California Foreclosure Crisis: AIDS Project Up Against Deadline to Leave House

The Bakersfield AIDS Project (BAP) must vacate Ricky's Retreat, a group home it rents, due to foreclosure. The nonprofit was asked to move out by Jan. 30 after the trust that owned the house in east Bakersfield defaulted on its mortgage.

Three people are full-time residents of Ricky's Retreat, and dozens of BAP clients routinely drop in for social services and group meals. "It's really a community here," said Audrey Chavez, BAP's director. "A lot of HIV-positive people don't have the support of their families, so this is their surrogate family."

BAP has leased the house from the Lelamay Morrow Trust, run by Greg Morrow, since 2003. Chavez said she had paid $800 a month to a property management company hired by the trust until this summer, when Morrow told her a bank was taking possession of the house. Chavez said Morrow told her he would put her in touch with the bank but did not, and the phone number she had for him is disconnected.

The bank, Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial Corp., said Friday it had "no idea" the house was a group home for AIDS patients. The company might have been able to work with BAP had anyone from the organization contacted Countrywide, said spokesperson Jumana Bauwens.

Real estate data show Scott James of Tehachapi bought the house for $215,000 on Dec. 18. Chavez said she hopes the new owner will work with her. "This is the perfect place for our residents, who really have nowhere else to go," she said.

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