AIDS Hospice Is Forced to Close

VENTURA — Christopher House, Ventura County’s first hospice for AIDS patients, must close temporarily later this month because of a slew of health-care code violations, its board of directors said Wednesday.

State inspectors found last week that costly repairs are needed for the antique plumbing and electrical systems in two residential cottages behind the 19th-century gingerbread Victorian board-and-care home, said board member Trisha Davis.

The cottages’ porches also need to be rebuilt and the main house needs other repairs that the struggling Christopher House coffers cannot support, she said.

So administrators will try to find other homes for Christopher House’s six residents with AIDS. The patients will move out for the one to two months it will take to repair the deficiencies and bring the shelter into compliance with licensing codes for residential-care homes.

The residents will have to leave within the next two weeks, Davis said.

“We cannot financially carry on the project, the cost of medications and everything else and afford the cost of physically repairing the house,” she said. “With our financial situation, it was better to close so that financially we’d be solvent and be able to go after the grants and open up again.”

The news hit hard for Ventura County’s AIDS care community.

“I think this shelter is vital to the support of people with HIV/AIDS in Ventura County,” said Martina Melero, HIV/AIDS surveillance coordinator for the Ventura County Department of Health.

“It’s unfortunate that these problems have occurred, but hopefully they can be dealt with and repaired and the home can be reopened as soon as possible. . . Christopher House continues to warrant our support.”

Since its ceremonial groundbreaking in 1993, the Christopher House Foundation has been struggling to raise the $218,000 a year it needs to operate. Legions of volunteers provide everything from landscaping to food.

The $1,200-a-day cost of hospital care for AIDS patients far outstrips the $73-a-day cost of Christopher House, and current residents said they value the comfort the place affords.

“I feel like this is my home now, and it seems like now that I’ve got settled in I have to leave,” said resident Danny Delgado, 33. “It’s disappointing. I’d just gotten used to it. . . I like [being] in here, versus something sterile like a hospital.”

Delgado moved in to Christopher House in March after recovering from a bout with intestinal parasites at Sherman Oaks Hospital.

European watercolors, gilded angels and snapshots of his nieces and nephews surround his hospital-style bed. The old-fashioned casement-style windows look out on a lush, green backyard.

After chronic fatigue left him unable to work any longer for a cruise ship company, Delgado said, he came to rely on places like Christopher House. Now he must work with administrators to find a new--if temporary--hospice.

“I’d like to come back here when they reopen,” he said. “It’s a very comfortable atmosphere. . . I think it’s very sad that it’s closing.”