NEWS RELEASE

                Public Communications Division

                            Department of Customer Services

                            City & County of Honolulu

                            523-4385

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 13, 2002

MAYOR HARRIS ANNOUNCES GRANTS TO AGENCIES ASSISTING PERSONS WITH HIV/AIDS

Mayor Jeremy Harris announced that the City’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program will provide grants to two agencies to assist HIV/AIDS and their families with housing and services.

The City awarded the Life Foundation a total of $93,240 in HOPWA funds.  The Life Foundation will use HOPWA funds to provide comprehensive case management services to 50 persons with HIV/AIDS; provide emergency rent, mortgage and utility payments to up to 68 persons with HIV/AIDS who are at-risk of becoming homeless due to impending eviction, foreclosure or utility termination; and provide for the services of a volunteer services coordinator, who oversees volunteer services to persons with HIV/AIDS and the training of Life Foundation volunteers.

The City also awarded $331,620 to Gregory House Programs to provide rental assistance payments to 40 persons with HIV/AIDS and their families, plus housing-related supportive services.

“The work of the Life Foundation and Gregory House Programs affirms our community’s compassion and dedication to assist persons with HIV/AIDS and their families,” said Mayor Harris. “Through the HOPWA program the City and its nonprofit partners can help meet the need for housing and supportive services which are so desperately needed by persons with HIV/AIDS.”

HOPWA funds are provided to the City and County of Honolulu by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Persons with HIV/AIDS often face desperate situations as their ability to work, and therefore their income, declines and their health care expenses mount.  Homelessness and the lack of medical care threaten both family stability and the health of the affected person.  The HOPWA program helps low-income persons with HIV/AIDS and their families by providing assistance to secure housing that can serve as a base for health care and other services.

The state’s Department of Health reports that there have been 1,889 reported cases of HIV infection in the City and County of Honolulu.  Of the reported cases, 417 were reported in the past five years.

-30-