MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 29, 2015 For more information, contact: Trevor Cochlin Director of Marketing Phone: (404) 263-2875 [email protected] Living Room Announces New Organizational Plan Changes Made to Meet Growing Demand of Homeless/Near Homeless Living With HIV/AIDS Atlanta, GA. (May 29, 2015) - Georgia’s largest facilitator of housing for individuals and multiperson households living with HIV/AIDS announced today that a new organizational structure will take place on June 1, 2015 to accommodate the increase in demand for the services offered. Living Room’s new plan creates a senior position within each of the organization’s departments: Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, Special Needs Housing Assistance Program, and Intake. Current employees have been promoted to the new positions as follows: Angela Susten will become deputy executive director of housing and planning. Formerly director of client services, she will serve on the agency’s leadership team. Her duties include overseeing all client programs and services and providing leadership and overall supervision to the program management staff. Ms. Susten will assist the executive director in implementing and executing the agency’s strategic and tactical plans and policies addressing programs and services. Shamekela Bishop will become the housing manager. Formerly the intake coordinator, she will oversee all of the housing programs of the agency and provide direct supervision of the staff in each program department. Ms. Bishop will also focus on securing new sources of housing for clients, including those that are not specifically designated for people with HIV/AIDS. Deborah Shimberg will become senior case manager for the Special Needs Housing Assistance Program. Alvin Minnifield will become senior housing specialist. Vickeign Mitchell will become senior case manager for the Tenant Based Rental Assistance program. By their experience working with housing-related and HIV/AIDS issues, the senior positions provide support to program staff and assist the housing manager. In creating the senior positions, the organization is also able to provide professional growth opportunities which were previously unavailable. The other positions remain the same. -MORE- Living Room Page 2 “Our goal is to ensure clients, who are homeless or near homeless living with HIV/AIDS, receive assistance much sooner without having to face a night on the street which is often deadly for those whose health has been compromised,” said Chuck Bowen, executive director. To reach a specific staff person or for questions about specific programs, please call 404-6165743 or visit www.livingroomatl.org. About Living Room Living Room began in 1995 as a part of Trinity Community Ministries to help people living with HIV/AIDS find stable, affordable housing, and became an independent 501(c)(3) organization in 1999. Our founder, Sister Mary Jane Lubinski, saw housing not only as an issue of maintaining human dignity, but as the foundation of effective medical treatment of HIV--a theory now confirmed by research. Many of our clients are chronically homeless and receive emergency lodging or residential recuperative care services. Living Room is Georgia’s largest facilitator of emergency and transitional housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. Over 90% of our clients are designated as extremely low income. Because we serve as a centralized intake and housing information and referral agency for several of our partners, we are able to assist over 1,500 individuals each year and make an important difference in their lives. -###-