San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, October 15, 1992

Few people noticed when he died at San Francisco General Hospital on August 18.

A 26-year-old Mexican immigrant with AIDS, Perez was declared indigent. His body was cremated by San Francisco County, his ashes put in storage for a year, waiting to be claimed.

Perez's story is one of several cases recently brought to the attention of the AIDS office of the San Francisco public health department, which investigated complaints against a community-based AIDS organization that allegedly refused to assist Perez.

The three-month investigation of CURAS, Community United in Response to AIDS, has recently been completed. Results of the probe and an annual audit of policy and procedure are scheduled to be released publicly at a health commission meeting Tuesday.

UNDER FIRE

CURAS holds a half-million-dollar city contract to counsel and educate the Latino AIDS community and has been under fire in recent months by the CURAS Rescue Committee, a citizens group that contends that the female-dominated organization abandoned the Latino gay and bisexual males its founders intended to serve.

Rescue Committee members say they felt obliged to turn up the pressure because CURAS' services are an integral part of the Latino gay community. Before the formation of CURAS and other ethnic-oriented groups, minority populations were largely excluded from the loop of AIDS services that were geared toward white English-speakers. In addition, CURAS is one of only two organizations that provides services to individuals without inquiring about their immigration status. But more importantly, CURAS was established to recognize cultural and language barriers that might otherwise prevent high-risk Latinos from getting AIDS education and services.

"The reason the agency was founded was to help Latino men who were gay or bisexual," said Juan Pablo Gutierrez, one of about 60 Rescue Committee members. "The problem is that five women are running the show and the agency has begun a woman's program and outreach to groups that are not gay or bisexual."

Executive Director Rosa Maria Zayas and James Loyce, assistant director of the AIDS office, countered that CURAS is set up to assist both men and women.

Zayas concedes that CURAS has troubles similar to any other community-based organization, but she contends that its problems are not as monstrous as the Rescue Committee makes them out to be.

'WE'RE HUMAN'

"They're primarily men who I don't think like women," Zayas said. "I don't know what their problem is. But if, in fact, we make mistakes, we're human."

Still, complaints from the community in the past have caused public health authorities to intervene. "The program has recognized deficiencies, and this most recent audit is a follow-up on a previous audit," Loyce said.

Bruce Fletcher, a CURAS case manager who was fired in August, recently joined the Rescue Committee and said three of his former clients died without CURAS to counsel or assist the dying client or family.

He also said he was never allowed to register Manuel Perez as a client.

Fletcher claims that when he tried to register Perez last spring, Zayas stopped him because she personally disliked the man who recommended Perez. "I was never allowed to see Manuel at all," said Fletcher.

Zayas cites a confidentiality rule, saying she cannot discuss specific cases. "The agency has never refused anybody who was qualified to get services from us. People who are HIV-infected are qualified and so is their family." EMPTY OFFICE

Another alleged case of neglect involves Antonio Torres, an HIV-positive immigrant. When Torres showed up for an appointment at the CURAS offices on Dolores Street last spring, he found an empty office. He said his calls to CURAS have gone unreturned.

Perez's partner, Jose Manuel Jimenez, is also in a high-risk category and says he wants help. Jimenez, 27, a prostitute, says he has never taken a test to check for the AIDS virus.

Rifling through a desk drawer with old photographs and lingerie and looking for a memento of Perez, Jimenez said he first heard about the fatal disease three months ago when Perez told him he had AIDS.

Jimenez, who moved in with Perez three years ago when he left Mexico for San Francisco, said he knows little about the disease and how it is transmitted. Meanwhile, he continues to work as a prostitute, raising a minimum of $115 weekly to pay rent.

"I'm scared. I can't sleep at night," Jimenez said in Spanish. "A social worker at the hospital told me to get a test, but I am not ready." Zayas said Jimenez is the type of client her organization especially tries to reach. She said she is trying to get funds to hire a Spanish-speaking worker who will visit Tenderloin hotels to offer help to the many other prostitutes.

'I CAN'T GET HELP'

Rescue Committee members say that perhaps one of the worst examples of CURAS' neglect is the case of Luis, a dying man whose mother said she has not been helped by CURAS for two weeks.

"I do not know what to do. I can't get help," said Teresa, the mother of a dying 28-year-old former model who appeared in advertisements run in Vogue and Gentlemen's Quarterly. "I call, but nobody calls me back."

Teresa, who declined to be fully identified and who resigned from her job in Puerto Rico six months ago to care for her bedridden son, said that CURAS sporadically managed Luis' case and has not come through for him at the most difficult time.

On October 8, Teresa said CURAS had not returned her calls nor inquired about her son's condition. Zayas said she could not comment on the case because of confidentiality.

"Today he has an appointment with his doctor, I have no way to get him to the hospital. He needs a wheelchair and taxis do not help in this situation," said Teresa, who declined to be fully identified for the article. "From CURAS, nobody has come to visit. Nobody has asked how he's been -- nothing."

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