AIDS Project Moving to Consolidate Programs : Social services: The L.A. organization will accommodate its growing caseload in a larger building. Other groups dealing with the illness will rent space there.
Reflecting an expanding caseload and their recovery from financial problems of four years ago, AIDS Project Los Angeles officials will announce today they have purchased the old ABC building in Hollywood to consolidate their programs under one roof.
The new quarters, in the Hollywood redevelopment district, will have more than twice the space APLA currently has in two leased buildings and will make it possible for the agency to rent offices to other AIDS services groups.
“Certainly this is a unique facility,” said Lenny Bloom, APLA chief executive officer. “Our goal in allowing other AIDS organizations to share space is to have a facility where people with AIDS can receive a multiplicity of services without having to travel.”
With a client load of 3,500 and an annual budget of $14 million, APLA is the second largest AIDS service organization in the nation, after Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. Funded primarily with private donations and foundation grants, APLA has grown with the AIDS epidemic. Five years ago, Bloom said, the agency served about 800 clients. Three years ago, the number was 2,000.
APLA is financing most of the building’s $7-million cost and a subsequent $3-million renovation project with tax-free municipal bonds and a $1-million donation made earlier this year by music and film producer David Geffen, who is on the APLA board of governors.
“They simply can’t accommodate their caseload in the building they’re in now,” Geffen said. “I thought (a new building) would be very good and would be very helpful to their clients.”
Owned by ABC, the 127,000-square-foot Vine Street building has been largely vacant in recent years. Equipped with several sound stages, it was last fully used by the network during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and before that was used for television production and office space.
Bloom said his staff was not yet sure how much space APLA would need for its services or how much would be rented to other AIDS organizations when the agency moves into the new building in the first half of next year. In addition to 146 employees, APLA has about 2,000 volunteers who help provide 20 programs ranging from insurance and legal counseling to a dental clinic and food deliveries to people with AIDS.
Less than four years ago, APLA was short of cash and forced to lay off staff members and embark on an austerity program. “Clearly, AIDS Project Los Angeles has turned around completely,” Bloom said. “We are on a sound financial ground right now.” Nonetheless, he added, “I am anxious that people don’t think . . . we don’t need their help desperately. We do.”
