Trouble in Gotham
Bloomberg budget priorities need a shake up.
Mayor Bloomberg’s 2009-2010 city budget proposal was released last week, and, for HIV/AIDS services, the results ain’t pretty. There were serious cuts to housing programs, as well as cuts to HIV testing and prevention. The City Council is now the last line of defense in preserving the integrity of New York City’s AIDS services.
See a full chart of cuts to HIV/AIDS funding in the Department of Social Services and Health budgets, put together by our friends at New York City AIDS Housing Network.
The scale of these cuts this early in the funding process doesn’t bode well for this budget cycle. The bigger decisions about city AIDS funding aren’t a done deal until the City Council allocates its discretionary funding. For example, the Council was responsible when funding for harm reduction services was slashed in June.
“The council could make some restorations. But it’s going to be a much harder fight now that they have already been cut,” said Kristin Goodwin, Housing Works director of New York Policy and Organizing.
Start lobbying your Council Members now! Contact your City Council Member through the Council switchboard at (212) 788-7100. If you’re unsure who your Council Member is, dial 311 or go to www.council.nyc.gov (click “Find My Council Member”).
Suggested message: “I’m calling from [name of your organization] to leave a message for Council Member _____. I oppose Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to cut funding for HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) programs. The Mayor’s proposal would cost New York City more money in the long-term by driving up homelessness and emergency health care costs for people with AIDS.
Housing woes
While no HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) client will be kicked to the curb, supportive services will be severely cut back. Most troubling is the Department of Social Services budget, which attempts to strip back case management and supportive services offered to HASA clients, many of whom have severe mental health and substance abuse issues. Building new units of supportive housing has also been delayed.
“Given my initial read, HASA has a big bulls eye on it right now,” said New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN) Executive Director Sean Barry.
The mayor’s budget completely eliminates Scattersite II housing, which is, like all of HASA, a joint city/state funded venture, and is meant to be a transition from congregate housing to regular apartments. Fourteen of the city’s contracts with Scatter Site II providers will end in June 2009 and the remaining four will end in February 2010. The City and State will each save $1.3 million in 2009 and $4 million in the years afterwards.
Former Scattersite II residents will be assessed and either placed in supportive housing or transferred to independent housing, and then, with consent, be linked to a COBRA case manager, or just receive help from a HASA case manager. Nearly 5,000 formerly homeless people with AIDS live in HASA-contracted supportive housing.
In addition, the Department of Social Services is proposing cutting $1.9 million by completely eliminating HIV/AIDS contracted case management staff in supportive housing programs. HASA caseworkers are expected to pick up the slack, even though, because of a successful lawsuit by Housing Works, case managers’ case loads are limited by #17-Local Law 49, which requires maximum case manager-to-client ratios of one to 34 overall and one to 25 in family cases.
“The mantra we’re hearing is that HASA case managers don’t have enough to do. Legally they can’t change that. But what they can do is cut contracted case management staff,” Goodwin said. She worries that this will ultimately end up hurting HASA clients.
In addition, the Department of Social Services plans to delay implementation of some 600 remaining units of NY/NY III congregate supportive housing for HASA. NY/NY III is a joint venture to increase housing for vulnerable populations in New York City.
HASA was originally scheduled to create 1,000 units of supportive housing, but none have become available yet. According to HRA testimony, the first 350 units are supposed to become available next month. But to have a one-time savings of $2.4 million, NY/NY III units will be delayed. HASA is already the last NY/NY III program to release housing contracts.
“The funding delay leads to the delay of chronically homeless HASA clients being housed,” Barry said.
Permanent housing is desperately needed. The number of HASA clients in single-room occupancy apartments has increased from 788 people in June 2007 to 998 in October 2008.
The HRA said it hopes to work with community organizations to lessen the blow of these cuts. “During these difficult times, it is partly through our extensive partnership with Housing Works that we can ensure that one of the City’s most vulnerable populations will continue to get the services that they need,” said HRA Commissioner Robert Doar.
But wait, there’s more..
On to a commissioner who’s not so keen to work with us: Starting in 2011, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will shut off contracts with community-based organizations for HIV prevention programs. The DOH will also cease providing testing and prevention contracts to the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation and it is unclear who will foot the bill for testing—since Medicaid won’t.
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/2265139637/
Posted on February 6, 2009 at 3:16 am
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