Aid for AIDS Project

I read with great interest your stories in the Aug. 22 edition by Maribeth Mellin on the mothers of persons with AIDS and the housing and funding shortages of the San Diego AIDS Project.

Ms. Mellin should be commended for her sensitivity and obvious caring of the other victims of AIDS--the parents, families and friends of the patients. The plight of these people is even that much greater with the uncertainty of the future of the AIDS Project, which has provided a sanctuary of caring for those afflicted and affected by AIDS.

When the AIDS Project was forced to leave its former location, a small bungalow subletted from UCSD Medical Center, I was pleased to be able to convince the Board of Supervisors to allow the project the use of Vauclain Point.

Your story on the success of the project and the invaluable services it provides this community is proof that the board made the right decision in allowing them use of the building.

Now with the county in the process of selling the Vauclain Point land, the future of the project’s location is again in doubt. On Aug. 5, 1984, I requested the county’s chief administrative officer to determine if there were other suitable county buildings that could be used by the project. While he has replied that there is none, there is still a chance that the AIDS Project may continue at Vauclain Point, either as a tenant of the new owner or in part of the building that may be retained by the county. Failing that, I will be asking the board to support the project by providing facilities for it within the Hillcrest area.

I want to commend the Los Angeles Times for its continuing reporting of the AIDS epidemic which, as your stories so eloquently tell, is touching all our lives.

LEON L. WILLIAMS

Chairman

Board of Supervisors