ILLINOIS: Future of Belleville AIDS Shelter Looks Cloudy

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

ILLINOIS: Future of Belleville AIDS Shelter Looks Cloudy

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (12.12.04) - Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Kevin McDermott

A recent cash infusion should keep Bethany Place of Belleville, which provides transitional housing for people living with HIV/AIDS, operating into 2005. Its long-term survival, however, is less certain. The AIDS shelter faced the possibility of shuttering its operation at year's end - the result of a $21,000 cut in federal housing money through the St. Louis Health Department. Last week, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office announced it had approved a one-time, $54,552 grant to Bethany Place in addition to regular state funding.

"Once we learned Bethany Place faced a financial crisis that threatened its ability to serve people in need, the state moved quickly to help ensure the facility remained open," Blagojevich said in a statement. "Bethany Place promotes healthy, drug and alcohol-free lifestyles for people living with HIV or AIDS, and I'm glad that by providing the grant we can help those important services continue."

Because the US Department of Housing and Urban Development considers Bethany Place to be part of the St. Louis region, most of its funding has traditionally come through the SLHD. This year's funding was $30,000, down from $51,000 the year previous.

Bethany Place is one of just four facilities in Illinois set up specifically to provide temporary housing to drug-addicted or mentally ill AIDS patients. It is also the only such facility south of Springfield. The facility can house up to five residents at a time and provides drug counseling and other services to transition patients back into society. Bethany Place also provides outreach, education and advocacy programs that currently are not in jeopardy, said its spokesperson Micca Greenstreet.

The Illinois grant money came from the state's portion of discretionary federal Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS funds and is for use in 2005.
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