AIDS PROJECT L.A.: Moving Plans Indicative Of Changing AIDS Population
Just five years after AIDS Project Los Angeles moved into the spacious multimillion-dollar former ABC TV studio in Hollywood, the institution "will sell its headquarters and spread out its operations." APLA hopes to save $500,000 annually by shedding its "large and expensive" headquarters, and hopes the move will make it "more accessible to clients who live outside the Hollywood area." Currently, more than half of the APLA's clients live outside Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles Times reports that the move also marks "the shifting terrain of the AIDS community" and suggests that private donations from "middle-class and upper-middle-class white gay men who have been a mainstay of the organizations" might be drying up. Peter Kerndt, director of HIV epidemiology for Los Angeles Department of Health Services, explains that "[t]raditional supporters 'don't have the same involvement and hence commitment of a sustained, ongoing basis," as AIDS shifts into minority communities. The Times reports that African Americans accounted for 25% of AIDS cases reported in Los Angeles county last year, and Latinos accounted for 38%. As AIDS affects different communities, Kerndt explains, "You see it spread farther and farther into these different geographic areas." APLA Executive Director Craig Thompson also plans to tailor the organization to address "the much different task of helping people live." He said, "We've seen a tremendous drop in the death rate in Southern California. What that means is people need different services than when we were in a death and dying model for folks" (Boxall, 11/22).
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