MINNEAPOLIS — After Rainbow Health Abruptly closed its doors on July 19, The Aliveness Project, along with assistance from several Minneapolis organizations, has taken over helping the HIV community.
"It's been an incredibly sad, and an incredibly tragic time for the community," The Aliveness Project Executive Director Matt Toburen said.
After Minneapolis lost the African Americans AIDS Task Force earlier this year, Toburen said Rainbow Health is another huge blow.
"We're in the midst of an HIV outbreak," Toburen said. "We continue to see a spike in new HIV cases, while at the same time, government funding is being cut for HIV services at the state level. So we're really struggling on a lot of different levels."
Since Tuesday the Aliveness Project has paid 60 late rents and stopped 30 evictions for former Rainbow Health clients. Rainbow health had a total of more than 1,500 clients who are now looking to Aliveness for support.
"Aliveness can't do it all, and so we're working with a lot of other community organizations to see where other folks have capacity," Toburen said.
On Friday the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to approve a $1.8 million federal grant originally intended for Rainbow Health, to now go to Aliveness to help 32 families. City Council Member Andrea Jenkins has been vocal about the Aliveness Projects Importance. She said Thursday that this work is critical for those living with HIV and AIDS to be able to live successful lives.
Besides Rainbow Health citing financial challenges for their unexpected closing, it's still unclear what went wrong. But what is clear is that The Aliveness Project will continue to pick up as much slack as possible, to ensure Minnesotans living with HIV are supported.