Community Connections, April, 1991 Page 5
Issues Raised About "Our House"
by Earl Willis and Cynthia Janes
Since January, three residents of "Our
House," the WNCAP facility for persons
with AIDS (PWA’s), have moved out,
including the manager. All three have
moved to private apartments and are
paying significantly more in rent than they
paid at Our House. All three are sure
they made the right decision to move out
of Our House.
Hundreds of hours of volunteer time
went into readying Our House for
occupancy. The majority of those hours,
it is safe to say, were donated by
members of the gay/lesbian community.
Every room was painted, the bannister
between first and second floors completely
stripped of paint and refinished, a new
roof put on, the outside of the house
painted, a new doorway added, plaster
extensively repaired, and a great deal of
yard work and landscaping done.
The house is in good shape, and
PWA’s can live there at less than half the
cost of an apartment. Yet at present, the
house has only two residents, and both are
from other states. Since opening in May,
1990, Our House has reached its capacity
of five residents only once, and very
briefly. David, a PWA who has not lived
in the House, said, "I was invited to move
in, but I could already see the friction
there, and I didn’t want any part of it."
In order to qualify to live at Our
House, a person must be able to live
independently, and may require subsidized
housing. Those who have lived there
report that they moved into Our House
primarily for financial reasons. Why have
they moved out?
Each of three former residents, Bill,
Tom, and Rick, told Community
Connections that one of the primary
considerations for them was that they
wanted more privacy than they could get
at the facility. For Rick, it was only the
lack of privacy that led him to move. "I
can’t really see anything wrong with the
house. I enjoyed myself there, but I just
didn’t have the privacy there that I
wanted. The house was comfortable, and
it was nice. But I couldn’t be me."
But two of the former residents listed
a host of complaints ranging from their
belief that residents are not all treated
equally, to excessive rules, and to their
voices not being heard by WNCAP.
"They need to treat PWA’s as human
beings," Tom said. "I feel like there’s
lots of discrimination out there, and the
PWA’s have no voice." Bill charged,
"They don’t assess whether it’s a good
environment for somebody or not. They
pay very little attention to the individual."
WNCAP Executive Director Brenda
Youngblood told Community Connections
that, at present, there are no plans to
make any changes at Our House. She
said that Our House will be given "an
honest chance" to work, "at least a full
year of operation," before any changes are
considered.
Concerned about developments at Our
House, WNCAP’s Housing Committee
met in February and again in March. The
Housing Committee had met once before,
in September, since the House had been
occupied. According to the WNCAP
Board of Directors’ list of standing
committees, the Housing Committee is
"responsible for reviewing and responding
to housing needs for PWA’s and
WNCAP’s need to provide housing."
In their February meeting, the
Housing Committee discussed concerns
about Our House. They wanted to know
how potential residents of Our House felt
1
about the facility, how they perceived
their future housing needs, and what
housing preferences they had. The
committee thought that the best way to do
this was by means of a questionnaire,
which they planned to distribute to as
many HIV+ individuals in the gay
community as possible.
Members of the Housing Committee
then developed a questionnaire which
covered respondents’ financial status, the
types of housing they would prefer if and
when they needed help with housing (e.g.,
apartment vs. single room occupancy as in
Our House), and attitudes about Our
House.
The Housing Committee met again
March 14 at Highland Hospital.
Community Connections was present at
that meeting, which was attended by
committee members Star Nolan (Chair),
Joan Marshall, Carlos Gomez, Ray
Clarke, Carol Latharus, and Tony Clark-
Sayer, and WNCAP Director
Youngblood. Bill Allen and Bill Bednarek
attended as invited guests.
Marshall introduced the questionnaire,
and some general discussion about it
followed. Then Youngblood said that she
had forgotten the Housing Committee was
doing this project. (The project had been
discussed at the previous meeting.)
Arguing against distribution of the
questionnaire, Youngblood said, "The
Board doesn’t feel that we should flood
people with surveys especially since the
Board is in the process of conducting a
survey of its own."
Star Nolan, Chair of the
Housing Committee, stated that they
didn’t want to duplicate the work of the
WNCAP Board with the questionnaire.
"We hoped that because our focus was
specifically on housing, the need for it,
and attitudes about housing, that it would
be different [from the Board’s survey]."
Youngblood then informed the
Housing Committee that the Executive
Committee of the Board was assuming full
responsibility for Our House and that the
Housing Committee need not concern
itself further with policies concerning the
House.
Clarke said if that were the case,
there was no need for the housing
committee to exist, and it should be
dissolved and cease consuming volunteers’
time. "Apparently our function has been
usurped by the Executive Committee,"
Clarke said.
manager of Our House, got up and left in
anger, saying that he had other things to
do. The turn of events "doesn’t surprise
me," Allen said.
Latharus said that she and Joan
Marshall and other people on the
committee were among the original
workers on Our House and had done a lot
See OUR HOUSE, page 6
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