Health News
2006-03-30
San Antonio hit
with 15% Ryan White funding cut
San Antonio's
Ryan White funding cut is nation's largest.
Problems with the
San Antonio regio
Problems with the
San Antonio region’s application for federal Ryan
White CARE Act funding has resulted in a loss of
$568,000 in anticipated AIDS funds for the region,
reports the San Antonio Express-News. The
funding reduction is a 15% cut from last year’s
grant for AIDS programs in Bexar County, Texas.
The federal
Health Resources and Services Administration says problems
with the county’s grant proposal, submitted by county
HIV services coordinator Don Sharitz, caused the
funding reduction. HRSA officials say the funding cut
could have been even greater if safeguards hadn’t
been in place to limit the amount of money that could
be withheld.
Sharitz told the
Express-News he decided to write the grant
proposal himself, rather than hire an outside firm
that had been used in the past, because he wanted to learn
all the details of the county’s AIDS work.
The San Antonio
region’s Ryan White grant for the upcoming fiscal
year is just $3.3 million, the lowest of the
nation’s 51 cities that receive federal money.
The funding reduction already has been felt by local AIDS
service groups; San Antonio’s AIDS
Foundation’s SAAF House has already laid off
two nurses, a receptionist, a maintenance worker, and an HIV
educator in anticipation of a drastically scaled-back Ryan
White allocation from the county. (The
Advocate)
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