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Anniston Star Article - December 10, 2008
Grant to HIV clinic called 'a tremendous service'
By Brett Buckner
Staff Writer
Two years ago, Yolanda was on the verge of losing everything.
HIV positive since she was 21, the then-34-year-old mother of two was in a financial crisis and literally days away from living in her car. With nowhere left to turn, she went to the Health Services Center, the area's lone HIV clinic, for help.
"They saved me," says Yolanda, who didn't want her last name published. "If it hadn't been for the clinic, I don't know what would've happened to us."
Today, Yolanda is living in Gadsden and plans to move into her own home soon.
"Now I've got my life back," she says. "Before, it was hard to think about my own health when all I worried about was putting a roof over my kids' heads. The clinic did that."
Since 2005, Health Services Center has provided transitional housing for those clients and their families who were struggling to stay off the streets. That support will continue thanks to nearly $1 million recently awarded to the clinic by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program.
HOPWA is administered by HUD to provide stable housing for what HUD Secretary Steve Preston called a "vulnerable population" — very low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families who are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless.
The $997,838 grant, which was announced Monday, will go toward purchasing permanent housing units as well as supporting the existing units the clinic already owns.
"Housing is health care," says Rita Flegel, housing program coordinator for the Health Services Center in Hobson City. "That's the basis of everything. If you don't have a place to sleep at night, it doesn't really matter if you're taking your medications or not."
The nonprofit clinic owns three units in Oxford that will be used for permanent housing. Flegel hopes to buy two additional housing units in Anniston and one in Gadsden for a total of six units.
All of the housing is attached to intensive support service centers, so wherever they are, clients have access to medical care and case management. But the overall goal of the program is for these clients to get back on their feet and become financially independent, Flegel says.
"We want to help them learn how to live on their own," she says. "But this grant isn't going to bring in the needy people. The needy people are already here."
Funds also will be used to continue funding the clinic's Permanent Housing Plus program, which helps clients living with HIV pay short-term rent, mortgage and utility bills.
"We have many working clients who are struggling to pay for the typical housing costs and cost of daily living — just like so many people today," Flegel says. "But when you add some of the HIV medications or the costs of missed days of work due to illness, they can run into a financial crisis quickly.
"This new grant will help those people with a month of rent or a utility bill to help them get through the crisis."
Before this HOPWA grant, the clinic's housing program had been funded through a separate HUD grant that provided short-term transitional housing for 21 clinic clients. Of the clients who have left the transitional housing, 77 percent had moved into stable housing arrangements.
It was this "impressive" success rate as well as having demonstrated good faith and practice in carrying out previous grants that led to this most recent award being given to Health Services Center, says Cindy Yarbrough, director for HUD's Birmingham field office.
"They demonstrated a need," she says. "They demonstrated a good program. Their past funding has been carried out wisely, and they've been good stewards of that funding."
Health Services Center, which serves 14 counties, was among nine national AIDS housing programs to receive grants. All totaled, more than $10 million was awarded. To have Hobson City named among agencies in larger metropolitan areas, such as Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, simply proves that HIV is everywhere, Flegel says.
"It shows that the need here is just as great," she says. "And this is HIV and homelessness combined. It's going to provide a tremendous service not only for our clients but for the entire community."
For more information about this or other HIV/AIDS services, contact the Health Services Center at 832-0100 or visit www.hscal.org.
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