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amela Alvey is up to her wrists in pot
ting soil. She is crouched in a field of
fertilizer, in front of a new two-story
yellow home in Milwaukie, Ore.,
which emits the fresh odors of recent
construction. In a few weeks, Alvey will wel
come her first two residents, a man and a woman
living with AIDS-related illnesses.
Alvey is the director of Swan House, a new
specialized adult foster care home to serve low-
income individuals with HIV/AIDS.
As she makes final arrangements for the
Swan House opening, Alvey’s most urgent
desire is to cultivate a healthy relationship with
her neighbors as she cultivates healthy plants in
her garden—but the growing is a little slow
going.
“I found a note that said ‘fuck you’ on the
mailbox today,” she says regretfully. “Right
there, right on No. 7. It looks like a child’s hand
writing.”
Rick Skidmore, the minister next door at the
queer-ffiendly Milwaukie United Church of
Christ, has stopped by to see the note.
“It certainly seems like a child’s mentality,”
he says.
Alvey seems bothered, but not daunted by
the message. In actuality, she believes the note
might have been written as a response to her
being an out lesbian, not because ¿he’s running
an HIV/AIDS-related facility.
(As Just Out went to press, Alvey said she
learned—from the mail carrier—that many peo like Swan House for a while. Eight years ago, she
ple along her street had received a similar note bought a tum-of-the-century home in Portland,
that day.)
hoping to transform it into her own nursing
Since builders began constructing the Swan facility. She postponed the idea when she real
House late last year, Alvey has made herself ized how many structural changes the house
available to address neighbors’ concerns. She would need to undergo.
says a mother of a 2-year-old stopped by to get
Alvey is an HIV/AIDS-experienced regis
information about the soon-to-be residents of tered nurse who worked previously at Our
the foster home. She told the woman that Swan House of Portland, a facility serving people with
House will be home to individuals living with AIDS.
HIV or AIDS, but will shelter no secrets.
She says the position at Swan House became
When the establishment is up and running, available when Arthur Buck, the director of
with all five bedrooms filled, Alvey says, the res Clackamas County AIDS Relief Effort, visited a
idents will hold barbecues regularly and extend meeting at Our House. He asked the staff who
would be available to manage a new foster care
invitations to the whole neighborhood.
According to Alvey, a steady flow of support facility in Milwaukie.
Alvey didn’t hesitate to accept the position.
and an inundation of donations have character
Swan House is a modem establishment. The
ized the last few months. The living room is a
comfortable hive of sofas. Someone recently building is fully handicap-accessible, with a
large kitchen, living room and activities room.
donated a copy machine.
Swan House looks like an established living Five bedrooms extend from the main body of
space, but the only items not donated are the the house, each one with its own bathroom and
outside deck area.
beds.
“It’s rare for homes like these to give each
“Everything on my wish list has come true,"
she says. “The other week I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be person their own bath and deck,” Alvey points
great if we got a TV in here?’ and a few days out.
What’s more rare is that Swan House will
later, it was donated.”
Alvey, who has been involved in HIV work open its doors completely debt-free. The proper
since she was 17, has wanted to run an operation ty was donated by Eunice Swan (hence the
L iving with HIV,
L iving T ogether
P
y cu
Swan House, an HIV/AIDS foster home,
prepares to open in Milwaukie by Katy Davidson
• '■<>
'...... s
Pamela Alvey at
Swan House
home’s name), an avid churchgoer at the next-
door house of worship who had a relative die
from an AIDS-related illness.
Alvey says Swan wanted to donate the plot
to any organization that worked for AIDS relief.
Northwest Housing Alternatives and
CCARE built the home; the funding was pro
vided by Housing Opportunities for People with
AIDS and others.
Because Swan House will have a small num
ber of residents, Alvey believes the home should
be run with cooperation and communal princi
ples. For example, the residents will collectively
decide what they want to eat for dinner, and
then they will cook it together. The resident
council will also decide what activities everyone
will do.
“We will run on a social model,” Alvey says.
“We want to encourage people to
live together.”
This idea will remain the dri
ving force behind Swan House.
Whereas Our House is more hos
picelike, with a registered nurse
on duty around the clock, Swan
House will be more of a stopover
point for individuals coming out
of the hospital or out of drug
treatment. There will even be an
occupational therapist to help
the residents get back into the
workforce.
With respect to Our House,
Alvey says, “There’s a place for
both of us here.”
The final item on Alvey’s
wish list is a slew of volunteers.
Just like the myriad donations
she received during the last few
weeks, Alvey believes volunteers
will eventually show up.
“People want to help,” she
says.
■ To volunteer at S wan H ouse ,
ccdl (503) 422-7410.
K aty D avidson is a Just Out
staff writer. She can be reached at
katy@justout. com.
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