An estimated $2.7 million in federal budget cuts for HIV care and prevention services in San Francisco in the coming fiscal year will be discussed at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing May 7.
At the hearing, staff from the Department of Public Health, Mayor Ed Lee's budget office, and community organizations will discuss the projected shortfalls, their impact, and what the city can do to fill in the gaps.
The federal reduction is the latest in a long line of cuts that have often left city officials scrambling to find money to protect people living with HIV and AIDS.
Supervisor Scott Wiener, who recently called for the hearing, said in a news release, "Ensuring continued funding for HIV services in San Francisco has been one of my top priorities since I took office. Any interruptions or cutbacks in treatment can be devastating for our most vulnerable citizens who are living with or at-risk for HIV."
Mike Smith is president of the city's HIV/AIDS Provider Network and executive director of the nonprofit AIDS Emergency Fund, which provides cash grants to people living with disabling HIV/AIDS so that they can pay rent and other expenses.
Smith said in an interview that the "unofficial word" is that $2 million of the anticipated cut will be in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act funds. The remaining $700,000 in projected cuts are from reductions to care and prevention services that the supervisors were previously unable to cover, he said.
"Everyone at this point is looking for a 12 percent across the board reduction," he said.
At AEF, a 12 percent cut in Ryan White funding "would probably affect 60 to 70 clients," said Smith. The nonprofit would have to tighten eligibility criteria.
"I don't think we'd be able to make it up on the fundraising side," he said, and "at some point there's just no place to cut anymore."
AEF, which has a budget of about $2.2 million, receives "just under $1 million" in Ryan White funds, said Smith. A 12 percent cut would amount to about $110,000, he said.
The drop in funding is just the latest hit local agencies have had to face.
"We've had 11 years of reductions in our Ryan White award," said Smith. "Every single year for 11 years. It's just staggering." He said the total amount is less than half of what it was in 2000, even though "there are more people living with HIV in the city now then there ever have been."
Smith said, "Even though we're doing a much better job with prevention," the number of people who are newly diagnosed, plus the number of people who are living with HIV who are moving to the city, "is larger than the number of people moving away with HIV or dying from it."
Ernest Hopkins, the director of legislative affairs for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said cuts to housing funds are also expected. Hopkins protested the way federal funds related to HIV and AIDS are distributed.
"It does not appropriately address an epidemic that's been going on for 30 years," he said. The system is designed "to address hot spots," said Hopkins.
"The current distribution mechanisms actually cut federal resources to us, even though we are successfully containing the epidemic," he said.
The May 7 hearing will be at the budget and finance committee meeting, which starts at 1 p.m. in Room 250 at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place.