A Palm Springs apartment complex that would be Riverside County's largest affordable-housing project built for people with HIV/AIDS is close to becoming a reality.

The county Housing Authority board last week approved the purchase of about 5 acres of land next to the Desert AIDS Project that will become home to the apartments.

The county plans to sell about half of the land for $350,000 to the developer of the 80-unit Vista Sunrise Apartments, which would be built west of Desert AIDS Project offices. The remaining parcel, south of Desert AIDS Project buildings at the southwest corner of Vista Chino and Sunrise Way, is slated for a new county-operated medical clinic.

Victoria Jauregui Burns, chief of the Riverside County's HIV and AIDS program, said there is a strong need for affordable housing for people with HIV/AIDS, many of whom live on fixed incomes.

"This project is focusing on trying to provide apartment living for individuals, some of whom are living on $600 to $700 month," Burns said. "These are people who probably aren't working and are just living on what Social Security disability will pay."

Affordable Living

Work crews should break ground on the apartments and the medical clinic this fall, said Emilio Ramirez, deputy director of the Riverside County Housing Authority.

The apartment complex, which includes studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units should take about 14 months to complete, Ramirez said.

When finished, Ramirez said the Vista Sunrise Apartments will surpass a 39-unit complex in Cathedral City as the largest affordable-housing project for people with HIV/AIDS in Riverside County.

About half of the apartments will have controlled rents. Subsidized rents will start at about $487 per month, Ramirez said.

Margie Francia, associate project manager for the apartment's St. Louis-based developer, McCormack Baron Salazar, said besides a pool, tot lot playground and community room, Vista Sunrise tenants will benefit from services provided by the adjacent Desert AIDS Project.

In addition to health programs, Desert AIDS Project will provide tenants with legal and psychiatric services, support groups, parenting help, job training, employment counseling and computer classes, she said.

The apartments will not differ from other affordable-housing projects that were not built for people with HIV/AIDS, she said.

End to Controversy

The Housing Authority's approval of the $1 million land purchase completes one of the final pieces of a project that when it was first introduced in 2003 generated controversy.

Residents around the Desert AIDS Project spoke out against an earlier version of the project that would have included a service center for homeless people.

Neighbors complained that the center would be a magnet for the region's large homeless population, lowering property values and possibly endangering children from nearby schools.

The controversy largely evaporated after planners dropped the homeless portion of the project.

Fulfilling a Need

George Puddephatt is the director of social services and case management at Desert AIDS Project, and serves as Riverside County's HIV housing coordinator.

He said the Vista Sunrise apartments have been a long time coming, but will meet a desperate need when they open.

Desert AIDS Project, which serves about 2,300 clients from San Bernardino to Blythe, already has a waiting list of people who want to be tenants in the new complex, he said.

Puddephatt said the apartments, combined with the new county clinic, will be especially useful to people who might be adequately managing their HIV/AIDS through medication, but who are suffering from drug side effects and other ailments that often accompany AIDS.

"If you need to go for a chest X-ray, which a lot of our people do, and if you are uninsured or underinsured, you have to go all the way to (the county medical center in) Moreno Valley," he said. "This will put people in closer proximity to their healthcare needs."