$11 Million AIDS Campus Planned for Chicago's West Side

With a $1.2 million Health Department grant, operating subsidies and 20 vacant, city-owned lots acquired for $1 apiece, Chicago's AIDSCare plans to build a five-building campus in North Lawndale near Roosevelt and Kedzie that will offer AIDS patients an array of social services and living situations. "There's no other facility in the country that has three different types of housing, and all of these different services in a single campus setting," said Jim Flosi, founder and president of AIDSCare.

At the AIDSCare campus, a three-story, 18-unit Independent Family Living Residence will offer three- and four-bedroom apartments to families who can still live independently while caring for an HIV/AIDS patient. Another three-story building will provide 30 single-room occupancy units for homeless adults who have been diagnosed with AIDS and cannot live on their own. The complex also will include a 16-unit building with one- or two- bedroom apartments for people who can live independently but need support services. A wellness center and a multipurpose building that can be used as a chapel, a banquet hall or a meeting place for community groups are also planned.

Since 1980, more than 17,000 Chicagoans have been diagnosed with AIDS, and thousands more live with HIV. Currently, 6,500 city residents have AIDS. The AIDSCare Project puts Chicago at the forefront in taking care of its "most vulnerable" population, said Planning and Development Commissioner Alicia Berg. The 2.7-acre campus will be built in three phases starting next spring, with completion scheduled for the second quarter of 2004.

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