HOUSING GRANT HELPS RESIDENTS WITH HIV

Author(s): John Laidler, Globe Correspondent Date: December 26, 2002 Page: 1 Section: Globe North

GLOUCESTER - Low-income residents with AIDS or HIV will have a new opportunity to find affordable housing and other services in Essex County through a federally funded initiative.

Two Gloucester-based nonprofit groups, Action Inc. and North Shore AIDS Health Project, are joining forces to offer the project, which will result in 20 units of low-cost housing in Essex County set aside for the HIV/AIDS population. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development earlier this month awarded Action a $1.3 million grant to help fund the the initiative.

"This is a tremendous grant to get," said Chanda Millett Shin, Action's planning director. She noted that it is one of only 14 new projects around the country awarded grants in December under a HUD program that funds housing and services for people with HIV/AIDS and their families.

Shin also noted that HUD believes all 14 projects are likely to serve as effective models because of their innovative nature or potential for replication.

Action, an anti-poverty agency that serves Cape Ann, is required to raise $1.3 million to match the federal dollars. But Action officials say they are confident they can secure grants for the remaining funds.

William Rochford, Action's executive director, said the agency got the idea for the program from its work with the area's homeless population. Action runs a 22-bed homeless shelter in Gloucester and provides job training for residents of that shelter and of Moor's Way, a 30-bed sober house in Gloucester.

Rochford said Action noticed that many of the homeless people it serves have AIDS or HIV. Action's own experience, backed by various studies, indicates that about 30 percent of homeless people are infected with the AIDS virus, according to Shin.

Rochford said in light of that fact, and because medical breakthroughs have increased the life expectancy of people with

HIV/AIDS, Action saw the need to focus on providing more housing for the HIV/AIDS population.

"The goal is to stabilize individuals and help to get them at least a part-time job," Shin said.

Shin said the program is intended to serve 40 low-income people with AIDS/HIV at a time. Twenty clients would reside in the rental housing, and all 40 clients would receive other services, including job placement and training.

While the two agencies involved are located in Gloucester, the program would be open to people throughout the county. A priority would be given to former inmates because they are traditionally underserved, Shin said.

Action is looking to purchase a building in Essex County that it would convert to 10 apartments. It would rent 10 other apartments at scatterd sites around the county. Action would rent the 20 apartments to its clients at low cost. Part of the project funding would go toward subsidizing the rents. Action hopes to have the scattered site apartments on line by next May, and the 10-unit building open within a year.

North Shore AIDS Health Project, which provides a range of services for people with HIV/AIDS, would serve as case managers for the program, helping clients secure the job training, counseling, and other services they need. Those referred to job training could access it through Action's own job training program.

Susan Oleksiw, director of the North Shore AIDS Health Project, said the program will be a valuable resource in enabling low-income people with HIV/AIDS to live productive lives.

"A lot of people with HIV have a terrible loss of self-esteem," she said. "They've lost their jobs. . . Getting back on their feet is not always the easiest thing to do.

"Housing is an enormous problem, and it's a health issue," she added. "For people who have to worry about getting their medicine on time, getting enough rest, and dealing with the debilitating side effects [of medicine], having a safe and secure place to live is a crucial part of your health care."

In addition to housing, the program will provide clients with "an opportunity to reenter the workforce at a level that can sustain them over several years, instead of some part-time job at McDonald's that doesn't have a future and can be physicially draining and won't give them enough to live on," Oleksiw said.