Thursday, May 8, 2025
5/8/2025
Congressionally Directed Spending for Construction Projects - Applicant Organization: APLA Health & Wellness Address: 611 S. Kingsley Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90005 Project Director: Craig E. Thompson, Chief Executive Officer Contact Phone Numbers (Voice, Fax): (213) 201-1456 / (213) 201-1595 Email Address: cthompson@aplahealth.org Website Address: http://www.aplahealth.org/ Grant program funds requested: $500,000 CPF/CDS – HRSA-23-117 APLA Health & Wellness (dba APLA Health) respectfully requests community project funding/congressionally directed spending funding in the amount of $500,000 to assist with construction costs related to the expansion of our Long Beach Health Center. APLA Health restores dignity and trust within underserved communities by providing world-class LGBTQ+ empowering healthcare, support services, and HIV specialty care. Since 1983, APLA Health has remained steadfast in its commitment to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in our lifetime. Our organization is a multi-site operation that includes eight service delivery locations. We are leaders in advocating for policy and legislation that positively impact the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities and also conduct community-based research on such issues. In addition to focusing on the LGBTQ+ population, we serve many low-income community members living near our health center sites. Among our patient population in 2022, patients reported their sexual orientation as follows: 42% Lesbian or Gay; 39% Heterosexual (or straight); 6% Bisexual; 2% Something Else; 2% Don’t Know; 7% Chose Not to Disclose; and 2% Reported Unknown. APLA Health has earned a perfect 100 score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index for 2022, resulting in the coveted “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader” designation. The LGBTQ+ and general low-income communities that APLA Health serves have a long history of discrimination, stigma, and struggle, especially concerning their access to culturally competent, high quality health services. Our patients encompass all races, ethnicities, religions, and social classes. APLA Health’s service area is located in a heavily-populated, urban core of Los Angeles that crisscrosses a significant portion of Los Angeles County. The geographic area that we define as our service area is where 84.4% of patients resided based on 2022 calendar year data. A third (34%) of APLA Health’s patients originated from eight of the 107-service area zips codes. Nearly one in two of the residents we serve (48%) are low-income (less than 200% of the federal poverty guidelines). The population of the APLA Health service area is dominated by people of color – Hispanic/Latinos (50.4%), Black/African American (12.5%), and Asian (10.5%). In contrast, White Alone is 23.1% and American Indian/Alaska Native, Non-Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian/ Other Pacific Islander, and Other races combined represents 3.5% of the service area population. APLA Health’s Long Beach Health Center, opened in 2016, rapidly reached capacity with only six exam rooms and we have been forced to close our panels to new patients. The remainder of the floor we occupy has become available and we have signed a lease to take over the entire floor. We are embarking on an expansion project to increase the clinic size to 18 exam rooms in addition to our existing four dental operatories and several counseling rooms for behavioral health. In addition, the clinic has a robust STD screening program subsidized by an LA County Public Health contract, providing free STD screening and treatment to a high-risk population. The Long Beach area has a shortage of resources for LGBTQ+ patient needs and the demand is high. In 2022 APLA Health provided care to 383 transgender persons, the majority of whom were treated at the Long Beach Health Center.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).