Rainbow Health, a provider of services for people living with HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQ+ community, abruptly ceased operations on July 19. By the end of July, the Minneapolis City Council voted to move housing contracts for Rainbow Health clients to The Aliveness Project, a community organization run by and for people living with HIV/AIDS. Southwest Voices talked with Executive Director Matt Toburen on Aug. 1 about taking over Rainbow Health’s contracts and the work that the Kingfield-based organization does more broadly.

This interview was condensed and edited.

Southwest Voices: What happened at the City Council level in July with the housing contracts that The Aliveness Project took over? Are you going to be taking over any other contracts?

Matt Toburen: It does get sort of complicated with all the government bureaucracy and everything that kind of goes with that. Those City contracts are called HOPWA, Housing Opportunity for People with AIDS. It is a federal program started by Nancy Pelosi back in the early ‘90s, with strong bipartisan support. It is funds that go to help, in a variety of ways, homeless people living with HIV. To get housed, to get medical care, medical assistance, all the stuff that they need to have to stabilize and live a long and healthy life. Rainbow Health had 32 clients and families that were part of that program. It was a massive crisis, because these 32 people are getting their rents paid every month through Rainbow, and they have a case manager. We needed to get their rent paid by the end of the month. How we're able to make this work is that Aliveness also has a HOPWA contract, we're doing some supportive rental assistance for folks.

And then there are another group of about 60 people that were kind of in a similar situation through different funding streams. There were a lot of phone calls with a lot of the government agencies and lawyers about what was possible. We were allowed to use our funds, our HOPWA contract with the City to pay the rent for these 32 folks. And then the City then is voting to transfer those contracts to Aliveness and get amended into our existing HOPWA contract.

If we didn't have an existing HOPWA contract, that wouldn't have been possible. We're working with these other government funders to see where that's possible. The Department of Human Services funded a large part of Rainbow Health’s services through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which is another federal program for people living with HIV. We were able to get those contracts transferred. And that just was official yesterday with the Department of Human Services. And then we're working on a similar process with Hennepin County; they're moving a little bit slower.

Now all that to be said, Aliveness can't do it all. Some of the stuff they're rapidly transferring to Aliveness so we can figure out other community organizations or clinics that can take on other pieces of the work too. But at least to have the funds there to get these programs started back up in a skeleton form to then build out from there and figure out a longer-term plan.

It’s really been very short term. We had about 90 people that had this crisis that needed to get either rent paid or their utilities paid. And now figuring out how to get some of the pieces started up.

Southwest Voices: Did you have an existing relationship with Rainbow Health that made this transition easier to handle?

Matt Toburen: Yeah, we worked really, really closely with Rainbow Health. We serve a lot of the same folks and we have a lot of complementary services. Someone might go to Rainbow Health for case management and come here for a meal. The HIV community is small, so we're really serving the same folks. When one agency suffers, we all suffer.

Earlier this year, another one of our sister organizations closed, the African American AIDS Task Force,so we were still reeling from that. Before Rainbow Health’s closure happened, we were working with the community to figure out what was possible there to meet that gap.

The Minnesota AIDS Project was formed in 1983. And then a couple years later The Aliveness Project spun out of MAP. The ACT UP group formed Aliveness. And the whole purpose of Aliveness and what we've kept to our core is, it was a potluck. It was really by and for people living with and dying of AIDS, very grassroots, very community.

[Editor’s note: The Minnesota AIDS Project merged with Rainbow Health in 2018]  

That meal, that kind of community is at the core of Aliveness. And the founders of Aliveness were also really, really intentional about it being run by and for people with HIV. It’s built into our bylaws. Anyone living with HIV can join Aliveness as a member. And with that comes voting privileges, electing our board of directors, and members have their own membership board that they elect. And the president of the membership board is automatically the second vice president of the board. That kind of community ownership is really beautiful and special and messy, but it really makes Aliveness unique in that way.

I personally worked at MAP and I know those services and staff very well. My own family has been clients and received services in the past,so it’s personal to me on a lot of levels.

Southwest Voices: Did you say that ACT UP was part of the beginning of The Aliveness Project?

