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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2007)
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Rfr^VIfSK oqiOty group me •■'■■****> t MILLYNN JAMES 503.330.HOME (4663) • 1.800.825.9948 Broker. Graduate Realtor Institute www.millynn.com • millynn@aol.com ABR Accredited Buyer's Representative \ \ \ X Center Celebrates 18 Years Facility provides refuge to HIV-positive people • Indulgent Salt & Hot Stone root Bath nU» T oOi northwest i i I / f/f small hut mighty kitchen fills the air with the scent of freshly cooked waffles and eggs. Just a few steps inside and you are greeted with a “good morning” by someone. From the dixirway, you can see tables full of people chatting and drinking coffee. The room looks like any church basement, with its carpeted floor and white walls, but it’s not. It is the only refuge many of the clients of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon HIV Day Center have left. The center is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, except Wednesdays. It provides its low-income, HIV-positive clients with many services including breakfast, lunch and home-delivered meals. Breakfasts are made to order and are cooked right at the center. Lunches are made from scratch at Patton Hall, another Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon building, and are brought over. The Daily Bread Express program delivers Social worker Jay Elbrecht serves lunch to Perry Mazzoni, an HIV Day Center client since 1994. seven frozen meals a week to immobile people in the surrounding six counties. The rewriting has changed the way the money is Many of the clients who visit the center live in dispersed and who is eligible. temporary housing or on the street, so the facility “Portland is no longer considered an ‘eligible provides a washer, dryer and shower. It also provides metropolitan area.’ It is a ‘transitional area.’ This phones and a message board so clients can make means less money for Portland and its people,” said calls to their doctors and caseworkers. “Some of our Berman. clients would be unable to keep in touch with their According to the Ryan White Act, 75 percent doctors if it weren’t for the center," said Lowen of the money granted to a state must be spent on Berman, coordinator for rhe center. programs that are considered medical core services. Títere is a social worker on staff for counseling And even though the center provides services such and referrals. Countless volunteers provide addi as recovery groups, its services are not considered tional services such as massages, acupuncture and medical core services. haircuts. Doctors and other health officials come to Berman and his volunteers have to work toward the center to give presentations on the importance building a donor base. “The anniversary celebration of keeping up with medical treatment. Many is the first step towards that process,” he said. churches and other organizations through the years According to Berman, they have received a grant have paid for trips to Seaside Beach, the Rose from the United Way that will help with the training Gardens, the Japanese Gardens and bowling. and planning that goes into buildings donor base. Sixteen bus passes are handed out every month The clients come from all over. “Some of our for clients who do not have access to a car and have clients come from Tigard and Beaverton,” said a monthly income less than $650. The center also Berman. “Many of our clients would have nowhere makes monthly trips to Esther’s Pantry and Tod’s to go if the day center wasn’t here.” Closet, which provide food, hygiene items and Most clients hear about the center from other clothes to people living with HIV/AIDS. clients who have participated. Others are referred Despite its laundry list of services, the center through caseworkers. "The center is usually the first primarily provides a safe place where people can place that is suggested by caseworkers," said Berman. receive help and care. “It is refuge for people who Most of the clients who use the center are out face all kinds of stigma," said Berman. of other options. For some, Berman said, the center The HIV Day Center has been open since 1989 gives them a reason to leave the house every day. and was the first of its kind in the country, accord “There is no other place like us in the city.” © A ing to Berman. In 2006 it served 26,466 meals and had 7,340 clients who visited. According to Bermarr; because of the rewriting of the Ryan White Act in 2006, the center has lost about $84,000 in funding this year, which has caused it to close Wednesdays. “Our funding has been continually cut since 1999,” he said. “I tried to substitute the loss with grants, but now there isn’t enough grants to make up the loss.” The Ryan White Act funds primary care and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS. The HIV D ay CENTER celebrates 18 years of service from 7 to 9 p.m. June 6 at 2941 N.E. Ainsworth St. The event will feature music, food and tours of the facility. People who attend can meet the staff and volunteers who help it run. State Rep. Chip Shields, D-Northeast Portland, and the Rev. Rodney Page, former Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon executive director, are slated to speak. MEGAN P eura is a Just Out editorial intern.
