San Francisco AIDS services faced cuts in Mayor Gavin Newsom's midyear budget, but city supervisors restored $1.5 million to the AIDS office that will partially fund agencies over the next 18 months. The AIDS office allocated $500,000 to seven AIDS agencies through the fiscal year ending June 30, and set aside $1 million for fiscal 2005-2006, in which the city anticipates a $120 million budget shortfall.

Positive Resource Center, which received $58,499, used private sources to backfill an $18,000 gap left in its reentry to work program funding, according to Brett Andrews, PRC's executive director. The agency is also searching for other funding streams, including through foundations and the Department of Public Health, he added. Andrews cited efforts by the community and board of directors for saving PRC from having to "address layoffs or furloughs."

The $151,347 Shanti received will help pay for Circle of Care, a case management and peer and treatment advocacy program serving Latinos and African Americans. The program is a collaboration between Shanti, the Instituto Familiar de Raza and the Black Coalition on AIDS. Shanti Executive Director Kevin Burns said some layoffs were probable, but that he would only know for certain in a couple of weeks. "We are doing some shifting around," he said. "We have folks vacating positions on their own. We want to try to use this as a way to be creative."

San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which received $45,833, used private funding to cover a $12,000 shortfall to its benefits counseling and client advocacy services, said Dana Van Gorder, director of state and local affairs. SFAF was saved from laying off about two full-time and one part-time employees, he said. Working with Newsom's office, Van Gorder said SFAF can continue connecting clients to housing subsidy, state, and federal entitlement programs.

AIDS service providers anticipate further program funding reductions this spring. In March, the city will learn its Ryan White Care Act allocation, which was cut by $4 million last year.

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