Open Arms Project – Shelter to Housing

Open Arms is a joint project of AIDS Housing Alliance (AHA) and Volunteers of America (VOA) as the lead collaborators and CARES and Breaking Barriers as in-kind partners. The project consists of a twelve-bed shelter for homeless persons living with HIV/AIDS. The shelter is owned and operated by VOA and is located in a remodeled triplex close to the southern end of the Alhambra corridor.

The target population is newly identified homeless individuals, both men and women, diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. As might be expected many of these individuals present with a dual or triple diagnoses which include drug and mental health issues and includes those fearful of being identified as HIV+ and who therefore avoid or refuse services and shelters available to the general homeless population.

Breaking Barriers finds and refers clients to Open Arms where they can stay for an initial period up to 30 days (extendable to a maximum of 60) and with a case manager begin to work on some of the issues that act as barriers to more stable housing - whether that is mental health, drug and/or alcohol use, acquiring Social Security benefits and so on. During their stay they are connected with, and encouraged to use, ambulatory care and other services at CARES and they meet with a Case Manager/Housing Specialist from AIDS Housing Alliance who helps find housing and follows clients for one year on graduation.

The Shelter to Housing/Open Arms program was originally funded by HUD as a Special Project of National Significance and as initially proposed graduates would have been awarded a Housing Choice Voucher – a rent subsidy formerly known as Section 8. Due to changes at the federal level there will be no availability of these vouchers in the foreseeable future. This makes finding housing very difficult for those on SSI (typically between $700 and $800 per month) and the latest effort is to encourage and support those willing to try shared housing. AHA itself has some housing reserved for PLWH/A, but vacancies are few and far between. AHA’s current plans to build 40 units will yield no new apartments until late 2006.

      Open Arms is a much needed project, HIV is increasingly a disease of the poor, and rarely has vacancies. It has been operating for over two years and has helped many into more stable housing and therefore more stable health. It was initially funded by a Special Projects of National Significance grant from HUD under the HOPWA program. The grant covered the cost of acquisition and remodeling and staffing over a three year period. The initial expectation was that HUD would renew the grant to cover support services for at least the ten year period it required the building be used as a shelter. Again changing directions from Washington have eliminated that possibility. HUD’s new emphasis is ‘bricks and mortar’ not ‘support services’. The shelter costs approximately $300,000 a year to run and the housing specialist another $37,000 (part-time plus pro-rated benefits and employer expenses). Currently local HOPWA funds administered by Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance are filling the gap but these are uncertain times.