The California non-profit Bienestar, which serves the LGBT Hispanic community, was evicted from its offices two days after opening its doors.

Bienestar offers HIV testing and counseling, mental health support, substance abuse treatment and education, and a variety of support groups to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Latino community.

Two days after opening its Van Nuys center doors, the group claims it was forced out by its landlord. Bienestar stated in a press release that the landlord initially offered no reason for terminating its three-year lease. According to the group, the landlord later claimed that Bienestar was making inappropriate use of the space and “bringing disease” to the building.

“We feel that we have been treated unfairly,” Oscar De La O, president and CEO of Bienestar, said in a statement. “The landlord's actions are a shocking example of the kind of LGBT and HIV/AIDS discrimination that Bienestar has committed itself to fight against and overcome. … This situation is very unexpected and distressing, especially when we have performed these same services half a block down the street from this Van Nuys location for 12 years. We have never faced this kind of situation before at any of our nine Southern California centers.”

The group will offer limited services in Van Nuys from its mobile unit.

(Source: Advocate.)