Martha Guevara playing with her children at A Friendly Haven apartments

When her baby stopped eating and drinking her milk, Martha Guevara became worried. "We took her to the doctor, and she was hospitalized," she recalls. "A week later I was upset because they weren’t telling us anything. I took her to a different hospital, and the next day they told me she had cytomegalovirus in the liver and needed to go to a children’s hospital.

"They transferred her and told me they were going to test her for HIV. I didn’t think anything of it and said, ‘Fine.’ After she got out of intensive care, the HIV doctor sat me down and told me the baby had tested positive. That same week, my husband and I found out we were HIV-positive, too."

The Guevaras were living in California when Ms. Guevara’s mother, who lived in Houston, insisted that they move to town so she could help them. Ms. Guevara explained, "I never got along with my mother, but we came anyway. While we were there my husband and I were just constantly arguing. We were about to leave each other."

Then Ms. Guevara’s counselor at AVES (Amigos Volunteers in Education and Services, Inc.), where she and her family receive medical treatment, told her about AIDS Foundation Houston’s (AFH) a Friendly Haven apartments. The apartments were developed to offer homeless HIV-infected women and their families a stable environment where they can improve their lives and solve the problems that caused them to become homeless.

Ms. Guevara called AFH, had an interview and later that same week moved into A Friendly Haven. "I couldn’t believe how these apartments looked," Ms. Guevara exclaims. "I was like, ‘Oh my God. I’m living in glory!’ I’ve never had anything like this in my life. There’s daycare for my kids, and they teach classes at night, like parenting skills and conflict resolution."

Ms. Guevara also receives assistance from AFH’s Spirit Wellness Center. She explains, "They teach me how to present myself at an interview, how to complete a resume, the basics on using a computer." The Guevaras also receive groceries each week from AFH’s Stone Soup food pantry and services from a wide variety of local agencies that collaborate with AFH.

The Guevaras’ health and well-being clearly have improved because of the medical treatment and social services they’ve received and because of their special home. After explaining that their two-year term to live in the apartment ends in November, Ms. Guevara says, "This is a great chance to do things I wouldn’t be able to do if I was living in a regular apartment complex. Because of the childcare and classes, I have the opportunity to get my GED and a part-time job when I leave here. When I get a full-time job, my husband can quit working and go to school for a while to learn English so he can get a better job. I just hope we can go as far as we want to go."

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