
For the past 33 years, Housing Works has served New York City's homeless population suffering from HIV and AIDS, with a particular focus on those with substance use disorder. Now, the nonprofit organization has embarked on a new journey, opening its doors Dec. 29 as the first adult-use cannabis retailer in New York.
Here, CEO Charles King provides insight into Housing Works’ new commitment to New York’s adult-use cannabis market and the organization’s broader mission to support more equity-based entrepreneurs in the space.
Melissa Schiller: Can you comment on this achievement of opening the first adult-use dispensary in the state?
Charles King: We began planning nearly a year ago for our license application. We started watching the regulations getting developed. We’re among one of the first nonprofit or justice-involved applicants, and on Nov. 21, the [Cannabis Control] Board voted to award us, along with [seven] other organizations, provisional licenses, which allowed us to come into being.
The governor [Kathy Hochul] had made a pledge that there would be adult-use cannabis available for retail in 2022, and so we were very much committed to helping her achieve that goal and being the first cannabis retail outlet to open. We opened our first store and right now our only store—hopefully that’s a different story a year from now—on the 29th of December. We were only scheduled to be open from 4:20 to 7:10. I think we were able to sell to about 500 customers but had to turn over 1,500 customers away who were standing outside in line, who we just couldn’t possibly accommodate. We were closed on New Year’s Day, but other than that, we continued with sales with lines down at least two sides of the block every day that we’ve been open.
MS: Which aspects of New York’s adult-use cannabis market are you most excited about?
CK: At this point, we have about 15 staff. Out of our full-time staff, four of them are justice involved and have a history of being criminalized for cannabis possession or sale. We are prioritizing people who have cannabis-related criminalization for hire.
We intend to use all the profits from this first store—and we hope to add two more in the coming year—to do one of two things: Assist people who are coming out of incarceration due to drug-related offenses to re-enter into society, and then to change policies on the state and federal level that negatively impact people who are in possession of or sell drugs.
MS: What sort of growing pains are you expecting as New York’s cannabis market matures, and how are you preparing to overcome some of these challenges?
CK: There are a lot of vendors operating in the gray market. Only recently, as we’ve approached opening up, did we see New York City and the state really cracking down and moving on those gray market vendors, particularly those operating fairly adjacently to us. I think the message that is important to communicate to everyone is that gray market vendors are always going to be able to undersell licensed, legal vendors. But what you get in exchange for that higher price is a guarantee that the cannabis you buy is not in any way adulterated and that it’s all very high-quality, lab-tested, and state-approved, which I think is very important.