nginx error_log directory

I am trying to create an instance of nginx however when I cannot get the error log directory to change from /var/log/nginx/error.log to a directory in my user space. So I cannot start it since does not have write permission to this directory. I am using the configuration below, please let me know of any suggestions.

./configure \
  --prefix=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx \
  --sbin-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/sbin/nginx \
  --conf-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/nginx.conf \
  --error-log-path=$HOME/logs/user/nginx/error.log \
  --pid-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/run/nginx/nginx.pid  \
  --lock-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/lock/nginx.lock \
  --with-http_flv_module \
  --with-http_gzip_static_module \
  --http-log-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/log/nginx/access.log \
  --http-client-body-temp-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/tmp/nginx/client/ \
  --http-proxy-temp-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/tmp/nginx/proxy/ \
  --http-fastcgi-temp-path=$HOME/webapps/django/nginx/tmp/nginx/fcgi/

nginx.conf:

worker_processes  1;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    access_log   ~/logs/user/access_django.log combined;
    error_log   ~/logs/user/error_django.log;

    include mime.types;
    sendfile on;

    server {
        listen port;

        location / {
            include uwsgi_params;
            uwsgi_pass unix:~/webapps/django/uwsgi.sock;
        }
    }
}