Project Transitions Announces Closure of Hospice Program

AUSTIN — Project Transitions, a local nonprofit that supports people living with HIV, announced that it will close Doug’s House, its 5-bedroom hospice and recuperative care facility in Northwest Austin, on February 28.

“This is a milestone to celebrate for Project Transitions and all our partners in the battle to end the HIV epidemic in Central Texas,” says President of the Board of Directors Tony West. 

“Project Transitions was founded as a hospice program for people living with HIV and AIDS in 1988, and it’s a service we have provided every day since then,” explains West. “Back then, there were no effective treatments, and getting HIV was almost always a death sentence. People with the virus were unwelcome in hospitals and hospice programs, a result of overwhelming fear and stigma.”

The facility was named “Doug’s House” in honor of William Douglas Key, a former secretary of the Board of Directors who died of AIDS in 1991. Since its founding, Doug’s House has provided care to more than 700 People Living With HIV. 481 people with the virus have died there.

But since those early days, treatment has improved, and today, HIV is a manageable condition with effective treatments. “We responded to this reduction in need for end-of-life care by developing a recuperative care program at Doug’s House in 2014,” says West. “This program helped People Living with HIV recover their health after a significant medical crisis. In the past 11 years, this program has primarily served people who are unhoused and without access to medical care."

“Long ago, our work shifted from helping people die with HIV to helping them live with HIV. Closing Doug’s House is the final step in that transition.”

There's still a need in Central Texas for supportive and recuperative care for People Living With HIV, says PT Executive Director Annette Cooper. "But it’s more cost-effective for us to outsource this care than to maintain a separate facility to provide it directly,” she explains.

Current Doug's House clients will move into PT's Transitional Housing Program. PT has provided Transitional Housing since 1995; the agency has built two new facilities in the past five years that have more than tripled the program’s capacity, from 30 units to 101 units of housing.

“We are looking forward to continuing to fulfill our mission to provide compassionate care to People Living with HIV,” explains West. “With these expansions, we’ll be serving more people than ever before in our 37-year history.”