AIDS Outreach Center of Greater Tarrant County to Close Main Arlington Office

On Aug. 31, the community-based AIDS Outreach Center of Greater Tarrant County will shutter its main office in Arlington, officials said. However, AOC will continue to provide free HIV and syphilis testing, counseling, and other services at the University of Texas-Arlington and Tarrant County College Southeast.

Client numbers at the main 410 W. Stanford St. location in Arlington have been falling over the past three to four years, said Allan Gould, AOC's executive director. In the last three months, the office saw only 45 clients by appointment or walk-in.

"Almost 95 percent of our clients are at or below the poverty line," Gould said. "A lot of our clients have difficulty accessing transportation. The fact that Arlington does not have a viable public transportation system has, for a very long time, played into our ability to attract the number of people we believe need to be accessing that site to be viable."

State and federal grants to AOC have been shrinking over the years and donations, which comprised a third of the budget, declined with the economy, Gould said. AOC has cut four staff positions at its Fort Worth location and reduced the hours of a fifth position.

The money saved through the cutbacks will be used to support client services including nutritional and mental health counseling, insurance, housing and legal assistance, and workplace education, Gould said. The center is seeking other partners and hopes to offer its services at additional locations in Arlington.

"If there are 45, 50, 80 people that have AIDS in Arlington, they deserve services just like they do in Fort Worth and other cities," said Mayor Robert Cluck, a physician. Local voters have rejected using taxes for public transit three separate times, he noted. "To deny convenient health care on the basis of the lack of transportation is disingenuous," he said.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


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