Why am I getting a Forbidden Error when accessing my Apache web server?

Why am I getting a Forbidden Error when accessing my Apache web server?

I made a HTML site in the Sites folder on my Mac. When I tried to access this in the way I was told by going to http://<my IP>/~<my home directory>/, I get a Forbiden error "You don't have permission to access /~<my home directory>/ on this server." Why is this happening. I thought it might be a problem with the Apache software, but I can find a way to do a reinstall. Thanks!
I believe I am running the Apache server, as if I go to
http://<my IP>/ I get the standard Apache page.

Do you have the apache server running?