Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Area Reporter - September 18, 2008
Seth Hemmelgarn, s.hemmelgarn@ebar.com
The organization issued a statement Friday, September 12, that said it could close by the end of the month.
The city cut the amount of funding it gave to the agency by about 50 percent to $126,000 for the fiscal year, which started in July, according to Shane Convery, IEP's co-executive director. Convery said the agency's total budget for this fiscal year is about $500,000.
He said another challenge is that funding for the services the agency has already provided won't reach the nonprofit until November. IEP needs about $50,000 in the short term to stay open, Convery said.
He said as a result of previous cuts, the agency is "already operating on a bare bones budget."
"The current budget cut threatens our ability to cover the basic costs of providing services," Convery said.
Convery and Nishanga Bliss have been sharing interim executive director duties on top of their other work at the agency in order to save money, after the last executive director left in June. This month, he said, IEP started closing on Tuesdays.
Convery said the agency, which is located at 3450 16th Street, has about 700 clients. In addition, IEP also provides 2,000 low- or no-cost treatments to clinics in underserved communities throughout the city, including the Bayview-Hunter's Point and South of Market neighborhoods.
The Bay Area Reporter spoke with Convery the day before he planned to meet with Supervisor Bevan Dufty. On Tuesday, September 16, Dufty said he'd met with about 25 people from IEP, including clients and staff.
Dufty, who said that he was "very moved" by the meeting, said he discussed the challenges facing IEP at that day's Board of Supervisors meeting, and he's also asked the city controller to have the audit management team review the agency's situation to gain an understanding of what the financial gap is this year.
Dufty said he's also submitted a request of assistance from the board to the health department to expedite the group's grant for this year. He said he's also asked IEP to help him determine if there are any in-kind contributions that individuals or businesses could contribute that would assist the agency.
In addition, Dufty said he'd contact the heads of other AIDS service organizations to ask them for their advice.
Michelle Long, director of HIV health services for the city, said IEP "didn't contact the Department of Public Health to let us know they had a funding problem of this magnitude," and her agency didn't know about the situation until the B.A.R. asked the health department about it.
However, she said, "We are currently working with the agency to make sure they get all the funding available to them as soon as possible. ... We'll be working with them to identify alternative sources of funding and determine strategies for supporting their clients."
In an e-mail to the B.A.R., Convery, who called Long and the AIDS office "tremendously supportive" wrote, "At the time that IEP was overtaken by this crisis, we were without an executive director. Our immediate focus was to just keep IEP open and serving clients."
He also wrote that at the same time, the nonprofit was trying to work with the mayor's office "recognizing that the direction for budget cuts came from there, and that IEP's viability will depend on the mayor's intervention."
The mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment on the nonprofit's situation.
According to IEP's statement last week, clients often seek the organization's services to maintain their health, prevent greater health problems, and deal with the side effects of HIV medications or conditions their doctors have not been able to address.
Richard Kerr, who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and gone to IEP for six years, gets acupuncture and treatment with moxa, a burning herb that's moved over the skin to drive heat into acupuncture points.
Kerr, 70, said that the agency's help relievee his pain and increases his mobility, and that the treatments have helped him survive.
"I don't think I would've made it" if it hadn't been for the agency, he said.
For more information or to make a donation, visit www.iepclinic.com.
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