Council Vote Cuts Off AIDS Disbursements

Confronted with conflicting claims about the management of money intended to help poor people with AIDS obtain housing, Los Angeles City Council members recently voted to halt disbursement of the grants while they studied the results of a city audit.

The result: Hundreds of poor people with AIDS and in desperate straits have temporarily lost rental subsidies of $100 a month, although the city has the money to pay them.

“Here I am, a person with AIDS,” said Ken Murray, who went to AIDS Project Los Angeles on Tuesday to apply for his check, only to be told that it was not available. “There’s supposed to be money put aside to help me. I’ve worked and paid taxes when I can, and this money is supposed to help me. Now, I’m told I can’t get it.”

Some AIDS patients and their advocates are outraged by what they say is a case of City Hall neglect--of a council that voted without regard for the effects of its actions and of city bureaucrats unwilling to provide assistance to those most in need.

“They’re squeezing the people who can least afford it,” said Ged Kenslea, community relations director for AIDS Health Care Foundation.

Scott Figenshow, executive director of Project New Hope, agreed.

“We warned them that this would happen and they went ahead and did it,” he said.

It is not clear how long the money will be held up or precisely how many people the suspension will affect. Last Thursday, providers of the money were notified by fax that the program was temporarily on hold.

The delay was caused because the council elected not to award 12-month contracts to organizations recommended by a city committee created to consider how to distribute federal grants under a program called Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS.

That program’s administration and management was criticized in a city audit, and the council decided that rather than go ahead with another set of yearlong grants, it instead would approve three-month extensions and then revisit the issue. The problem with that, observers said, was that it required bureaucrats to rewrite all the existing contracts, a time-consuming process.

For those agencies receiving money to build housing or other long-term projects, the effect is small. But for those individuals who count on the program’s money to make ends meet, the impact was quick and hurtful.

Adding to that is the uncertainty about just when the money will begin flowing again.

“I don’t know,” said Terry Goddard, operations director for Aid for AIDS.

At Beyond Shelter, which receives the money from the city and distributes it to organizations across the city, officials said they are asking assistance groups to have clients fill out all the necessary paperwork so that once the logjam is cleared, money can be doled out immediately--something they hope happens within a few days.

Several people who receive money through the program praised the private groups for their efforts, but blamed the city for adding to the hardship already endured by people who are suffering from the disease and struggling to make ends meet.

“When you’re living hand-to-mouth, this hurts,” said Richard W. Eastman. “I’m getting sick and tired of having to fight for everything.”

Eastman, who has battled AIDS since 1995, added that he wants an investigation into the delay.

“Enough is enough,” he said.