Chicago Tribune - July 28, 2004
Johnathon E. Briggs, Tribune staff reporter

Scheduled for completion next spring, the West Side facility under construction by Lakeview-based AIDSCare will include five buildings on 2.7 acres devoted to serving up to 125 residents--low-income people infected with the virus that causes AIDS, as well as their family members.

Three of the buildings will offer assisted or independent living in 66 apartments. A fourth will house a neighborhood pharmacy, a wellness center and a dental clinic, while the fifth will be a multipurpose facility for use by neighborhood and campus residents, including meeting rooms, a chapel and banquet facilities.

While housing and services for low-income HIV patients are typically scattered geographically, the AIDSCare campus will bring together people who are infected, surround them with services, and put it all in an existing neighborhood.

Health-care advocates say they hope the new campus will become a model in Chicago and around the nation. By making it easier for residents to get health care and other support, they said, the arrangement will allow people to live independently longer than they would if they were on their own.

But some providers worry that the high-profile development could draw unwanted attention to those living with the infection, while some neighborhood residents worry that it could be seen as an AIDS ghetto.

Keith Lyons, 38, who lives nearby, said that he does not oppose the campus. He said that some neighbors worry, however, that having a concentration of people with HIV and AIDS could spread the disease.

"The biggest concern is like, ah, man, they trying to make a community of them," Lyons said. "And they want to put it right here in our neighborhood, that way it's going to spread even more."

Arturo Valdivia Bendixen, housing director for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, said those fears will dissipate.

"It's more of an unknown factor that makes people fearful," Bendixen said. "Once they get to know the residents, once they get to know how beneficial their presence is in the community, I think it becomes a very welcome situation."

The campus model builds upon an approach known as "housing is health care" that has been used for years to address the needs of the homeless.

"The idea of wrap-around services is a homeless service model," said Stan Sloan, executive director of Chicago House, which has provided housing for people with HIV and AIDS since 1985. "Basically, you get people into stable housing, you wrap the services around them so that they can achieve their maximum level of independence."

Sloan does not publicize the four locations where Chicago House residents live, however, and he said there may be dangers in a high-profile project.

"We keep all the addresses of our buildings anonymous, because there is still so much discrimination toward those who are affected by HIV and AIDS," Sloan said.

City officials at the opening Tuesday of AIDSCare's first building on the campus, an 18-unit independent-living facility, said they believe the project can be a catalyst for economic development, improved housing and social services in North Lawndale, one of the city's most troubled neighborhoods since the 1960s.

"This is a historical moment," said city Public Health Commissioner John Wilhelm. "It's a wonderful opportunity to have people from the West Side be housed in their neighborhood."

There are 15,900 people with HIV/AIDS in Chicago, 56 percent of whom are African-Americans. HIV infection rates in North Lawndale are more than double those in all of Cook County, according to AIDSCare officials.

AIDSCare has raised $14.5 million from federal, state and local sources for the project. Construction began last year.

AIDSCare founder and chief executive officer Jim Flosi, the driving force behind the campus model of care, said he wants to integrate the campus into the fabric of the community through programs and a park that will be built at the center of the campus.

Flosi said he has encountered resistance from some North Lawndale residents about the project, but not always what one might expect. He said some neighbors are worried that the increased property values such a project brings will price them out of their own community.

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