Straits Times

Beatitudes, a volunteer group, houses, feeds and provides for homeless Aids patients who are shunned by society

BANI, 46, a former musician, lived with his sister until she threw him out when he had full-blown Aids and was too weak to work.

Then Changi Beach became his home until a group of volunteers who call themselves the Beatitudes found him a place to stay last month.

They rented an apartment last year for homeless Aids patients like Bani (not his real name).

Since then, they have housed, fed and provided pocket money for 12 such patients, including a mother and her Aids-stricken son who felt suicidal after they were evicted by their landlord for failing to pay rent.

The Beatitudes, which is part of the Catholic Aids Response Effort (Care), pays for this from its own pocket and with money from donors. It is led by Sister Lucia Chan, a 48-year-old nun.

Every year, four to six HIV/Aids patients face the prospect of sleeping in the street when they are rejected by their families, said Ms Mary Stevens, assistant manager of the Patient Care Centre which helps HIV/Aids patients.

The centre is located at Tan Tock Seng Hospital's Communicable Disease Centre (CDC).

The patients' relationship with their families was already strained in many cases, and Aids was the final straw, said Ms Stevens.

The Patient Care Centre (Homeless) Fund was started in 2000 after The Straits Times highlighted the plight of homeless Aids patients.

More than $20,000 has been collected, but no more than $3,000 has been used.

Said Ms Stevens: 'The money should have been used up by now, but no one wants to rent flats or rooms to HIV/Aids patients.'

Said Sister Lucia: 'Aids is still taboo here. Many housing agents say home owners do not want to rent their flats to people with Aids as they fear it will bring them bad luck.'

Most of these homeless patients are men in their 30s and 40s who sleep by the Kallang River, added Ms Stevens.

Some, like Desmond, 55, a former taxi driver who has Aids and throat cancer, stay at the CDC as long as they can. The CDC now has five Aids patients who are homeless.

Desmond said his landlord threw him out after he told him he had cancer. He did not tell his landlord he also had Aids. He is now cared for by the Beatitudes.

He said in tears: 'I'm so touched that Sister Lucia took me in. The volunteers have helped me so much, although we are not family.'

Nursing homes, hospices and community hospitals have been allowed to take in people with Aids since 2000. However, the CDC places only those who are terminally ill in nursing homes.

Action For Aids (AFA) set up an HIV/Aids halfway house last year, but it provides only temporary lodging to 'get them on their feet while they get their act together', said AFA vice-president Brenton Wong.

The Beatitudes are looking for a bigger place, so they can take in more people, including women with Aids.

Said Beatitudes volunteer Joyce Fernandez: 'When we tell homeless Aids patients we have a place for them, we can see the sun shine on their faces.'

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