The city’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office sent out a memo late last month to inform local HIV/AIDS service organizations they would be faced with even more financial obstacles after the state slashed funding for Philadelphia’s HIV prevention and education efforts.
The state recently cut the city’s funding by $1.7 million for fiscal year 2010, and will decrease it by $2 million when fiscal year 2011 begins in July, money that is filtered to the city through the state Health Department and then dispersed among local HIV/AIDS service organizations.
Kevin Burns, executive director of ActionAIDS, said since there are only a few months left of the current fiscal year and much of the prevention dollars for this year have already been distributed to the agencies, the true impact of the cut won’t be felt until this summer.
AACO has estimated that for the remainder of this fiscal year, the cut amounts to about 120 fewer HIV tests carried out and about 460 fewer people who will be able to access prevention services. In the next fiscal year, however, the funding decrease will lead to about 8,000 people not being tested, about 60 of whom who wouldn’t be diagnosed and entered into early-care programs. Another 60 people would miss out on intensive case management, and about 4,000 wouldn’t be exposed to other HIV-prevention health-education services.
“We’re talking about a 42-percent cut here. This is going to set us back years,” Burns said. “These cuts are unacceptable at a time when Philadelphia’s infection rates are far greater than the national average. This is being done to cut back on costs, but it’s going to cost the commonwealth significantly more in the long run.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 60 percent of people living with HIV in Pennsylvania are located in Philadelphia; however, only about 50 percent of the state’s prevention funding for fiscal year 2010 was directed toward the city.
Jane Shull, executive director of Philadelphia FIGHT, noted that the CDC recommends a prevention plan in which people get tested every year in the context of their regular healthcare. She said, however, that most people who become infected don’t receive regular healthcare, and the service organizations that strive to catch high-risk individuals who fall through the cracks will be hampered by this loss of funding.
“If we fail to do that, because we’re crippled in our efforts, people won’t be found until they are so sick that it’s difficult to help them and — they’re more likely to have infected other people,” she said.
Carrie Jacobs, executive director of The Attic Youth Center, said the cut will have a direct impact on the teens her agency serves.
“This funding is so important for the population served at The Attic, particularly young African-American gay and bisexual males who are so at-risk,” she said. “Cutting these prevention dollars would be a huge, long-term mistake.”
A coalition of HIV/AIDS service organizations — including ActionAIDS, FIGHT, The Attic, Mazzoni Center, ACT-UP, The COLOURS Organization Inc., BEBASHI and AIDS Services in Asian Communities, among others — have been organizing for weeks to fight the cut.
The group traveled to Harrisburg last week to meet with members of the state secretary of health’s executive staff to evaluate options, and while Shull said the representatives were open to their concerns, the state’s financial situation has left few other funding options.
“The meeting with the staff at the Department of Health was a very positive one, but they’re trapped in the same thing we’re trapped in: There’s just no money. And there’s no money because there’s no political will to do what you need to do to have the services people need, which is to raise taxes.”
The organizations have repeatedly requested a meeting with Gov. Rendell but, as of press time, had not received a call back. A spokesperson for the governor also did not return a call from PGN.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].