Personal Care Home Settles Discrimination Complaint Filed by HIV-Positive Man

The attorneys representing a man who said that he was refused admission to a personal care home because of his HIV-positive status on Thursday said that the man had settled his discrimination complaint with the facility, the Associated Press reports. The 56-year-old man, who is legally blind and who had sought care in the facility after his health began deteriorating, agreed to withdraw the complaint after the Loving Heart Personal Care Home agreed to admit him to the center and to conduct HIV training for its staff, Ronda Goldfein, executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, said. The man, who has not been identified by name in the legal proceedings, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against the facility in April saying that the facility denied his admission because they were uncomfortable caring for someone with AIDS, but facility officials had previously denied the man's allegations. Goldfein said that the man's "number one priority was just getting a place to live." She added, "I think that the folks at Loving Heart understand why what they did was wrong." Attorneys representing the facility did not immediately return phone calls for comment, according to the Associated Press (Associated Press, 7/17).

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