TULSA, Okla. — On World AIDS day, a Tulsa organization has learned it will be getting significant new funding to help people with HIV and AIDS.
Tulsa Cares, a local nonprofit, will get about $541,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help provide housing assistance.
“We were thrilled to learn this and especially on World AIDS day. It's such a special day to receive a gift like this and we are one of 20 agencies around the country that are receiving this new HUD funding that is going to allow us to expand and highlight the innovative work we are doing around housing and health equity,” Kate Neary, Tulsa Cares Chief Executive Officer, said.
Tulsa Cares helps clients with medical care coordination, housing, mental health, social support and food.
They say this money will allow them to help their clients in a more long term way.
“It’s going to allow us to help them get into a safe and stable place, pay for their rent, provide them with some really intensive case management, and allow us to help get them some housing good for their home so they feel comfortable staying there,” Neary said.
Tulsa Cares serves about 900 people a year.
This funding will only allow them to focus on 45 current clients so they say they will have to prioritize.
“We’re going to start focusing on our highest need clients right now. Those we are already serving but we’ve had some funding barriers to serving them as comprehensively as we would like," Neary said. "We are also going to focus on some clients who may not have been eligible in the past due to grant guidelines.”
A focus they hope will help reduce homelessness since according to HUD, about half of all people with HIV in the U.S will experience homelessness or housing instability at some point following their diagnosis.
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