AIDS Housing Subsidies Fight for Place in City Budget

Money that is essential to rental subsidies for people with AIDS (PWAs) was not allocated by Mayor Willie Brown in the San Francisco city budget, according to local advocates and officials, resulting in the danger that 55 units of housing for PWAs could soon be lost. San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) requested the funding. Although Ryan White CARE Act money and general city funds have traditionally supported the program, those funds have not increased with rising rental prices, according to SFAF policy director Dana Van Gorder.

"The cost of the program goes up every year as rents go up," Van Gorder said. "Last year we needed about $260,000 from the city in order to prevent us from losing about 34 units of housing, and Supervisor Tom Ammiano took the lead on that one. This year we went to the mayor and asked that he find us an additional $366,000 in funds to prevent us from losing 55 units. We weren't successful."

Advocates say it is now up to the Board of Supervisors to cut unnecessary expenditures in the mayor's budget to find the $366,000 needed for the PWA housing program. Cuts have been underway, and the add-back portion of the budget process was scheduled for June 28. Supervisor Mark Leno, chair of the Board of Supervisors' Finance Committee, said he was "100 percent committed to finding the subsidies for the 55 units that SFAF no longer has." Leno said the board also intends to fund raises for doctors at San Francisco General Hospital, who are paid at 20 percent below the national rate, and to give raises to the nonprofit contractors who work with the San Francisco Department of Health.

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