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name: will baker blogrollin' other sites: |
one damn thing or another
Rates of HIV Infection are Increasing for People of Color, Yet Funds are Cut for Minority Agency San Antonio -- Executive Director of BEAT AIDS, Michele Durham, issued the following statement regarding the inequitable process by which this year�s Ryan White CARE Act Titles I & II funds were allocated: �To endorse this tainted process another year is to do our clients and our community an injustice; we�re talking about human lives.� The Ryan White CARE Act passes federal funding to cities and states for HIV/AIDS services and preventions. Title I of the CARE Act provides emergency funding to areas disproportionately affected by the epidemic. Title II funds primary medical care and supportive services for people living with HIV. Both Titles are locally administered by the Bexar County Commissioners� Court. Tuesday, the Ryan White CARE Act Titles I & II allocation recommendations were presented to Commissioners� Court for review and approval. Over all, the process by which these recommendations were reached was greatly improved from last year�s funding process. Unfortunately, the new formula did not allow federal funds to reach the communities hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Commenting on the explanation of the process from Anna Resendez (HIV Services Coordinator with Bexar County), Durham wondered �What happened to principles like �equitable, accessible, and adequate care� as opposed to �allowable, available, and requested funds�?� Despite the fact that 66% of new HIV infections in Bexar County occur among people of color, nearly half of the $3,281,150 in funding was allocated to agencies with Anglo-American boards and executive staff. Of the nine agencies funded, the two minority-led agencies, BEAT AIDS, Inc. and Hope Action Care, received approximately 17% of the total funds. Conspicuous among the funding cuts to BEAT AIDS was the total elimination of funding for food vouchers, which allow low-income clients to purchase foods meeting their particular medical and dietary needs (rather than depending on what may be available at a food pantry or on the menu at a soup kitchen). This service has been provided for more than 17 years at BEAT AIDS, and was arbitrarily cut by the Ryan White Administrators at Bexar County. BEAT AIDS also suffered a 93% cut in Family Support Services funding. These much-needed dollars allowed low-income HIV-positive minority women to attend prevention, education and support groups focused on reducing risk behaviors among people living with HIV in order to stop the spread of the epidemic especially among heterosexuals. Infection rates among heterosexual women are among the fasted increasing of any demographic category. Equally shocking was a massive reduction in funding for bus passes, which allow low-income clients to travel to their medical appointments, and to be productive citizens in our community. Bus passes are a more economical means of transportation, as they allow the client unlimited access to the VIA system. Representatives from BEAT AIDS spoke at the Commissioners� Court this afternoon, expressing serious concerns with the process, the recommended allocations, and the lack of funding for much-needed programs and services. �This is a question of justice� noted William Baker, a manager at BEAT AIDS. �Will Ryan White funds be used to allow kindly Anglos to dole out charities to afflicted minorities? Or, will we use those resources for a truly public good by empowering communities of color to fight HIV and AIDS?� Commenting on the allocation of funds solely to agencies with the highest-scored applications, Baker noted that �this is not an essay contest for a scholarship; there are actual people and actual services at stake here.� Commenting later, Michele Durham said �We seem to have abandoned a process representative of the diversity of our community in favor of a �winner-takes-all� approach where the one or two agencies with the best grant writers get the lion�s share of the money, and other agencies are basically de-funded.� ### BEAT AIDS, Inc. is located at 218 W. Cypress St., San Antonio, TX 78212. Telephone: (210) 212-2266. Fax: (210) 271-3600. Email: [email protected].
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