By the grace of God and perhaps a savior donor, the St. Therese Center HIV Outreach will find a new home after more than a decade at St. Rose Dominican Hospital Rose de Lima campus in Henderson.
The hospital is looking to expand, and the building on the corner of Lake Mead Parkway and Boulder Highway that accommodates St. Therese Center is probably going to become a parking lot, says Father Joseph O’Brien, founder and director of the center.
Kathleen Ryan, spokeswoman for Dignity Health, said growth at St. Therese Center was placing a burden on the hospital’s limited parking space. “We are completing extensive renovations in the hospital through a multiyear project, which is also further limiting available parking for patients,” Ryan said.
The center, which serves more than 4,000 HIV-positive men, women and children, has outgrown the building and was forced to drop its clothing program to make more room for the food pantry.
O’Brien is hoping to find a place with 15,000 to 20,000 square feet. It would be great to have 30,000 square feet, but he is a realist about what it would cost to rent that much space.
The hospital is going to be flexible with the center on its move-out date, but the administration is looking at October 1, O’Brien says. St. Therese may be able to stay on a month-to-month basis beyond that time.
St. Therese offers spiritual services and emotional support for clients, along with referrals to other HIV agencies for medical and complementary services. Social services include a dry-food pantry, transportation assistance, socks and underwear and a daily sandwich program.
It’s going to be a significant increase in operating expenditures for St. Therese, as the organization has been given free rent and utilities thanks to the sisters who founded St. Rose de Lima Hospital.
“If we can have a donor or someone who can rent us space for $1 a year, or some reasonable amount,” O’Brien says. “Some of the rentals are ridiculous.”
O’Brien looked at a former Fresh & Easy in Henderson for $14,000 a month, and a former Albertsons at Maryland Parkway and Sahara Avenue for $27,000. Catholic Charities offered a building for $10,000 a month, but even that is too much, O’Brien says.
He was provided with a list of seven or eight other properties to look at and only one is more than $5,000 a month. It’s essential to have a large parking lot as semi trucks deliver 28,000 pounds of food every week. The food is for everyone, not just HIV clients, O’Brien notes.
St. Therese is looking at qualifying for improvement grants from the City of Henderson, but if someone from Las Vegas or east Las Vegas comes up with a good deal, they’ll pack up and go, O’Brien says.
“We have 18 years here and we’re well-respected by HIV agencies in town,” he says. “We hope and pray. We’d like to do this because it’s a great service to the community. Our goal is to keep it going.”
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