Grace House 1

Clare Housing currently manages six foster care homes for persons with HIV/AIDS in the Twin Cities.

The year was 1989 and HIV/AIDS had made its devastating way into the communities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. St. Joan of Arc church, a catholic church in south Minneapolis, had just hired a new priest named Father Bill Murtaugh to lead its congregation. Fr. Murtaugh issued a challenge from his pulpit one Sunday: he called on his parishioners to form an AIDS task force to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis that had hit the twin cities.

The task force immediately became active by converting the church's rectory into a care facility for people with AIDS. Grace House opened its doors in early 1990 and welcomed its first resident into the facility, Terry Caldwell.

In the early days, volunteers provided the majority of services necessary to run the home. They worked volunteer shifts (often hand-in-hand with family members) providing end-of-life care to our very ill residents. There was also a live-in caregiver and an administrator who oversaw resident's care and supervised the volunteer care giving staff.

Over 50 members of St. Joan of Arc church worked around the clock providing bed side care, preparing meals, supporting grieving families, fundraising, and much more. The time commitment and the intensity of work was taxing on this compassionate group. Eventually, it was determined that the home needed additional staffing and Kevin Dorenbach was hired as the first executive director in 1991. Four additional staff members were hired to manage the resident's care shortly after.

Grace House served 80 individuals in the years 1990-1996. All but two of them passed away there.

Grace House's services began to shift from all hospice and end-stage care to long-term care services in 1996. This was a turning point for HIV/AIDS treatment due to the discovery of a new class of HIV medications called protease inhibitors. Today, approximately one-third of Grace House's residents are able to stabilize their health and return to lives in the community. Still, however, Grace House cares for persons in the final stage of their life.

St. Joan of Arc remains a critical partner in our work. They help with upkeep of the facility, provide financial support and more often than not they are still cooking the evening meal.