BELMONT HOUSE: Receives Funding To Stay Open Through June

      "By a slim margin, the Belmont City Council has agreed to contribute $80,000 to keep San Mateo County's only AIDS hospice open until July," the San Jose Mercury News reports. The six-bed hospice has faced an uncertain future since it lost its funding from Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco last fall. The "small but relatively costly facility" costs $570,000 annually to run, $245,000 of which Catholic Charities supplied. The Mercury News reports that the "city's contribution and $40,000 from the San Mateo County AIDS Program will buy officials some breathing room to devise a long-term plan to save the hospice." In addition, Belmont City has "asked neighboring cities whose residents have been treated at the hospice to share the $80,000 burden." Seven cities -- San Mateo, Redwood City, San Carlos, Millbrae, Foster City, Daly City and Burlingame -- already have "given approval or tentative support" for varying amounts totaling about $36,000. While Catholic Charities said that the small facility was too costly to maintain, supporters say that, as the only local AIDS facility of its kind, "the hospice fills a desperate need on the Peninsula" (Gathright, 2/13).