Bradley Vows to Appoint L.A. AIDS Coordinator

In a move that some AIDS activists publicly applauded while privately wondering about its delay, Mayor Tom Bradley said Thursday that he will name a full-time city official to coordinate local efforts against acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Bradley also announced that $1 million would be provided by the Community Redevelopment Agency over the next two years to provide housing assistance to AIDS victims. The amount is 20% of the $5 million that AIDS activists had sought, but Michael Weinstein of AIDS Hospice Foundation said Bradley’s office has promised more funding in the future.

The AIDS efforts will require CRA and City Council approval.

‘A Good Start’

Thursday’s announcement was made several months after Weinstein and other AIDS activists asked the mayor’s office to do more in the AIDS fight. After Bradley’s announcement, activist Chris Brownlie, an AIDS victim, was among those praising the move as “a good start” that will “get a foot in the door for more money to be allotted.”

Other activists, while grateful for the new coordinator and funding proposals, said, however, that the city has shown little previous commitment in the fight against AIDS despite the thousands of AIDS patients who live in Los Angeles.

“There was a lack of imagination about what role the city could be playing,” said one activist who asked not to be named. Another said that over the last several years, city officials have considered the crisis a county health problem, rather than a city responsibility. The same activist said that West Hollywood, a city considerably smaller than Los Angeles, has spent more to help AIDS victims.

Weinstein, asked about the criticism of the city, said that persuading Bradley’s office to support the AIDS efforts was “not a hard-sell.” He added, however, “There’s always a tendency in government to create little boxes and say ‘this doesn’t fit in the box.’ ”

The yet-to-be-named coordinator’s responsibilities would include promoting AIDS education among city employees and high-risk groups, advocating greater state and federal spending for AIDS treatment, lining up transportation services to AIDS outpatients and trying to determine those AIDS victims most in need of help.

‘Slip Through Cracks’

“We don’t know what the need is at this point because people slip through the cracks,” said Brownlie, 38, who, like Weinstein, is associated with the AIDS Hospice Foundation.

The redevelopment agency funds would initially go toward the rehabilitation or construction of low-income housing for AIDS patients who face possible homelessness because of high medical bills. Bradley said details of the housing plan have not been worked out.

Weinstein said the $1-million figure was suggested by the mayor’s office as a starting point for the city’s AIDS program, adding that the $5 million proposed by activists was “a wish list which we did not expect right off the bat.”