WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly 50,000 people with AIDS in cities like Los Angeles and New York get government help paying their rent. Not so, for those in towns like Anchorage, Fargo and Wichita.

President Bush wants to expand the housing program started in 1992, when his father was president.

The recommendation was viewed by some as positive gesture to gay rights activists, who have been jittery of the new Republican president. Their pleasure was tempered with concern that the policy change was at odds with what they requested.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is spending about $258 million this year on the AIDS housing subsidies, which help poor people who have had trouble finding a place to live. The president had been asked to increase that to $300 million, with most of the new money going to communities that already have programs.

Instead, Bush announced Wednesday that without cutting present programs, HUD should instead add new areas.

Thirteen states do not receive money from the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program: Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

To qualify, cities or regions must have had at least 1,500 HIV cases.

In arguing for more money for existing programs, the president of the AIDS Housing Coalition said rising housing costs and longer life expectancies of the HIV-infected are burdening the programs.

``We welcome an expansion but it has to be an expansion with an increase in funding. Otherwise it will jeopardize current programs,'' said Gina Quattrochi, the group president who also oversees the Bailey House, a New York center for homeless AIDS patients.

She said without more money for existing programs, the Bush proposal could have the opposite effect, causing evictions of people with AIDS.

The White House referred calls about the proposal to HUD, where no one would comment on the plan.

Quattrochi's group said in a recent report that more AIDS housing needs have been reported in the cities of Boston, Dallas, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Miami and New York and in communities in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey and Texas.

They said there were waiting lists for assistance of about 5,000 in New York, 1,800 in Boston and about 500 each in Dallas, Los Angeles and Washington.

Bush's budget proposal did not specify how much money would be spent in the new areas or what the revised qualification formula would be.

``I don't think any area should be written off,'' said Eddie Sandifer, who helps people with AIDS find housing in Jackson, Miss., which does not qualify for the program now.

Gay rights activists have been closely watching Bush, particularly after a February report that Bush was abolishing the Office of National AIDS Policy. Bush said later that the office was not being closed and that ``we're concerned about AIDS inside our White House, make no mistake about it.''

Despite Bush's latest housing proposal, Sandifer said, ``I'm leery of him. There's an unsettled feeling about where he's going.''

``I think the administration is aware there is a great deal of apprehension,'' said David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group.

Smith said the proposed policy change shows Bush has taken note of the needs of people with AIDS.

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