Program Helps Those Affected by HIV/AIDS

About 175 adults and children affected by HIV/AIDS will have homes to call their own thanks to an independent housing program created by a Los Angeles-based organization.

Community Housing Options at Independent Supported Sites, or CHOISS, will lease homes and apartments in five districts throughout Los Angeles, including sites in North Hollywood and Van Nuys, and make them available to families who are homeless or living in substandard conditions, said a program spokesman.

“With the advances in medication and treatment [for HIV/AIDS], patients are living longer and the need for long-term housing has increased,” said Ken Katz, director of development for the Serra Project, the organization that created CHOISS.

The Serra Project, founded in 1987 by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and seven area hospitals, has four group homes for people living with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles.

Katz said officials are currently scouting locations that will allow families to live in clean, comfortable, safe environments with long-term leases.

One of the goals of CHOISS is to place people in their own communities, he said.

‘We want to give these people one less thing to worry about,” Katz said. “That’s why we want to put them in their hometowns, where they’re close to the people they love and the services they need--where they’re comfortable.”

The program is being funded by approximately $3.8 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The money also covers support services for the families, including individualized service plans that address each family’s needs, from counseling to medical treatment to education.