FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(December 4, 2002)

TIERNEY, KENNEDY ANNOUNCE MAJOR FEDERAL GRANT TO ACTION

Action, Inc. to Create Housing for Low-Income Persons with HIV/AIDS and Their Families in Essex County

“City Among Worst in State for AIDS Rate” screamed the headline in Tuesday’s Gloucester Daily Times.

Hours after that newspaper hit local doorsteps, Sixth District Congressman John Tierney placed a welcome phone call to William Rochford, Executive Director of the city’s Action, Inc. On behalf of himself and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Tierney brought news of a nearly $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide assistance to people in Essex County living with HIV/AIDS.

Action, Inc. will receive $1,292,869 from HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Program and will team up with the North Shore AIDS Health Project, also of Gloucester, to develop 20 apartment units of affordable housing for low-income persons with HIV/AIDS in Essex County, targeting individuals, families and post-incarcerated individuals. The project, called Quest, will offer supportive housing, employment training, and education and job placement.

“This announcement could not have come at a better time,” Tierney said. “We’ve just seen these startling facts about the incidence of HIV and AIDS on the North Shore, with Gloucester, Salem and Lynn all ranked among the top 25 communities in Massachusetts for people living with these diseases. Action, Inc. and the North Shore AIDS Health Project now have an opportunity to create the kind of supportive community that people living with AIDS and their families need to overcome the discrimination and stigma that they encounter so often in their daily living.” He noted that the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day, observed this past Sunday, was “Stigma and Discrimination.”

Senator Kennedy said, "This grant makes possible a project that will be of substantial benefit to people living with HIV and AIDS and their families in Essex County. With this new housing program, they will have new opportunities to lead independent and fulfilling lives."

According to Action’s Bill Rochford, the missing link in efforts to assist persons with AIDS/HIV is reported by all the agencies in Essex County to be housing affordable to low-income individuals. “We are now able to put all the pieces of housing, supportive services, job training and placement puzzle together,” he said. “This program is what was always needed if we are serious about changing people’s lives. It is what Community Action is all about.”