HOMELESS LIVING WITH AIDS/HIV
GET HOUSING RELIEF FROM HUD/HHS

The HUD grants are being awarded in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This collaboration seeks to bring greater coordination to federal homeless funding and integrate the delivery of housing and supportive services. Baltimore and San Francisco will receive grants from both the HHS Ryan White program and HUD's Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program

HHS expects to contribute approximately $4.2 million over the next five years. HUD's contribution will fund these two projects and six others over the next three years.

In announcing the awards, Cisneros said: "Clearly it is a significant challenge to escape homelessness, but if you are homeless with a severe disability, the obstacles are almost insurmountable. This collaboration will more efficiently use existing HUD and HHS resources to assist some of this country's most vulnerable citizens."

"We have learned that to reach homeless persons with HIV and a multiplicity of other problems, we must provide integrated services, housing and health care. These innovative programs we are funding today will save lives and provide models for addressing this difficult problem," said HHS Secretary Donna Shalala.

The HUD/HHS initiative is designed to address the needs of the most difficult to reach homeless population: persons with multiple diagnoses.

In total HUD awarded eight grants under this initiative. The two grants being made in conjunction with HHS are:

Lutheran Social Services of Northern California (San Francisco). This $1.2 million grant will support the "Bridge Project," a collaborative effort with Visiting Nurses and Hospice, AIDS Benefits Counselors, Immune Enhancement Project, Family Services Agency, Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center and the Tom Waddell Health Center. The project will provide aggressive street outreach, supportive services, comprehensive housing and primary health services to multiple-diagnosed homeless persons with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.

City of Baltimore. This $1.2 million grant will support an HIV/AIDS Community Resource Center and an HIV/AIDS Transitional Housing program for 225 persons with HIV/AIDS who are homeless and diagnosed with chronic substance abuse and/or chronic mental illness in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Clients will benefit from the coordinated provision of housing counseling, case management, day center activities, medical and mental health care, and substance abuse treatment. The activities will be carried out in coordination with eleven public and private agencies, including the Black Education AIDS Project (BEAP), Chase-Brexton Health Services, Health Care for the Homeless (HCH), the Health Education Resource Organization (HERO), the Housing Unlimited Group (HUG), Project PLASE, and Maryland Department of Human Resources' Project Home AIDS program.

In addition to the joint initiative grants with HHS, HUD is funding six other programs:

Housing Authority of Santa Cruz. This $750,000 grant will support a collaborative effort by the Housing Authority and the Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP) to provide short term emergency funds, long term scattered site housing assistance and intensive supportive services and treatment for 200 persons with HIV/AIDS who are homeless and having difficulties with substance abuse or mental illness.

Housing and Services, Inc. (Miami/Dade County). With this grant for $1.09 million, Housing & Services, Inc. (HSI) will undertake the "Share Project," the first coordinated assistance program for multiply-diagnosed homeless persons in Dade County, Florida. An estimated 250 persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families will benefit from supportive services and program development support designed to increase their access to appropriate care, including treatment for chronic substance abuse and/or serious mental illness.

United Bronx Parents, Inc. This $1.13 million grant will establish "Casita Esperanza," a one-stop service center and low-demand emergency and transitional housing program. The project will provide 12 emergency and 30 transitional beds to a total of 340 homeless single men and women with HIV/AIDS and chronic substance abuse problems who are entering or recently discharged from inpatient detoxification services or are awaiting residential treatment placements

Houston Regional HIV/AIDS Resource Group. This $1.2 million grant will support the Houston Regional HIV/AIDS Resource Group and four sponsors: The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston - Houston Recovery Campus; Crisis Intervention of Houston, Inc.; The Shoulder, Inc.; and Bering Community Service Foundation, in operating the "MDI Housing Project." This collaboration will provide crisis housing, assistance in obtaining permanent housing and new services to assist 500 persons who are homeless and who are living with HIV/AIDS and co-occurring chronic substance abuse and/or mental illness and 125 family members in the metropolitan Houston area.

Catholic Community Services (Jersey City, NJ). This $755,692 grant will fund "Operation Link," a housing services program that will reach out and "link" services to the "hardest to reach" homeless clients: those with HIV/AIDS and a severe mental illness and/or an addiction to alcohol and other drugs. The program will be operated by a team of social service providers including Let's Celebrate and Jersey City Medical Center's Medical and Social Services for the Homeless (MASSH) as well as Catholic Community Services. This project will support leasing, operating and rehabilitation costs for a drop-in center and transitional and permanent housing facilities and related supportive services. Operation Link's goal is to demonstrate that the traditionally underserved population can be effectively linked to a broad continuum of housing services designed to meet their special needs.

Bernal Heights Housing Corporation (San Francisco). Through a collaboration by the Bernal Heights Housing Corporation, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Legal Services for Children, and the Edgewood Family Center, the Housing and Outreach Transitional Strategies Collaborative (HOTS) will be formed to assist homeless families with dependent children who are living with HIV/AIDS and also impacted directly by substance abuse and/or mental illness. The $845,541 grant will be used to link existing AIDS housing and service providers with low-income family and homeless service providers. The project intends to aid 45 families - or approximately 95 adults and 120 children. The project will assume a child-centered approach which focuses on the needs of the entire family prior to and after the death of a family member. The development of a long-term plan for the placement of the child after the death of a guardian will begin in advance of the crisis. An aftercare program for children and guardians will also be present to address many of these issues.

• Read a more thorough description of grants