Federal grant will cover apartment costs for a year as agency shifts mission from giving AIDS patients a place to die to a place to recover
Melissa Grove
Legacy Counseling Center is preparing 24 apartments in Oak Cliff to house people with HIV/AIDS who are homeless. The first eight units of the new Master Leasing Program will be ready next week.
Legacy Executive Director Melissa Grove said the need arose out of her agency’s success.
In addition to the counseling center, the agency operates Legacy Founders Cottage, which opened in 1996 as a hospice.
But as HIV medications became more effective, people with AIDS were released from the hospital to recover at Founders Cottage. Grove said people who aren’t on HIV meds are often sent to her from hospitalization, but with proper medical care, they recover.
During longer visits, however, many lose their jobs. Others are locked out of their apartments when rent isn’t paid and they lose everything.
A more than $300,000 HOPWA grant covered the cost of the apartments for one year and basic furniture — a bed, dresser, table and chairs.
On Saturday, Sept. 28, Legacy is collecting items to outfit the apartments for the new residents. Trucks will be in the parking lot of the counseling center on McKinney Avenue to collect donations and transfer them to the Oak Cliff complex.
Board member Wade Hyde said he hopes to create warm homes.
“I would love to see these become homes that speak to the soul and people can embrace living,” he said.
He called housing a basic need and without proper housing, he said it was impossible for Legacy’s clients to take care of their health.
“There are so many new folks having issues with housing, we had to expand our mission,” Hyde said.
He said people have gone from living with HIV to just living. And the cottage was where people went to die.
“Now we help people to live,” he said.
He called that an exciting change for the organization.
Those accepted into the housing program will have to participate in intensive counseling to work out a plan to become self-sufficient within the next year. To underscore the urgency, Grove said she doesn’t know if the grant will be extended beyond the first year, so she can’t promise help beyond then.
She said the plan may include completing school, career training or finding a job — whatever it takes to make the residents self-sufficient.
Those accepted into the program will pay 30 percent of their income toward the lease, according to Program Director Helena Davidson.
Davidson comes to Legacy with experience in Section 8 and emergency disaster housing. She’s worked with Dallas Housing Authority and has coordinated various emergency and transitional housing programs in the Dallas area.
She said Legacy is working with a landlord who owns five properties and has a similar program with another housing agency. Legacy rents from him and sublets to its clients.
The landlord required a case management component to the program. Davidson said that’s the only way a program like this works successfully.
“Case managers will meet with tenants regularly to set goals and work toward self-sufficiency,” she said.
Workshops will help tenants find jobs and learn life skills needed for independent living.
Graduates from the program won’t be able to stay in the Legacy units after the first year but will be able to transition to another apartment on the property.
She said the landlord benefits by receiving guaranteed rent and having tenants who tend to take care of their apartments.
This isn’t Legacy’s first foray into housing. Earlier this year, the agency opened Homebase for Housing, an online database to help people with HIV find affordable housing. But the new program is working so well, Grove said other housing programs are turning to it as a resource.
Grove called it a clearinghouse of information and referrals for housing options in seven North Texas counties.
Davidson said more than 1,000 searches have helped people find anything from emergency shelters to rent and utility payment assistance.
The database lists about 150 private apartments with rent $600 per month or less.
Of those using the system with help from Legacy staff, 88 people have been placed in affordable housing since the program began in April.
“We do three-month checks,” Davidson said. “Everyone who had been housed are still housed.”
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Donation Drive
Legacy is in need of household donations for the apartments, including furniture, appliances, cleaning supplies, and linens and towels. Items can be new or used. Donations can be dropped off from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, Sept. 28, in the Legacy parking lot, 4054 McKinney Ave.
The Red Party
The annual event benefiting Legacy Counseling Center
Sept. 28 at 8 p.m.
Fashion Industry Gallery, 1807 Ross Ave.
$40.
LegacyCares.org.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 27, 2013.
