AIDS Issues Update: Features:
Hundreds Gather to Criticize Gov. Paterson’s Vetoes; AIDS Services To Lose Critical Funds
Felix, of the American Indian Community House, at the NYC press conference. The group will lose $45,000.
Hundreds of advocates for the poor and chronically ill gathered at press conferences in Westchester, Albany and New York City yesterday to urge Gov. David Paterson and the state legislature to rescind some of the $193 million in human services funding vetoed this month.
Included in the governor’s vetoes are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars designated for HIV/AIDS programs run by nonprofit organizations in the state.
The exact dollar amount is difficult to estimate—some nonprofits do not specify that funding will be used for HIV/AIDS care and prevention—but AIDS service and prevention organizations are sure to feel the burn.
(A full list of vetoed items is here)
The AIDS Service Center NYC stands to lose more than $20,000 in funds for its peer educator program, an eight-week course that trains about 100 people a year to go out into the city’s five boroughs and teach at-risk individuals about HIV.
“We’re very scared about this cut,” said peer educator Naquan Harrell.
For the 22-year-old, the peer educator training program has been life-changing: Naquan grew up with an HIV-positive mom, but paid little attention to her warnings about contracting the virus. At 19, he too became infected. Angry and worried, he entered the eight-week peer educator training program. Soon, he left behind “a life of drugs and partying” and enrolled in college. He now teaches young adults in Manhattan about HIV prevention.
“If things like this get cut,” he said, “imagine how many more people will get infected.”
“The end of the line”
Money for the education program isn’t the only funding stream drying up
The American Indian Community House, which provides culturally aware prevention programs to hundreds of thousands of Native Americans in New York State, will lose $45,000, thanks to a veto from the governor.
Due to lack of funding, Larenia Felix, the organization’s community educator, has already watched one its four locations close. She fears others will follow. The problem is this: Native Americans have the third-highest rate of HIV, following African-Americans and Latinos, according to the Centers for Disease Control. They also have the shortest life expectancy after an AIDS diagnosis of any race or ethnicity.
Part of the issue in New York, said Sondra Santoni, program director for HIV prevention at the New York City-based United Community Centers is that HIV prevention has fallen off politician’s radar screens. In the 1990s, United Community Services had a $250,000 yearly budget for its prevention program, which targeted at-risk individuals, such as black and Latina women.
By last year, that had dwindled to just $24,000. Then those last funds were cut by Paterson’s veto. “We’ve come pretty much to the end of the line,” she said.
Many of the state’s nonprofits find themselves in a bind, according to Allison Sesso, deputy director at the Human Services Council, because the vetoes eliminate unspent funds from previous fiscal years. This means that any money promised in past budgets—but not yet delivered—will be canceled. “A lot of nonprofits have spent this money already,” she said. “Now the organizations are left holding the bag.”
Will funding be restored?
There is still some hope (“though very little,” according to Ron Deutsch, executive director at New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness) that some of these funds will be restored. The state has still not passed a fiscal year 2010-2011 budget, and Paterson has called the senate to an extraordinary session on Wednesday.
Funding could be rescued in two ways: Both legislative houses could override individual vetoes (unlikely, as this involves two-thirds majority in both houses) or the governor and the two legislative bodies could work out a three-way agreement to secure money for programs that don’t have funding.
“Yes, it’s a tough budget year,” said Carmelita Cruz, Housing Works’ director for New York State public policy and organizing, who spoke at the Albany press conference. “But there are 120,000 people in New York with HIV. This isn’t an issue of not having the right funds, it’s an issue of not having the right priorities. When it comes down to it, it’s a public health issue.”
Your inside source for in-depth activism news is updated daily by Staff Writer, Julie Turkewitz
