Official Kick-Off Announcement: HIV: Housing Is Vital Capital Campaign

We’re thrilled to be kicking off our $3.5 million HIV: Housing Is Vital campaign! Here’s our press release, dated May 25, 2022:


AUSTIN — Project Transitions, a local nonprofit with a 30-year history of providing hospice care, housing, and support to people with HIV, today announced a $3.5 million campaign to support the development of two new housing facilities with 101 units exclusively for people with HIV. 

“This is a historic moment in Austin,” says Executive Director Scurry Miller. “For the first time since 1998, we are expanding our community’s capacity for supportive housing for people in desperate need of help.”

The $3.5 million HIV: Housing Is Vital campaign will supplement more than $25 million in public funding to construct the two facilities. “Every dollar raised will be matched by more than $11 in public investment,” explains Miller. 

Funding will be allocated between two facilities in Northwest Austin: the 40-unit Roosevelt Gardens will welcome new clients in July 2022; the 61-unit Burnet Place will begin construction later this year and is scheduled to open in December 2023. Each facility will offer on-site clinic, telehealth, and supportive services like mental health counseling and life skills. 

Roosevelt Gardens will welcome new residents this summer

“The response to the campaign has been overwhelming,” explains co-chair and lead donor Lawrence Aldridge. “Before we can even get into the details, people have been jumping in to make pledges. They understand that these facilities will serve Central Texas for generations to come — and who doesn’t want to be a part of that?”

The campaign is co-chaired by longtime Project Transitions Executive Director Charlotte Hale. “When people with HIV don’t have stable housing, they often aren’t able to sustain their daily medication, which suppresses the virus,” she explains. “An explosion of homelessness among people with HIV — which is what is happening right now — will lead to the further spread of HIV. These two facilities are the best possible news, and I’ve been so gratified by the response we’ve had so far.”

The Federal Home Loan Banks of Atlanta and Dallas have contributed a combined $1.25 million. In addition to a generous lead gift from Aldridge, the campaign has received six-figure gifts from the estate of ACC professor Frank Garrahan, Bill Dickson, Jim Lommori, Steven Frantz, and the Moody Foundation. Several generous community members have also made gifts and pledges of $10,000 - $50,000.  

The total amount raised to date is $3,161,559, or more than 90% of the $3.5 million goal. Thanks to a generous $400,000 challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation, every remaining dollar donated to the campaign will be matched. 

Board President Craig Davis praised the committee for their results. “When we first considered developing these new facilities, we never dreamed we could raise this kind of funding in support. As a lean social service nonprofit, we don’t have the resources to invest in projects like these. But thanks to Lew, Charlotte, and their volunteer committee, we’re more than 90 percent of the way there already. What they have accomplished is remarkable.”

ABOUT PROJECT TRANSITIONS: Founded in 1988, Project Transitions is dedicated to serving people with HIV/AIDS by providing supportive living, housing, recuperative care and hospice in compassionate and caring environments. PT is the only organization in Austin’s continuum of HIV care to provide housing.

To support the campaign and learn more about the new facilities,
visit www.projecttransitions.org/housing-is-vital