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Friend's House project on Main Street did not gain much traction after public outcry. However,
that was not the end for Fambro.48

In May of 1996, AIDS advocates including Fambro pressed the local Macon government
to recognize the AIDS problem in the city. They wanted local officials to increase funding for
housing options for homeless citizens living with the virus. In response, Macon Mayor Jim
Marshall and the Bibb County commissioners adopted a resolution authorizing Marshall and the
Macon City Council to direct the city’s Economic and Community Development Department to
apply for a Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOWPA) grant from the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development Department.49 HOWPA provided housing
assistance and supportive services for low-income persons with HIV/AIDS and their families.50
Mayor Marshall named CCAN as project sponsor and recipient of the grant.

CCAN was awarded the federal grant and soon there would be a place where HIV
positive homeless people could find refuge. Fambro spearheaded the new project. The Rainbow
Center was already located in a building formerly known as the Alpine Lodge motel. The grant
gave them the ability to expand twenty-two units in a building unattached to the main lodge. The
units just needed to be renovated into private rooms and baths for the tenants. In an interview
with the Macon Telegraph, Fambro noted, “The cost to purchase the motel is $207,000. The
lion's share of the cost $150,000 is coming from a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development through the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.” The remaining $57,000
had to be raised locally. “‘We've had to sign a $57,000, six-year mortgage,' Fambro said.” As the
project got underway, the CCAN board members called it The Diversity House. Once patients

48 Audrey Y. Williams."A Refuge in life, or death a friend’s house envisioned to provide shelter for HIV-Positive People,"
Telegraph (Macon), January 15, 1996, http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0EB76D22B57BE8E8?p=AWNB.
49 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) grant, R96-
0050, Macon. (1996).
50 United States, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development , Housing opportunities for persons with AIDS
(HOPWA), by Maggie McCarty (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Information Service, Library of Congress, 2005).

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