Home for HIV, AIDS Patients to Reopen
Its doors shuttered for nearly a year, Ventura County’s only residential care home for people with HIV and AIDS is set to reopen Monday.
The 10-year-old, Los Angeles-based Serra Project, which operates three similar homes in Los Angeles County, purchased the former Christopher House on Ventura’s Thompson Boulevard earlier this year.
The immaculate 104-year-old Victorian residence, fresh with new carpeting and new paint, will reopen as Christopher’s Place, housing men in the main home and families in two cottages on the rear of the property.
Run under a combination of federal, state and local grants and private donations, the project will offer 24-hour nursing care to 12 people on a $319,000 annual budget.
“The support we’ve gotten in the last several months since we took control of the project has been phenomenal,” P.G. “Skip” Ciotti, Serra Project’s executive director, said during a reception at the home Thursday afternoon. “This is a partnership between the agency and the community. The community is not here to serve the agency, the agency is here to serve the community. That’s our philosophy.”
Christopher House was closed last May when the state Department of Social Services threatened to pull the home’s license. The state investigation found that residents were not being properly cared for, and uncovered problems including improper hygiene and nutrition for residents.
Ill residents had no help brushing their teeth and taking showers, and there was insufficient food in the home’s cabinets, the state agency found.
When it reopens, the home will have four residents initially. Applicants with AIDS found to be homeless, threatened with homelessness or living in unsanitary or unsafe housing will receive priority for admission.
Though patients pay what they can to live at Christopher’s Place, three beds will be set aside for HIV or AIDS patients who can pay nothing.
“The clients are thrilled,” said registered nurse Pat Carper of Oxnard, who will manage the home. “They’ll have a place to live.”
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