HALSA to Cease Operations on May 31, 2012

The HIV & Aids Legal Services Alliance (HALSA), located at 3550 Wilshire Blvd.  Suite 750, Los Angeles, 90010, will cease operations on May 31, 2012.  Despite the best efforts of our Board of Directors, staff and supporters, recent losses in funding have left us no choice but to close our doors.  We have, however, worked diligently to assure that the vital programs and services HALSA has provided to the HIV-positive community in Los Angeles continue on at other organizations.

As of May 1, 2012, please contact the following organizations for legal assistance:

• Housing related services: Inner City Law Center  (213 891-2880)
• Public Benefits and Immigration: Public Counsel  (213 385-2977)
• The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic: AIDS Project Los Angeles (213 201-1500)
• Discrimination, Privacy, Wills, Debt Relief, Private Insurance: LRS (213 243-1525)

 

We are proud to have served our clients with skill and compassion as an independent organization since 2001.  We are profoundly grateful to our staff and pro-bono attorneys, volunteers and supporters who have given their careers, time and money to support our work.  The need continues, the work continues, the fight continues.

 

HALSA’s origins began in 1982, at the very beginning of an epidemic that would later be called AIDS. That year the LA County Bar Association and the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center set up law projects to assist AIDS-impacted individuals and families with future planning documents such as wills, medical powers of attorney, guardianships and insurance beneficiary forms.  By the late eighties, three other organizations had specialized law projects that also assisted people living with HIV and AIDS, including AIDS Service Center, Public Counsel and AIDS Project Los Angeles.  With a larger financial commitment from the L.A. County Commission on HIV in early 1997, these five HIV legal service programs moved into an office together on Wilshire Boulevard and formed a collaborative consortium called the HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA).  The collaborative transitioned to a single, independent, nonprofit organization in 2001. 

With programs bridging three decades, HALSA and its five founding law projects have assisted more than 30,000 households from every neighborhood in Los Angeles and from many cities in Southern California. We have successfully litigated some of the most blatant cases of HIV discrimination, eliminated injustices for the most underserved members of our community, played a role in the development of important legislation, and trained hundreds of individuals on HIV law in Southern California.