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San Francisco will have to reduce
funding by $7 million in the city’s $7.9 billion budget, unless Mayor Ed Lee
and the Board of Supervisors can locate replacement money. The cuts would
affect local HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention services that help low- or
no-income residents and would take place throughout the next two years. Small
community-based nonprofits have provided the greater share of San Francisco’s
HIV and AIDS care; however, throughout the past three budget years, the
government has cut approximately $20 million in federal funding from these
service providers, continuing a 10-year trend. In 2001, federal grants provided
$34 million in funding to uninsured, low-income persons at risk for HIV/AIDS;
that sum fell to $18 million in 2013.
Throughout the next five years, CDC
funding will decrease by 50 percent, from $10 million to $5 million. The
federal sequester caused $11 million in cuts. The Department of Public Health
warned that the cuts could cause reduction or removal of free sex education and
condoms, hospice care, rent subsidies, and free meals for thousands of
patients. AIDS Legal Referral Panel Executive Director Bill Hirsch declared,
"We've faced cuts for so many years, we're already a lean machine. There
isn't anything left to be cut." San Francisco local tax dollars replaced
approximately $17.5 million in lost federal funding throughout the past three
years. However, for the remaining $3.1 million gap in the coming fiscal year
and $3.9 million in the following year, city officials are not sure where they will
find the funding.
San Francisco successfully reduced
new HIV/AIDS cases from approximately 2,400 per year 20 years ago to
approximately 200 in 2013, but the reduction caused the federal government to
re-direct AIDS funding to areas with higher infection rates. Latino communities
will be affected, as the Instituto Familiar de la Raza and AGUILAS programs
would lose approximately $700,000 total throughout the next two years. Although
the cuts may sound insignificant, small neighborhood-based nonprofits or
centers provide the services, so even a few dollars cut can disrupt treatment.
According to the HIV/AIDS Providers Network, approximately 35,000 San Francisco
residents have HIV/AIDS, including one out of every three gay men. The mayor
and the Board of Supervisors have until the end of June to finalize the budget
for the next two years.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus.
To learn more about The Friends of
AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
