Arkansas: Shelter Accused of HIV Eviction

In a complaint presented Friday to the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission, a homeless man says he was evicted from a Little Rock shelter because he has HIV. The complaint says Our House, which receives federal funds and provides long-term housing and education training for the working homeless, denied the man housing in violation of state and federal Fair Housing Acts. Georgia Mjartan, executive director of Our House, said she could not discuss the man's situation but that he had been invited to return to the shelter and had not done so. Mjartan said the Roosevelt Road shelter has had HIV-positive residents before and since the man lived there. It houses more than 80 adults and children. Residents are required to find full-time employment within two weeks of arriving and must save 75 percent of their income toward the goal of obtaining permanent housing.

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