs, brothels and streetwalkers,” said Rosa Sanchez, a leader of the neighborhood group Restore Roosevelt Avenue Coalition.
“Instead of increased enforcement, public money is being used to provide free condoms to the same people turning tricks on our residential blocks and trespassing in building lobbies,” Sanchez said. “Condoms are already available at every pharmacy and bodega. This is lunacy.”
The condom distribution took place at the same location where activists held a protest on Oct. 10 calling for the closure of illicit sex businesses.
“We were shocked to learn that a nonprofit organization that is supposed to help the community is using taxpayer dollars to support criminal activity — street prostitution in our residential neighborhood,” the coalition said in a statement to The Post.
The nonprofit has more than $40 million in active contracts, including at least $34 million from the city and $10 million from the state. Its programs include supportive housing, HIV and sexually transmitted disease prevention, adolescent pregnancy prevention, syringe exchange for people who use drugs and other health care services.
In December 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $1 million in discretionary funding for four local nonprofits, including $250,000 for the group to provide assistance to human trafficking survivors.
She also sent New York State troopers to the area in October 2024 to assist the NYPD in addressing conditions along the Market, a notorious stretch of Jackson Heights plagued by crime and prostitution.
In September of last year, the governor announced a five-year, $500,000 award to the AIDS Center to launch a “youth safe spaces” program at 62-07 Woodside Ave. The initiative is intended to address the changing behavioral health needs of teenagers and young adults.
News that the organization was distributing condoms in an area known for illicit sex and black-market sales allegedly operated by drug-dealing gangs has prompted local residents to call for an investigation.
Activists are also urging Hochul to immediately suspend state funding for the group while any investigation is pending.
“You just can’t make this up. We need troopers, not condoms, from the state,” said former state Sen. and Democratic district leader Hiram Monserrate.
“We are holding rallies and marches to shut down brothels, while a local nonprofit is distributing condoms to streetwalkers on 41st Avenue and Woodside Avenue,” Monserrate added. “Who approved this? It should be investigated. The community deserves to know what the hell is happening.”
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Neighbors said they were outraged.
“I thought it was a charity,” said Ellen, 44, who lives across from the 41st Avenue location, where customers reportedly gather and sex workers congregate. “I didn’t know tax dollars were buying condoms and saying, ‘Yeah, do that right here!’”
“The message to the only people who really matter in this situation is, ‘Keep it up,’” she said.
Mark Xi, 53, a lifelong Woodside resident who works for a fresh-produce company, said residents believe anything goes in the neighborhood because politicians and prosecutors have effectively decriminalized activities such as prostitution.
“So now it’s legal. It’s like weed. If you ask people walking around smoking, they’ll say weed is legal now. Weed isn’t legal — not like that,” Xi said.
“Or the needles,” he added. “You ask people about it now. They give out needles, and people think the drugs are legal. No arrest, so it’s almost legal. At least that’s the message people get. It’s OK. It’s legal.”
Rosemary Lopez, the nonprofit’s executive director, defended the program, saying the van is a “mobile testing unit” designed to provide accessible sexual-health education and tools to help prevent sexually transmitted infections.
“We provide this service in neighborhoods across Queens, especially in communities such as 11372 in Jackson Heights that the Department of Health has identified as having a high risk of new STD diagnoses,” Lopez said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration also defended the condom distribution.
“Distributing condoms, including to people engaged in sex work, is a commonsense public health measure that helps prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and is consistent with ACQC’s mission,” Sam Raskin, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said. “Making these resources accessible to people who need them is an effective public health service.”
The Post recently reported that finding illegal sex along Queens’ Roosevelt Avenue has never been easier, with the number of sex workers increasing and prostitution-related arrests plunging by 60% along the seedy strip since Mamdani took office this year.
The Woodside Track is widely known for prostitution. The route runs through a residential neighborhood of one- and two-family homes and small apartment buildings, stretching from Fourth Street to 65th Street and including Roosevelt Avenue, 41st Avenue and Woodside Avenue.
Residents complain that some sex workers walk through the area in revealing clothing and, at times, half-naked in front of houses of worship.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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