A Miracle Is Needed!

Barring a miracle, long time Fresno HIV/AIDS provider The Living Room will have to close June 30^th. However, director Toni Harrison isn’t waiting for that miracle to materialize—she’s hitting the bricks at Saturday’s Pride Parade and Festival to hopefully make the miracle happen.

Harrison says she plans to have supporters working the crowd at the parade, buckets in hand collecting donations. Donations can be made at The Living Room’s booth at the festival following the parade.

“We don’t want this to close, because of what we do,”
Harrison emphatically said.

The organization is threatened with closure due to fallout from the recent decision by the county board of supervisors to close the Specialty Clinic at the health department. The clinic provided medical care and testing for people affected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

“When the board of supervisors voted to shut down the Specialty Clinic,”
Harrison said, “65 people lost their care there. They were referred to

Community
Regional
Medical
Center, who told the county the hospital would not provide care for them unless CRMC got more money. So, our contract with the county was cancelled.”

That translated to a loss of $69,000 a year.

On Wednesday, a group from The Living Room went to the health department to deliver a letter protesting the decision to county officials. After delivering that letter, the group walked to CRMC to deliver a similar letter there.
Harrison said no one from hospital administration was available to accept the letter. “All the doors were locked,”

She added that CRMC was on security alert because hospital security had been told a “mob of angry people” was going to show up and there was going to be a “riot.” Neither happened.

A follow-up story will be posted on Gay Fresno.com as soon as possible.