Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1994. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press, Tue, 20 Dec 94
President Clinton, who has already boosted spending on the Ryan White programs by 82 percent, will seek an increase to $724 million for fiscal 1996, administration officials said. That is $51 million more than his health department requested.
Intense lobbying by AIDS groups on the outside and Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros and AIDS policy director Patsy S. Fleming on the inside has persuaded Clinton's budget office to back off a proposal to stop funding a $186 million housing assistance program.
The Office of Management and Budget wanted to wipe out the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program and switch some of the funds to block grants for areas hardest hit by the deadly epidemic.
Clinton promised during his 1992 campaign to fully fund the Ryan White Act, which provides direct medical and social services to people living with the HIV virus or full-blown AIDS. It is named for a hemophiliac Indiana teen-ager who battled discrimination at school and died of AIDS in 1990.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development was one of the agencies targeted by Clinton on Monday for $24 billion in spending cuts over five years to help pay for tax cuts for the middle class. HUD hopes to save $800 million by consolidating 60 housing programs into three big grant programs.
The administration is still preparing the fiscal 1996 budget it will submit to Congress in February. The Associated Press obtained details of the OMB's so-called budget ``pass-back'' to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Other sources, who asked not to be identified, said the housing program had been pulled off the chopping block. It will still have to fight for survival in Congress, where the Republicans favor shifting dozens of programs into block grants, which provide federal money with fewer restrictions on how it must be spent.
Advocates of the block grant approach contend it would eliminate layers of bureaucracy and allow state and local officials to spend the money as best they see fit. Critics contend block grants are easier to cut and may overlook those with special needs.
Congress enacted the special housing program in 1990 out of concern that victims of AIDS were being shut out of other housing programs for the disabled.
The AIDS Action Council says that one-third to one-half of all people with AIDS ``are either homeless or in imminent danger of losing their homes,'' and the National Commission on AIDS once estimated that 15 percent of homeless people were HIV positive.
Most of the $186 million for the housing assistance program is awarded to 20 states and 34 cities with large AIDS caseloads.
HUD also recently awarded $26 million for housing projects of national significance, such as a New York program, Housing Works, Inc., that is building an innovative residence and adult day health care program, and special services for infected prison parolees offered by the Tarzana, Calif., Treatment Center.
The government spends almost $3 billion a year on AIDS research, prevention and treatment programs.
Copyright (c) 1994 - The Associated Press. Reproduced with Permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permission Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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Copyright © 1994 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.
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