Ethan Knox

by Ethan Knox | Published on Aug 31, 2019 @ NLGJA CONNECT: Student Training Project (Photo credit: Belle Reve NOLA)

Vicki Weeks has spent her career providing care for people living with HIV/AIDS, only to have her efforts undercut by a change in federal funding. The home she ran, Belle Reve, served a community of people living with HIV/AIDS and were at high risk for homelessness. Many struggled with issues such as mental illness, addictive disorders or a lack of familial connections, but federal funding no longer supports that model. Belle Reve was forced to close its doors this week.

Funding now addresses temporary barriers to health and wellbeing rather than long-term challenges. Some of Weeks’ clients are incapable of living independently, which this new program requires. Belle Reve has been blocked from receiving this funding.

The patients she and her team have worked with for the past 21 years will no longer receive individualized care, and are now at risk for losing the quality attention they received at Belle Reve.

“Those with medical problems, they need their case managers, sometimes immediately,” said Weeks, executive director of Shelter Resources Inc. DBA, which operates Belle Reve, NOLA. “When you’ve got 60 medical case management clients, you’re not going to get back to all of them when they call,” she continued. “I think that for people that are medically needy, it’s going to be hard for them to live in apartments by themselves and get their needs met on a timely basis.”

In the early 1990s, Belle Reve served as a place for people to come and live out their lives with care, dignity and respect. In 1994, an adjacent house was purchased, which expanded into two more facilities. The 21 units were available to a range of clients—from an 18-year-old pregnant female to a 74-year-old man—and were aligned along a number of racial and sexual spectrums.

“Sometimes the government just looks at the statistics,” Weeks said, “and the needs of the people are more than just statistics.”

Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS, or HOPWA, is a federal grant program through the HIV/AIDS division of the Housing and Urban Development department. Belle Reve received some of the grant money and had to reapply every year.

The grant originally funded care for those who were dying of AIDS. But as medications improved, less money was needed to save patients’ lives. With this in mind, the current administration modernized HOPWA to better care for people living with HIV, since most cases never progress to an AIDS diagnosis.

The current belief, based on programs in more economically stable cities, is that the people living with HIV can be better served with a housing-first model, which addresses temporary barriers to health.

That didn’t reduce the needs of those living with HIV/AIDS, especially those in rural areas, dealing with additional health issues. As Weeks saw a change, she decided to file her grant to fit these new requirements, but was denied.

“They didn’t give me one penny for it. They don’t have one bed for the medically or elderly needy, not one,” said Weeks. “I had to close. Other group homes will probably close as well.”

Charlotte Degree, a case manager and social worker for Belle Reve, is still in contact with many of the clients as the process of relocation continues. Many clients have been unable to find permanent housing.

“I’m getting calls daily, ‘We’re not happy,’ ‘I’m not even eating,’ ‘We want to come back,’” said Degree, who had long-term relationships with many residents. “But we can’t do anything about it. And all I can do is just give them encouragement, ‘Stick with your care.’ They’re having a hard time with it.”

Many clients are now in danger of losing more of their emotional and medical support.

“Locally, especially with the population that we serve, they’re going to be homeless again, on the street,” Degree said. “As far as I know now, keeping in touch with some of them, they’re having difficulties paying their rent, they’re using drugs a lot more.”

As the doors of Belle Reve close, the fight for a healthier New Orleans is far from over. The organization has adopted a new mission, to provide affordable housing for LGBTQ+ seniors within the principles of diversity, dignity and respect.

“My generation is realizing we do not want to go into nursing homes or assisted livings where you’re the only gay person and you have to either go back in the closet or be discriminated against,” Weeks said.

Weeks will be stepping down as executive director to become a consultant. She hopes someone with new vision and energy will reinvigorate the program, and that local or national government can help expedite the process of selling the homes, finding a new location and beginning anew.

But Weeks is, as she has always been, hopeful and grateful for Belle Reve and the people she has helped along the way.

“It was a hard thing to close your doors after doing something for so long and feeling like you really made a difference in people’s lives, and then all of a sudden, it’s over,” said Weeks. “I am a Christian, and I believe when God closes one door, he opens another. I believe that this next mission is what we’re supposed to do.”