North Austin Nonprofit Caring For AIDS, Cancer Patients Closing After 26 Years

AUSTIN, TX — Officials at Care Communities, a nonprofit providing free support for those living with HIV and cancer, said the center would be closing its doors later this year after more than 25 years of service.

Financial challenges were cited as the reason for the imminent closure, scheduled by the end of October, according to a post on the nonprofit's website. Officials called the decision to close the nonprofit as "...heart-wrenching and extremely difficult."

Care Communities Executive Director Mary Hearon expounded on the upcoming shuttering: “It has been our esteemed honor to serve those in our community who have faced serious illness alone or with little to no support and who have extremely limited resources," she said in a prepared statement. "We have had the great privilege of working with phenomenal volunteers and outstanding staff who have given of themselves to ease the pain and suffering of our clients.”

Founded in 1991, Care Communities, 314 E. Highland Mall Blvd., began as a program of what was then Interfaith Action of Central Texas, according to information found on the nonprofit's website. The volunteer-driven program provided supportive services to persons diagnosed with HIV/AIDS as part of the Central Texas AIDS Interfaith Network and served clients with an AIDS diagnosis. In the mid- 1990’s, this program incorporated as its own nonprofit organization: Interfaith Care Alliance. In the mid 2000’s, the Board of Directors expanded the agency’s mission to include people living with cancer and changed the organization’s name to Care Communities.