By Thea Jarvis

Less than a week into the new year, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta became the site of an innovative day program for homeless persons with AIDS.

The Street Home program, jointly sponsored by the Shrine, AID Atlanta, Project Open Hand and the Mercy Mobile Health Program of St. Joseph’s Hospital, opened its doors on Jan. 6. The program offers a range of services that includes medical screening, substance abuse counseling, vocational rehabilitation, entitlement and settlement assistance, literacy training and nutritional guidance.

“This is very specifically for the homeless,” said Paul Plate, HIV (human immundodeficiency virus) services coordinator for AID Atlanta and Shrine parishioner. His agency has been seeing “more and more clients who are homeless,” he said, in need of “consistent, ongoing attention.”

The experimental model, which will operate five days a week from 10 a.m. until 1p.m., was fashioned over a period of nine months by representatives from the four sponsoring organizations. The need became apparent as ranks of urban homeless and the AIDS – affected population grew.

“These are very, very needy people,” Plate emphasized. Without appropriate intervention, the streets become “a bottomless pit” for them, with no way out.

Plate estimated that there are over 1,500 homeless people in the city who are HIV positive. The Street Home program, which can accommodate 20 to 25 at a time, is directed at those who want to establish a residence and get help for themselves.

“We’ll stick to our limits and be clear about them,” said Plate, underlining the structured nature of the model. Participants will set goals for themselves and see how they can complete them.

“Depending on what the individual needs, they will decide on their plan,” he said. If three days are missed, they will be asked to drop out.

AID Atlanta bears responsibility for coordinating Street Home. Project open Hand provides a hot meal at 1 p.m. each day and a sack lunch for participants to take when they leave. This Shrine is lending its space and the Mercy mobile unit is assisting with medical care.

Since grant monies are distributed to medically identifiable facilities only, St. Joseph’s Hospital is responsible for administering the program’s finances and seeing that Street Home meets the intent of the grant, which totals close to $275,000 a year for three years, according to Mercy Mobile Health Program executive director Lorine Spencer.

The hospital’s mobile health unit operates Tuesdays from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. in Central Presbyterian Church’s health center across the street from the Shrine. An initial workup on all clients, chest x-rays, AZT treatment and substance abuse screening will be available, as well as case monitoring and referrals to Grady Hospital and Southside Community Health Center when necessary.

Funding for the program comes from federal grant monies under the year-old “Ryan White” Act, the first major commitment of federal funds for direct services to people with AIDS and the first not earmarked for research, according to Plate.

“It’s a small amount of money for a large return,” he believes, since resettlement and medical attentions have money in the long run.

“Over the course of a given year, there are about 150 (homeless PWAs) who might be impacted in some way” by the program, Plate said. As people move into stable living situations and are weaned from the program, others can begin the process.

Father John Adamski, pastor of the Shrine, sees much promise in the new program that has found space in his church. One of the architects of Street Home has watched the dual spectres of AIDS and homelessness take their toll on the city’s population.

At Tuesday night dinners held at the Shrine for people with AIDS, their friends and families, “an increasing percentage of our 120 guests are homeless,” he said. Street Home “has the potential of at least having a positive impact on some of these people.”

One of several who worked on the project over a nine-month period, Father Adamski said he was pleased at the cooperation that developed among the agencies involved.

“It’s a good model” for other groups to follow, he said, particularly since the planners were breaking new ground. Street Home is “an experiment,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ever been done before.”

Paul Plate said the level of involvement he saw at the Shrine encouraged him to return to the Catholic Church after years of hurt and separation.

“I had gotten so frustrated and angry,” he said, at what he saw as the church’s close-mindedness and lack of compassion. The work at the Shrine with PWAs “shamed” him into rethinking his personal journey, he said, and he joined the parish four years ago.

“This is what my religion is for,” he said. “It has some meaning.”