BEHIV AIDS Service Center To Close
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago HIV/AIDS service center is closing its doors, after more than two decades serving the city's Far North Side and north suburbs.
Better Existence with HIV, or BEHIV, announced this past Friday that it will be closing its doors. Published reports on the subject have not specified exactly when the service agency would shut down, but the Web site for BEHIV indicates that it tests for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections scheduled through Jan. 27.
BEHIV is based at 1244 W. Thorndale Ave. in the Edgewater neighborhood, and has served residents of the Rogers Park neighborhood, Evanston and the North Shore suburbs since 1989.
In a news release published by the Windy City Times, BEHIV said it was damaged by a loss of donations as a result of the Great Recession. BEHIV also said it stood to lose much of its funding for its case management program due to changes in the distribution of federal funds, the news release said.
BEHIV has been terminating its active contracts so that its clients can move to other AIDS service agencies, the release said.
AIDS Foundation of Chicago incoming president David Ernesto Munar told Gay Chicago Magazine that the closing of BEHIV is "a tragedy," but the primary concern must be serving all clients rather than keeping agencies open.
