Look homeward, angel

By summer 2008, the AIDS Housing Alliance expects to complete 40 new housing units for low- and very-low income individuals and families with at least one member living with HIV/AIDS. At the new Colonia San Martin, rent will be kept to 30 percent of income—regardless of what that income is. A community center, a medical-exam room, a community garden and other services for residents are part of the plans. The development, designed by Mogavero Notestine Associates, also will include a lot of “green” features: solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and a location near the old Florin Mall and mass transit.

Peter Feeley, AHA’s executive director, wanted to build “something green and wonderful, but for poor people.”

An item in a Sacramento Housing Alliance newsletter explains that the project is named after St. Martin de Porres—known as the first black saint of the Americas. “His name was chosen since HIV/AIDS in the United States is increasingly a disease of the poor and minorities, especially African-Americans.”