Massachusetts: Help for Residents With HIV

Two Gloucester-based nonprofit groups, Action Inc. and North Shore AIDS Health Project, have joined forces to provide affordable housing and other services to low-income Essex County, Mass., residents with HIV/AIDS. The project, funded in part by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development $1.3 million grant to Action Inc., will provide 40 HIV/AIDS patients with services including job placement and training. Of the 40, 20 patients will receive assistance with low-cost housing.

"This is a tremendous grant to get," said Chanda Millett Shin, Action's planning director. The project is among 14 new HUD grantees nationwide; the programs were chosen for their innovative nature or potential for replication.

Action, an anti-poverty agency, must raise $1.3 million in matching funds. William Rochford, Action's executive director, said the agency's work with area homeless spawned the idea for the project. Many homeless people Action serves have HIV/AIDS, he explained, and since new therapies have increased such people's life spans, Action saw the need to provide more housing for them.

Action plans to purchase an Essex County building for conversion to 10 apartments and to rent 10 additional apartments around the county. The apartments will be rented at low cost to clients, with part of the project funding subsidizing the rents. Action hopes to have the 10 apartments available by May and the 10-unit building open within a year.

North Shore AIDS Health Project will serve as case managers for the program. Susan Oleksiw, director of the NSAHP, said the program would be a valuable resource, helping low-income HIV/AIDS patients live productive lives.

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