Boston social service agencies merge

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff

Two Boston social service agencies specializing in housing -- one focused on substance abuse, the other on AIDS -- announced this week that they are merging.

Victory Programs, a 34-year-old agency that provides services to substance abusers, and AIDS Housing Corporation, which has provided assistance to people infected with HIV since 1991, are combining under the Victory Programs umbrella. The organizations have a long history of working together.

Across the nation, AIDS service organizations have seen their mission change -- sometimes merging, sometimes going out of business -- as a disease once regarded as an almost certain death sentence became more of a chronic medical condition.

Jonathan Scott, the executive director of Victory Programs, will preside over the combined agency. Joe Carleo, formerly executive director of AIDS Housing Corporation, will become director of community affairs for Victory Programs.