L.A. Plans to Expand Housing for AIDS Patients : Shelter: Officials propose spending an additional $800,000 for hospices and a low-income independent living center.

Hoping to alleviate a crisis caused by lack of affordable housing for AIDS patients, city officials have proposed spending almost $800,000 on hospices and a low-income independent living center for those with the disease.

Two of the three sites that have been designated to receive the proposed city funds are in Hollywood, and the third is in the Mid-City area.

In all, Los Angeles city officials hope to provide up to $2 million this year for three much-needed types of residential programs for AIDS patients: hospice care for those near death, low-income apartments for those capable of caring for themselves, and shelter care for homeless people who have acquired immune deficiency, said Dave Johnson, the city’s AIDS coordinator.

“This is really the first time local government has taken a comprehensive approach to developing total residential care for people with AIDS, not just a piece of it,” said Johnson. “If you don’t have all the pieces in place, it is easy for people to fall through the cracks.”

Johnson, a gay man who has been infected with the AIDS virus, was appointed in May, 1989, by Mayor Tom Bradley to coordinate the city’s response to the disease. Through his official position and contacts within the gay community, Johnson said, he has seen many AIDS patients impoverished by medical bills until they could not afford a place to stay.

“We already have a crisis, and no matter what we do and how fast we do it, it is likely to get worse as AIDS cases increase considerably in the next few years,” Johnson said. “AIDS certainly creates poverty and homelessness and makes existing poverty and homelessness worse.”

The problem is particularly catastrophic for AIDS patients with no health insurance, who must spend all their assets before becoming eligible for medical assistance, Johnson said.

The housing program now being proposed was developed after five hearings on the AIDS crisis.

Johnson said he knows of no other city--not even New York, which has the most AIDS cases in the nation, or San Francisco, which has the highest rate of infection--where such a comprehensive residential program is being proposed.

He said that the program has widespread political and community support and that approval by the City Council “should be routine” when the first $1 million in funding comes up for a vote in the next two weeks. He said the additional $1 million will be proposed within several months.

The two Hollywood projects included in the proposal would be paid for by the city’s Community Redvelopment Agency through its low- and moderate-income replacement housing trust fund, according to CRA Administrator John J. Tuite.

One project, the City of Angels Hospice at 1302 N. Las Palmas Ave., would be expanded from six beds to 16, using $248,500 in CRA funds.

Jim Rayl, activities director at the hospice, said there is a waiting list to get in. “There is certainly a continuing need for more beds,” he said. “Our wish is that we could have (expanded) yesterday.”

Rayl said it would be at least six months before the expansion begins, regardless of when the funding is approved.

Also, an eight-unit apartment complex at 4563 Fountain Ave. would be converted into housing for low-income AIDS patients who are able to care for themselves, using $330,800 in CRA funds. That project, a joint venture between AIDS Project L.A. and Christopher Street West, would provide apartments for seven people and a resident manager.

AIDS patients “are living longer now, and are being sustained for longer periods of time,” said David Smith, a spokesman for Christopher Street West, a nonprofit agency. “There is a dramatic need for this low-income housing for them.”

Some zoning and parking issues need to be resolved, but CRA commissioners are expected to approve the funding for the two Hollywood projects without problems, said John Maguire, deputy CRA administrator for housing services.

The third program being proposed is the 25-bed South Central Los Angeles Hospice at 2146 W. Adams Blvd., which would be operated by the AIDS Hospice Foundation, using $215,300 in Community Development Department funds.

Still, officials say, the new city initiatives will fall far short of meeting the housing needs of AIDS patients. A strategic plan drawn up by the county estimates that at least 150 hospice beds are needed, as well as 300 shelter beds for homeless AIDS patients and 500 to 700 units of long-term housing for low-income AIDS patients, Johnson said.