AIDS Groups’ Rivalries Peril Laguna Shanti

In a bitter struggle over scarce funding, one of the three key Orange County organizations created to provide care for people infected with the AIDS virus has been pushed to the brink of closure by political turmoil and fierce competition.

Essentially, the battle pits the Irvine-based AIDS Services Foundation, the county’s largest and most influential AIDS care provider, against Laguna Shanti, a smaller center based in Laguna Beach known for providing more personal service.

“It’s just too competitive,” said Aida Arce, a founding board member at Laguna Shanti, the only AIDS service center in south Orange County. “Money’s very hard, it’s gotten worse. Everybody is feeling the recession. It trickles down to all of us.”

Activists say Laguna Shanti has been a vital link in the chain of AIDS services, in part, because it is located in Laguna Beach, the city with the highest per capita incidence of AIDS in Orange County and one of the highest in the nation.

While Arce said she expects Laguna Shanti to survive, the center’s director, Judith Doyle, said funds will evaporate by September without an infusion of cash.

By all accounts, Laguna Shanti has been badly bruised by political infighting that led to the center’s reorganization earlier this year. But the most staggering blow may have been delivered when the center was cut from the list of organizations that will share in the $500,000 generated by the AIDS Walk fund-raiser this year.

An AIDS Walk director said Laguna Shanti’s application was rejected because “there were some things missing from the (center’s) proposal.” But one critic of the center said he and others helped persuade the fund-raising group to withhold money from Laguna Shanti.

“Several of us were instrumental in talking them into stopping the money because you can’t give money to a dying horse,” said Tom Horstman, who chaired a group that earlier this year formed to “get (Shanti) on it’s feet or close it down.”

“They need to shut down and let AIDS Services Foundation bring in a satellite,” Horstman said. “I wouldn’t feel that way, but they’ve lost so much credibility that no one will give them money any more.”

Arce, however, said that such rhetoric is counterproductive and that Shanti is struggling to meet a critical need. “It’s very, very sad that politics do interfere with the ability of an agency to perform services,” she said.

AIDS Services Foundation director Priscilla Munro would only say that it would be an expensive venture.

“We’re in a recession, and our donors are feeling that recession,” she said. “For us to take on that expense at this point is something we would need to think very, very hard about.”

In addition, Munro said she does not feel that the Irvine-based organization is in competition with the smaller Laguna Shanti or with AIDS Response Program, the Garden Grove center which is considered one of the three vital community-based AIDS service organizations in the county.

“These are people I have known for years,” Munro said. “I have a great deal of professional respect for those agencies.”

While their services do overlap, the three agencies take different routes in tackling the needs of those infected with the AIDS virus, said Penny Weismuller, Orange County Health Care Agency’s disease control manager.

AIDS Response Program provides education and prevention information and HIV antibody testing, while AIDS Services Foundation offers case management, home care and a variety of other programs.

While Weismuller said Laguna Shanti is considered “a small, more homey organization,” it does provide some unique services in addition to the usual support sessions, home care and transportation.

For example, it is the only Orange County center that offers a meal delivery program for clients in Laguna Beach and surrounding communities, massage services and a variety of classes designed to challenge the center’s clients’ creativity, such as photography and painting classes, and to help them deal with grief.

While Laguna Shanti’s “holistic perspective” is less traditional, Weismuller said its services would be “sorely missed by many people who have been affected by the epidemic.”

In a way, the center’s strengths may also be its weakness when it comes to fund raising, said Tim Miller, AIDS Response Program’s director.

“So much survival with HIV is dependent on your attitude toward life, and Shanti has had a number of programs that have challenged their client’s creativity and given them opportunities to be involved in meaningful creative activity,” Miller said. “Those, unfortunately, are the types of programs that are very, very difficult to get funding for.”

But Laguna Shanti leaders say it is politics that has seriously damaged their ability to raise funds for the coming year. And while the center’s caseload is steadily growing--Doyle said they expect to have 130 clients by the end of the year--the staff has shrunk to two paid workers. Volunteers are keeping the center afloat.

“We’ve had to let go of staff because we can’t pay them,” she said.

After receiving money from the AIDS Walk fund-raiser in previous years, Doyle said Laguna Shanti had hoped to get about $40,000 this year but came up empty-handed. AIDS Response program, on the other hand expects to reap between $70,000 and $100,000 from the fund-raiser, Miller said.

With clients dying at a rate of about six each month, Laguna Shanti leaders say political wrangling can be “disheartening.” (A recent county health report said AIDS has become the No. 1 killer of county residents between the ages of 25 and 44.)

“It is staggering to think how quickly the disease is spreading . . . (and that) an agency like Shanti is finding it very difficult to get anyone to give it recognition or dollars,” said Craig Florence, president of Laguna Shanti’s board of directors. “If you have to put it in one word, it’s disheartening that it has to be this way.”

One man who has been a client at Laguna Shanti since the center opened five years ago said he believes that he is actually “better now than I was before I was diagnosed with AIDS,” largely because of the services available at the Laguna Beach center.

The client, Ron, who asked that his last name not be used, said he has taken part in support groups, watercolor and photography classes, received massages and also worked as a volunteer for the center.

“I would say if I hadn’t gone to Shanti and got the information I got when I was first diagnosed, I probably wouldn’t have lived to this point,” he said.

Laguna Shanti clients and volunteers say they are aware of, and frustrated by, the tensions among the county’s AIDS service groups. Many clients go to both Laguna Shanti and AIDS Services Foundation and say they wish the organizations could work more harmoniously.

“A lot of people don’t understand why there’s this political rivalry among groups in the county for funds and all the politics that goes on to get the funds,” Ron said. “I think it is a real waste of time for people to be spending their time competing for funds when they should all be getting as many funds as they can from whatever sources they can.”

Over the next month, Laguna Shanti leaders say they will try to solve their financial problems by scheduling a series of fund-raisers.

In the meantime, Laguna Shanti clients say they are trying to distance themselves from the tensions among the organizations upon which they so heavily rely. They have another battle to fight.

“I don’t get involved in any of the politics because there’s nothing I can do about it,” Ron said. “I just hope the funds will be available to keep the organizations going, including Shanti and ASF, because we’ll certainly need their services more and more.”

AIDS Center Crisis

Laguna Shanti, the only AIDS support center in south Orange County, has served 556 individuals and an undetermined number of their family members since opening in June, 1987. Financial troubles threaten its existence.

Annual Operating Cost ‘92: $130,000 *

* Estimate

Source: Laguna Shanti