St. Louis Post-Dispatch Profiles Area Care Facility That Has ‘Evolved With AIDS’
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch yesterday profiled Doorways, an interfaith AIDS residence program in St. Louis' Central West End that has "evolved along with the AIDS epidemic." The facility, which was launched in 1988 by a consortium of religious leaders from differing faiths, owns four apartment buildings for people with HIV/AIDS throughout the city and plans to open another by the spring of next year. The program's Supportive Housing Facility, which opened in the mid-1990s, began as a "place for the very ill with nowhere else to go." However, as drug therapy has improved, people are no longer coming to the facility to die. "Now we like to say we have people who come in wheelchairs and leave on bicycles," Lynn Cooper, Doorways' president, said. Doorways residents pay 30% of their income in rent and the program covers the rest of the cost. The program also provides assistance with utilities and helps people remain in their own homes if they choose to do so. According to Doorways officials, such assistance allows people to "focus on their illness, not on shelter, food and making ends meet." Residents at the facility also have access to on-site, 24-hour nursing care, which aids in treatment compliance and helps residents regain their health (Jonsson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/21).
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