Pennsylvania HIV discrimination case settled

A man who claimed that he was refused admission to a Pennsylvania personal care home because he is infected with HIV has settled his discrimination complaint with the facility, his attorneys announced last week. The 56-year-old man, who is legally blind and who had sought care in the facility after his health began deteriorating, withdrew the complaint after the Loving Heart Personal Care Home in Lycoming County, Pa., agreed to admit him to the center and to conduct HIV training for its staff, said Ronda Goldfein, executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. The man, who was not identified by name in the legal proceedings, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against the facility in April saying that the care center denied his admission because they were uncomfortable caring for someone with AIDS. Facility officials had denied the man's allegations. Goldfein said that the man's "number 1 priority was just getting a place to live. I think that the folks at Loving Heart understand why what they did was wrong."