Clare Housing, 929 Central Ave. NE, marked nearly 40 years of housing Minnesotans living with HIV with a ribbon cutting at their newly renovated Clare Northeast Apartments. The renovation was done in partnership with Cinnaire, Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Minnesota Housing and the Hugh J. Andersen Foundation.
Clare Housing annually houses 500 residents living with HIV and AIDS across eight properties and through a scattered site and housing assistance program. Their flagship Northeast location was established in 2005.
State Senator Doron Clark made a surprise appearance, saying, “Clare Housing is Northeast.” The sentiment was mirrored in the turnout of friends, neighbors and Mill City Church parishioners.
Clare Housing officials, as well as Minneapolis politicians, participate in a ribbon-cutting celebrating a newly renovated housing development. (Clara Ann Bagnoli)
Housing and health care
To Jenny Harding, director of advancement at Clare Housing, housing is essential to maintaining a patient’s health. “If you don’t have a stable place to live, there’s no way you can manage your health issues,” Harding said.
In the United States in 2020, 17% of people diagnosed with HIV experience inadequate housing.
Kendall, a member of the Resident Advisory Council who asked to be referred to by his first name due to stigma surrounding his HIV diagnosis, said, “Status shouldn’t impact access to housing, access to health or access to medication.”
An HIV diagnosis, he said, is “not a death sentence; it is a second chance.”
Upwards of 89% of residents across Clare Housing are at viral suppression, the stage at which a survivor’s immune system renders HIV noncommunicable and invisible. By contrast, as of 2025, roughly 66% of U.S. residents have crossed that threshold. Harding told the Northeaster that this is due, in part, to Clare Northeast Apartments’ residents having formed relationships in their time at the apartments, which makes them more inclined to follow up with care.
At the town hall, the slogan “housing is healthcare” was echoed by residents during the Survivors Storyteller Panel.
Joseph Laureano, one of the speakers, originally lived in the Damiano House, another Clare Housing facility. Laureano credited the kindness of the nurse team with changing his life for the better. “She took care of me, she trusted me and I’ll never forget her kindness.”
The Damiano House, Clare Housing’s first property in 1987, was renovated in 2012. (Provided)
Origins
Grace House opened in 1990. In 1993, Clare Housing opened followed by Agape Home in Central Minneapolis later that year. Then, in 1996, the first Clare House opened in St. Paul, with support from the Sisters of St. Francis. These houses were classified as adult foster homes and provided hospice care to residents.
Gregory Speak identifies himself as “One of the originals.” He moved into Agape Dos, a Clare Housing facility, in 1993 following a HIV diagnosis. “They thought I was gonna die, but I fooled them,” he said.
During the peak of the AIDS epidemic, Speak worked at Gay 90’s, a popular nightclub in downtown Minneapolis. At that time, the gay community fostered a stigma around HIV. Speak recalled coworkers avoiding hugs from people with sores from early HIV treatments.
Due to a 1995 breakthrough in pharmaceutical research, access to highly active antiretroviral therapy changed the diagnosis of HIV from a death sentence to a manageable condition. Annual U.S. AIDS-related deaths dropped by nearly half within a year of widespread adoption.
Then, survivors were faced with a new challenge: Where to live in the long term.
Expansion and service
In 2005, Clare Housing opened Clare Apartments in Northeast Minneapolis. In doing so, the organization broadened its services from emergency shelter to providing deeply affordable housing to survivors of HIV. In the past 15 years, the company has added Clare Midtown, Clare Terrace and Marshall Flats; in total, these additions provide 117 apartment-style units to HIV survivors.
Outside of live-in housing options, Clare Housing hosts a Scattered Site Housing program, launched in 2008. In this program, Clare Housing partners with rental property owners to offer an affordable option for people living with HIV while maintaining their independence.
In 2023, the company launched its Hotels to Housing program. In that program, they move unsheltered HIV-positive people in Hennepin County into hotels, followed by a move into permanent supportive housing within weeks.
The Bridge to Stability program provides emergency short-term housing assistance to people living with HIV, as well as their families, outside of the Twin Cities metro area.
Clare Housing also opened Indigo House, a no-barrier housing pilot for people with HIV who use injectable drugs and live in encampments.
A diagnosis’ potential impact
Alexandra Baumhofer is the program manager at Indigo House. She works with a number of individuals who were a part of a HIV outbreak at an encampment. Needle sharing and unprotected sex are two of the main causes of the spread of HIV. The likelihood of engaging in both of those behaviors increases when a person is experiencing homelessness.
“(A diagnosis) has a huge effect on their mental health, and then which has led them to being homeless, turning to substances, and so I think there’s a very big correlation,” Baumhofer said.
Changing demographics
While caring for those who are HIV positive is still at the center of their work, Clare Housing continues to adapt their approach to serving this community.
“We have shifted from that end-of-life care to bigger issues. Individuals who are coming in — yes, they’re HIV positive, but (they are also) really dealing with mental health and substance abuse stuff,” Baumhofer said.
Continued stigma
“HIV really doesn’t get the attention that it should. People don’t realize that it’s still a problem. People don’t think that it’s been cured or that it’s something that’s easily managed, and it’s not, so it doesn’t get the public awareness attention that it should. That’s a huge obstacle,” Harding said.
Marty, who asked to be referred to by his first name, was kicked out of his family home in Arkansas when he came out as gay.
“Having HIV is like having to come out again and again and again.”
Finally home
For the past three years, Marty has called Clare housing home. “Clare has been my refuge. Here, I can be myself, and no one judges,” Marty said.
Laureano has lived at Clare Housing, with his dachshund, for ten years. “Tell me who you hang with, and I will tell you who you are.
I love everyone in this building. It’s an incredible bond. We are a brave and good community,” he said.
Laureano is currently living with AIDS and navigating dementia. His case is like many other older gay men who were diagnosed in the late ‘80s. Clare Housing has proposed a new property, under the working title Clare 5. Clare 5 would address needs like this through housing for seniors living with HIV.