The City of Philadelphia will receive about $137 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but the amount that will be directly funneled to LGBT and HIV/AIDS service organizations is still unclear.
The ARRA allocated approximately $16 billion to the state, about $9 billion of which will be utilized for healthcare, education, transportation and infrastructure, energy initiatives, housing and job-training programs throughout the state.
James Creedon, secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of General Services, said state residents will see the other $7 billion through “direct-impact relief,” which will come in the form of such initiatives as federal tax cuts, college tax credits and increased unemployment benefits.
In addition to the money approved for the city, partner organizations SEPTA, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the Philadelphia School District and the Philadelphia Housing Authority will receive a combined total of $578 million.
The city has so far spent some $13.3 million of the more-than $38 million it has received.
“Although we expect substantially more money, it is dwindling in, so we’re hopeful that once a few more months pass, more will come through,” said city Managing Director Dr. Camille Barnett. “A lot of this has to go directly through the federal agency that handles the specific subject, and they’re all providing and writing regulations and the criteria for judging grants, so it does take a while.”
Barnett explained that the grants come in two forms: formula, which have already been set aside for the city, and competitive, which are open to municipalities across the country and require a proposal and approval process.
Approximately $103 million in formula grants have been approved for the city, with another almost-$33.8 million in competitive grants secured.
Some of the grants are available to community organizations, like one that local HIV/AIDS service organization Philadelphia FIGHT, along with several other agencies, is pursuing. The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation is authoring the proposal for the competitive grant, due Aug. 14, that would provide funding to expand broadband Internet access to city residents.
Until last year, when the city discontinued a longstanding grant, FIGHT operated Critical Path, which provided free Internet services to HIV/AIDS service providers and those with the disease.
“We’re in the proposal to expand on work that we’ve already done to help vulnerable populations,” said FIGHT executive director Jane Shull. “We’re hoping to conduct Internet programs for people in homeless shelters, drug-rehab centers and other places that serve those who are extremely high-risk of acquiring HIV and others who are HIV-positive.”
The $64-million grant is being administered through the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Sandra Horrocks, vice president of communications and development at the FLP Foundation, said her agency, FIGHT, Media Mobilizing Project and Digital Impact Group are spearheading the broadband initiative and are joined on the proposal by 60 other supporting organizations.
Horrocks said each of the four lead organizations will conduct its own programming targeted at specific city residents with little to no computer skills; she noted that about 41 percent of Philadelphians currently do not have home Internet access.
Horrocks described that, if the grant is approved, FIGHT will be able to train about 1,500 people in the first year of the plan, enabling those who are “living with or affected by HIV to learn how to use a computer, how to get up-to-the-minute health information, see what advances are being made and then also move into things like clinical trials and how to make appointments.”
The second year of the plan will be focused on the launch of a citywide portal, which will provide a vast array of government, public-safety and health information for city residents, including material about HIV/AIDS.
“Beyond question, we’re going to reach a lot of people in the LGBT community this way, especially those who are in vulnerable positions,” Shull said. “But this is competitive, so it’s not at all guaranteed.”
Barnett said the broadband grant is the only “specific thing we’re looking at in terms of GLBT or HIV/AIDS groups,” but that the city will assist other organizations in these communities in applying for ARRA grants if they qualify.
“One of our roles is to work with nonprofits who are submitting applications for projects that are funded by the stimulus plan, like housing or domestic-violence prevention, and we will be supportive of nonprofits interested in applying for those kinds of grants,” Barnett sad. “We have a nondiscriminatory policy in all the things we’re doing in employing and implementing projects.”
Under the umbrella of “Health and Social Services,” the city has applied for $976,000 in funding for prevention and wellness initiatives from the Department of Health and Human Services, and is awaiting notice from HHS about the availability of these funds. Information about this grant was not available as of press time.
The ARRA provided $650 million to HHS to be used for community-based prevention and wellness projects throughout the country, although none of it is specifically earmarked for HIV/AIDS programs.
Philadelphia has also received a formula grant worth approximately $23 million for homeless prevention, and another for $8.3 million from the Community Service Block Grant program, which seeks to provide assistance to low-income Philadelphians, but is also awaiting confirmation.
The stimulus package has made funding available nationwide to Federally Qualified Health Centers, but Nurit Shein, executive director of LGBT health clinic Mazzoni Center, said the organization is not a Federally Qualified Health Center and thus not eligible for those funds.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].