Matt Toburen: A lot of the crew that was really active in ACT UP were a lot of the same folks who were part of the founding of Aliveness. They wanted a community space that wasn’t like a social service agency.

Southwest Voices: That makes sense. Going back to 2024, why is it so important that you continue to have resources for people that are living with HIV and AIDS?

Matt Toburen: In Minnesota, we've got about 10,000 people living with HIV and we see over 300 new infections a year. We’re actually in the midst of an HIV outbreak. An official HIV outbreak was declared by the Minnesota Department of Health. It actually started during the [COVID-19] pandemic. South Minneapolis has certainly been a part of that outbreak. Our neighboring states, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, they're all seeing a decrease in new HIV infections. We've stagnated or gotten worse, and it's absolutely unacceptable.

In Minnesota, we continue to see the face of HIV change. More and more new HIV cases are amongst communities of color, particularly young queer folks of color. African Americans are 12 times more likely to be infected with HIV in Minnesota. African-born women are 18 times more likely. We have significant disparities when it comes to new HIV infections. That plays into our larger health disparities in Minnesota.

We have the knowledge, we have the tools. We have amazing medications. It's a miracle that for folks who know their HIV status, get to the doctor, and get on the right medications, or get the right medical care, they can live a long and healthy life.  

It's the folks that can't do that, they really struggle. That's where our work is – and Rainbow’s work was – really supporting folks in being able to maintain their connection to medical care, staying on their medicine, and managing all the life stuff. Housing is health care for folks who are homeless since taking your HIV medication every day is not going to be a priority.

HIV is an infectious disease, so we can end HIV in Minnesota if we can get folks tested and know their status. If they're negative, get folks on PrEP to prevent HIV or connect them with other HIV prevention. If they are positive, get them connected to care. We do a lot of testing out in the community. For folks who really struggle with mental health, clinical health, or housing, this is where our services come in to support.

Southwest Voices: Are you going to be permanently taking over contracts for Rainbow Health? Or is this going to turn into something else long term?

Matt Toburen: Everything is changing by the day, but these funds are for one year. So it's continuing them for this last year then revisioning what that could look like. We're taking at least where Aliveness is best situated or has that infrastructure to take these pieces. And then there are other pieces of Rainbow's work that are going to live better at other organizations. They did a lot of HIV work, which is what we're really focused on right now. But they had a large LBGTQ+ mental health clinic.  We're having a lot of conversations with folks in the community to see where some of those pieces could live and who's best suited to take some of those pieces: OutFront, Family Tree Clinic, Gender Justice, and Reclaim.. Because, certainly, Aliveness can't do it all. There's the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, there's the Rural AIDS Action Network. So it's figuring out where we can fill these emergency gaps and then where other folks are seeing needs and increased demand. There's a lot of different pieces to pick up.

Southwest Voices: Does anyone have the client list for communication?

Matt Toburen: That’s another super complicated piece because you are dealing with people's protected health information and HIV status. There's a lot of conversations with lawyers at the various government levels about how to share that information. We're rapidly trying to get information out.

Southwest Voices: Is there anything else you wanted to share about what’s been happening since Rainbow Health closed?

Matt Toburen: It’s been amazing to see the outpouring of community support, a lot of donations, a lot of foundations coming forward, the PFund Foundation, the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation.

Also, what I keep telling people is – because there's just a lot of fear, people really rely on those services –‘we see you, we know how important this is to you.’ There's a lot of work being done to make sure that these services continue in some shape or form. We have some answers, we don't have all the answers right now, but we're working around the clock to get more answers. Folks can always reach out to Aliveness, but we're working on building out more specific answers. I don't have any playbook for how to get all these programs restarted. But that's what we're working on. We're hoping to have answers for folks really soon. And just know how sad it is for the community, how sad it is for the staff. MAP and Rainbow Health have meant so much to Minnesota in the legacy of that organization. They’ve had a really incredible history and really touched a lot of people's lives.

‍The Aliveness Project is located at 3808 Nicollet Ave. and can be reached by phone at 612-822-7946. Their doors are open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.