Chicago-based gay health center will remain open thanks to donors

The financially troubled Howard Brown Health Center will remain open after receiving more than $650,000 in donations during a rigorous 50-day campaign, officials said.

The 36-year-old agency is one of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender health centers and services more than 36,000 people a year from its Chicago-based multi-site operation.

The center accrued roughly $3 million in debt because of past mismanagement, and had to re-pay more than $500,000 “very quickly” as a result of transfers of grant funds between Howard Brown and Northwestern University Medical Center, said Jamal M. Edwards, Howard Brown’s president and CEO.

“We are looking to the future now,” Edwards said Friday to Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s not all completely behind us, but we made a very good step.”