Santa Cruz AIDS Projects Faces Massive Cuts

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by Jessica Lussenhop on Jun 09, 2009

SCAP board member Maurice Carrillo congratulates executive director Merle Smith on a tough job well done. (Jessica Lussenhop).

Last Friday at the open house for Santa Cruz AIDS Project’s brand new offices, staff and guests were all smiles, congratulations and thank-you’s over the renovation of 313 Front Street. About $60,000 worth of donated labor and materials transformed it from a large empty space into shiny, modern offices, and wine, cheese and cake were certainly called for. But the truth behind the move from the larger space at 113 Cooper Street was never far from the surface, even as SCAP director Merle Smith introduced the various members of her team with a wide smile. “She’s the one who tells me, you absolutely have to pay this bill today,” she said to introduce a staff member. One of the original founders of SCAP in attendance, former assemblyman and Budget Committee chairman John Laird, knows better than most how deep SCAP’s troubles really are. “Every HIV prevention dollar in the state is at risk,” he says. “This time last year, we realized then we couldn’t afford to say where we were,” explained Smith earlier in the day. Though their perilous financial situation has been no surprise, the organization is taking body blows from all sides – plummeting donations, the elimination of United Way funding, a cut in contributions from the cities and county, a 50 percent reduction in grants. The latest and most devastating proposal is the elimination of HIV education money and AIDS Drug Assistance Program funding from the state. Just at the mention the failed May 19th budget proposals that have brought about this fresh wave of state cuts, Smith just puts her head in her hands for a moment. “People just did not understand the impact,” she says. The state cuts put several components of SCAP in serious jeopardy, putting an end to safe sex education in schools, the needle exchange program, the Watsonville office of SCAP and the Drop-In Center just down the street from the new offices. ADAP funding providing medication to people living with AIDS is also up for elimination. “If that goes away people will die. Literally, people will die,” she says. Though Smith says she can envision a skeleton version of SCAP that focuses on providing services to 215 county clients who require help with housing and medication, the real bottom line is even lower than that. “The worst case scenario is closing SCAP,” she says. “We cannot survive on $500,000 budget. We’re hoping we can get some donors.” As the party wound down, it becomes clear that the reasons to move further down Front Street were not all bad – all the social workers get their own offices here, and SCAP will save about $4,000 a month in rent and utilities to run the smaller space. Smith says the less visible offices are also a bonus for clients who value their privacy. But as chipper SCAP staff lead guests down the block to tour the Drop-In center, their buoyant attitudes are tempered by the very real possibility that it won’t be long before they’re out of a job. “If the state budget passes the way it is, we’re done,” says harm reduction senior specialist Gina Giarruso.

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