Edited.

Most of my letter to the editor of The Denver Post made it into today's paper. I wrote in response to the article from last Thursday regarding the Juan Diego apartment building project. You can check out the original column below in my post from Thursday.


Housing for Denver's homeless with AIDS

Re: "NIMBY! But why not in yours?" Jan. 11 David Harsanyi column.

David Harsanyi wrote a column about the proposed Juan Diego housing facility in Denver's Highland neighborhood, but he failed to mention one key point: This is a joint venture between Del Norte, the City of Denver, and Colorado AIDS Project (CAP), designed to give homes to people living with HIV/AIDS.

This is not, as Harsanyi puts it, randomly placing 20 people together who have no stake in the community as a social experiment. Juan Diego will provide vital housing to people living with a devastating disease, so they and their families can get back on their feet.

The average monthly medical cost for a person living with HIV is $2,100. Could you afford $2,100 out of your monthly budget, on top of countless doctor visits, while trying to keep your job and fighting a disease that has already claimed 30 million lives?

The simple truth is: housing is health care.

I encourage you to learn the truth about Juan Diego by visiting www.supportjuandiego.org.

Bob Nogueira
Chair, Colorado AIDS Project Board of Directors
Denver

The one paragraph of my original letter that the editor left out was:

"Colorado AIDS Project has a proven track record of providing housing assistance to people who have lost everything but their life to this disease and seeing them flourish. Currently, CAP operates a number of housing facilities and programs throughout the city, some next to million dollar homes, all with resounding success."