Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - June 12, 2003
Alison Soltau Of The Examiner Staff
While the rest of San Francisco dreads the mighty budget ax, services like the Bayview Thunderseed mental-health day treatment center and the North of Market drop-in sobriety center will be among those receiving more than $2 million in addbacks.
But the news is cold comfort for the scores of community workers still fighting for their programs' survival, their hopes dwindling as budget details are confirmed.
To Martha Henderson at Potrero Hill Neighborhood Center drug outreach program, holding on to most of her organization's funding means kids at the International Studies Academy on Potrero Hill will continue to get counseling for marijuana and alcohol addiction and family crises.
Her group can also continue counseling offenders who The City is trying to divert away from a spell in the county jail system.
"We were elated. To be quite honest, I don't know where we would have sent our clients, we are one of the few organizations who counsel teenagers," Henderson said. "It was a very confusing time for them."
Those still facing budget cuts continued impassioned, last-minute pleas to the Board of Supervisors at a hearing on Tuesday night.
Interpreters and nurses at San Francisco General Hospital spoke about the dangers of laying off trained and experienced translators and leaving interpreting to bilingual medical workers.
"Imagine a neurosurgeon who had to explain to someone a lifesaving operation and how complicated and risky it was and they could not rely on an experienced interpreter. Think of the outcome of this," said one interpreter.
Others lamented the loss of a patient referral service at the hospital that works as a telephone and in-person triage serving 165 people a day.
Sarah Weinberg, an acupuncturist who serves people with HIV and Hepatitis C said the closure of her service means one less vital service for people with Hep C, a fast-growing disease in The City.
Services whose funding has been partially or fully restored by the mayor's budget office include: Adult Dental Services, Haight Ashbury Free Clinic-Glide African American Extended Family Out Patients program, North of Market Women's Outreach, Asian American Recovery Service, Progress Foundation-Rypins/Carroll House Day Treatment, Baker Places and SRO Collaboratives.
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