Programs

Information & Referral

Townspeople is considered San Diego's premier information and referral agency assisting homeless and at risk individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS to secure clean, safe, affordable housing and other vital human services and entitlements. Annually, Townspeople responds to more than 10,000 requests for information and services from men, woman and children living with HIV/AIDS.

We distribute information about affordable housing, human services, and entitlements to HIV/AIDS consumers countywide. We provide a bimonthly rental listing of affordable units from landlords friendly to our mission, in addition to distributing information to clients on rental assistance programs that are available to them. We also provide our clientele with a resource room that includes two telephones, a computer, fax machine and information on a wide variety of local service providers. Services are provided at no charge to our clients.

For more information, please see our Find Housing page.

Supportive Housing Development & Management

Townspeople develops affordable supportive housing by acquiring, rehabilitating, and managing its own properties, as well as coordinating supportive services for its tenants. In December of 1995, Townspeople created San Diego's first independent apartment complex for low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS, which consisted of 8 units, called the Wilson Avenue Apartments. Townspeople updated its strategic plan three years ago to include a significant return to the development of affordable housing for special needs clients. To that end, we recently completed the 51st Street Project, a 24 unit apartment complex rehabbed specifically for the low-low income, homeless HIV/AIDS population. This project represented a 25% increase in the number of affordable supportive units for individuals with HIV/AIDS in San Diego County.

Both of our projects are examples of the Supportive Housing model, in which residents with special needs or disabilities live independently, following all of the provisions of a lease, and receive supportive services from local service providers, which help them maintain housing on a permanent basis. Townspeople has strong working relationships with HIV/AIDS service providers and case management agencies throughout the county and utilizes Memorandums of Understanding and Letters of Collaboration with several service providers to ensure that services are effectively leveraged in order to make each project a success.