San Francisco low-income housing co-op for people with HIV, AIDS fights to stay open

By Amanda Hari

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — A low-income housing cooperative for people with HIV and AIDS is fighting to stay open in San Francisco.

On Sunday afternoon, Marty’s Place hosted an Emergency Punk and Drag Fundraiser at El Rio bar on Mission Street to bolster its legal defense fund and protect its residents.

The board of directors says the property owners, the non-profit Mission Action, are threatening to terminate their lease five years before it’s set to expire in 2030.

Paul Aguilar, who currently lives in the facility, is one of many people trying to keep it open.

“When it was founded by Father Richard Purcell it was a place for people with AIDS to die,” said Aguilar, thinking back to a time when AIDS was a death sentence. “Now it’s a place for people with HIV to live.”

Purcell’s property was transferred to Mission Action in 2011 after his death.

Aguilar moved into Marty’s Place in November of 2021 when he was at his lowest.

“I struggled to even wake up in the morning,” said Aguilar.

At the time, he was 58 years old, living with HIV, and suddenly found himself homeless.

Aguilar says he didn’t know what he was going to do until he visited his friend and president of Marty’s Place Michael Rouppet.

“He’s like, ‘You’re exactly where you need to be,’ and I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m at Marty’s Place?’ and he goes, ‘That’s where you need to be,'” recounted Aguilar.

If evicted by Mission Action, members of Marty’s Place say many of them will have nowhere to go. It will also end what is believed to be the only co-housing for people living with HIV or AIDs in the county.

It changed Aguilar’s life.

“I ended up getting this position at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation with their aging services department,” said Aguilar. “Being someone who was supposed to die at 30 years old, being 58 was a freaking miracle, but to be able to work with the community is amazing.”

It’s hard for him to think about the possibility of losing his home.

“The thought of that is stifling,” Aguilar said. “That now at soon to be 62 years old to be homeless again.”

Co-founder, President of the Board of Directors, and resident Michael Rouppet says they’ve been trying to come to an agreement with Mission Action for years.

“We had made a proposal to purchase,” said Rouppet about conversations the board has had with Mission Action. “We suspect and they’ve indicated that they want to sell the property and what better way to sell it? We invited them to work with us. Unfortunately, they broke that trust and tried to leverage us in court.”

Rouppet says they have a model that works and can be used to help other low-income communities.

He believes it needs to be protected and Aguilar agrees.

“I never plan to leave,” said Aguilar. “They’re going to have to find a way to carry me up the stairs to my room.”

At this point, there is no set move-out date.

CBS Bay Area reached out to Mission Action and has not heard back yet.

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