“It can only be described as melting,” said Timothy, 46, about one hot day in July of 2005. He wasn’t talking about the temperature, however. Timothy was remembering the moment his body and mind failed him. He had begun climbing the 56 stairs to his apartment when he crumbled into a heap of flesh and clothing on the stairway.

Timothy’s following week at UCSD Medical Center was a blur – tubes, pills, blood tests and IVs all fighting to keep him alive. It had only been three months since he had tested positive for AIDS, yet his world was closing in around him. In the hospital, the doctors informed him he had cirrhosis of the liver caused by 30 years of alcoholism.

“This is the moment when everything stopped,” Timothy said.

He spent the next month at UCSD and then six months at Edgemoor, which is a county hospital and treatment center of last resort. Yet, when it was time for Timothy’s release, he had nowhere to go. His extended stay at the hospital left him without a job, a car, an apartment or friends. He found himself without an address or a plan for the rest of his life. “I questioned what I had to live for, but found strength in a sobriety that I had never known,” Timothy said.

Timothy is no stranger to change. Having grown up with a military dad, he knew firsthand what it was like not living in the same place for an extended period. Yet this situation was different. He was able to move into transitional housing, which although strict and depressing, taught him how to save money. He lived there for a year and he was able to save $2,000 to rebuild his future.

At the end of his stay, with only two weeks before his transitional housing ended, Timothy anticipated being homeless for the second time in his life. He felt lost. Luckily, he read an article in the newspaper that highlighted an affordable housing program for low-income individuals and families. He immediately headed to Townspeople for help. Townspeople, a non-profit organization, provides housing and information referral services for individuals and families with HIV and AIDS.

He explained the urgency of his housing needs and they instantly went to work to help place Timothy in the new apartment complex. Myriad funding made the 24-unit studio project possible: a state grant from Proposition 46, the San Diego Housing Commission’s Home and Housing Trust Funds program, bridge funding from the Corporation for Supportive Housing, and a low-income investment firm and the federal home loan bank by way of the Mission Federal Credit Union.

“This project increased the number of supportable affordable units in San Diego by 30 percent,” said John Derryberry, Townspeople executive director.

Living alone in a studio apartment has had a positive effect on Timothy’s outlook. When asked what was best about having a place of his own, Timothy replied with a verse from the song “Corner of the Sky” from the musical Pippin:

“Rivers belong where they can ramble/Eagles belong where they can fly/I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free/Got to find my corner of the sky.”

“This [studio] is my corner of the sky. I am so thankful and glad to be alive,” Timothy said.

With a smile bright enough to lighten any room, Timothy said he felt free for the first time in his life. Sober for more than 18 months, he plans on going to vocational rehabilitation to finish his higher education. He would like to go into communications, journalism or secondary education, but most of all he would like to be an HIV educator. “HIV is making its way into the youth, and it has to be stopped through education,” Timothy said.

When asked what he remembered most about moving into his new home, Timothy said: “Getting the keys. It had been so long since I had a place of my own – a place that I would be responsible for – where I wouldn’t have to live with the rules and regulations imposed by others.”

Kimberly Parker interviewed Timothy on behalf of the San Diego Housing Federation for the “Faces of Affordable Housing” public relations plan. This project highlights the success stories of San Diego residents who have been helped by affordable housing programs.