The Region - News from Sept. 11, 1986

Two Arleta foster parents filed a $70,000 suit against Los Angeles County, claiming that officials stopped sending children to their home when they learned the couple’s son had been exposed to the AIDS virus. Paul and Elke Hart said they have raised more than 100 foster children since 1972 at a salary of $2,000 a month, which they claim was their main source of income. When employees in the county’s Department of Social Services learned in August, 1985, that the Harts’ son, Michael, 20, had been exposed to AIDS, the county placed a “stop order” on their home and sent no more children, the suit said. The couple also charge the county violated a City of Los Angeles ordinance that bans discrimination based on AIDS.