A large bequest left to the largest national HIV-positive people's advocacy and support organisation may see Body Positive able to purchase an office building in Auckland, allowing it to build equity in the property and steady its fluctuating finances. Body Positive currently occupies the right-hand end of this building adjacent to Auckland's Karangahape Road. The bequest, of most of the proceeds of the sale of a house which was home to a member who recently took his own life, is expected to amount to several hundred thousand dollars. "We feel his passing very deeply," says BP chair Bruce Kilmister. "He was an extraordinary person and has made an extraordinary gift to Body Positive." "The proceeds are likely to become available around March and the current board have made a recommendation to the next board, which will be elected before then, that the money be used to purchase a commercial property. The benefit from that is that we wouldn't have to struggle so much financially and to fund-raise for our rent which currently runs at $60,000 a year." Kilmister says several other organisations have expressed an interest in joining BP in a new building making the project more financially viable. "The amount we will receive will not be enough to purchase a property outright but will be enough for a significant deposit and enable us to secure a mortgage. Ten years ago the NZ AIDS Foundation purchased for $2million a building it had been leasing, opting to be paying off a mortgage rather than paying rent. That move has given the organisation recourse to financial resources which would have otherwise been unavailable to it for funding some aspects of its work.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 22nd December 2016 - 8:31pm