This week, Dallas Metropolis Council unanimously accredited road toppers honoring Don Maison, the longtime homosexual rights activist and Dallas lawyer who died in February. Maison was the longest-serving president and CEO of AIDS Companies of Dallas, which supplies inexpensive housing and companies for folks residing with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

Metropolis Council members Chad West, Omar Narvaez and Homosexual Donnell Willis proposed the road toppers for Marsalis Avenue between Colorado Boulevard and Sabine Avenue. They selected this space as a result of it’s close to the Hillcrest Home, one of many locations run by AIDS Companies of Dallas that Maison was closely concerned in.

When Maison joined in 1989, the group wasn’t in one of the best situation. It had seen a couple of iterations within the decade earlier than it started working beneath its present identify.

In 1985, a bunch of individuals shaped round a person named Phil Grey, a Dallas native who’d just lately been recognized with AIDS and returned house from California, based on a historical past recounted on the AIDS Companies of Dallas web site. By that 12 months, the county had recorded 125 instances and 123 deaths. In Dallas, Grey established the Oak Garden Mail and Message Service, providing jobs to different folks residing with AIDS. However, the mail service collapsed when Grey killed himself that decade.

Two different males who knew Grey, Michael Merdian and Darryl Moore, would go on to kind the PWA (folks with AIDS) Coalition of Dallas, which was devoted to creating initiatives maintained by and for folks with AIDS. It will later be known as AIDS Companies of Dallas. In 1987, the group started specializing in housing for individuals who had misplaced their properties due to sickness or discrimination.

“If I could provide people a place to live that had dignity, a place where they felt loved, then that’s why I was there.” – Don Maison, gay rights activist

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That 12 months, Merdian and Moore bought an condo constructing in North Oak Cliff to deal with folks with AIDS. However, the housing facility hit a roadblock when it was found {that a} $175,000 donation for the venture was made by somebody accused of embezzling $3.2 million.

The next 12 months, the group purchased the Revlon Flats, a property with 36 models that was badly in want of renovation. To make issues worse, a fireplace on the Revlon Flats stalled and elevated the worth of the venture. Round this time, somebody reached out to Maison about interviewing to be president and CEO of the group.

There have been about 90 candidates for the place, and Maison didn’t assume he had an opportunity of getting it. He didn’t have any expertise in operating a nonprofit. One buddy instructed him it was “the dumbest profession transfer” he might make. However, he utilized anyway and bought the place in 1989, the identical 12 months the group started working beneath its present identify.

Issues had been tough within the early days with the group, Maison recalled for The Dallas Morning Information in 2003. “We couldn’t pay the payments, so we stored a really low profile,” Maison stated, however he felt he was there for a motive.

He wasn’t going to discover a remedy for AIDS. “That’s not my expertise,” he instructed the Morning Information. “However, if I might present folks a spot to reside that had dignity, a spot the place they felt beloved, then that’s why I used to be there.”

Underneath Maison’s watch, the group grew. It went from having 5 full-time staff to 60, and its housing capability tripled.

AIDS Companies of Dallas drew up plans to develop a 64 unit facility on Marsalis Avenue. The U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth accredited these plans in 1992. It will be known as Hillcrest Home. It opened the next 12 months and the group operates the ability in partnership with the Dallas Housing Authority. Now, the road the Hillcrest Home sits on will probably be marked with Maison’s identify.