Health Agency Seeking Additional AIDS Funds

The County Health Care Agency today will ask the Board of Supervisors to increase funding to house people with AIDS by nearly 20% and to approve an application for $500,000 in federal AIDS funds.

If approved, the HIV Care Consortium, which received $42,408 last year to coordinate AIDS-related programs in Ventura County, would receive an additional $8,864.

Most of the money would be used to pay for special housing for people with the human immunodeficiency virus, said Diane Seyl, county AIDS services coordinator.

The consortium is federally funded by the Ryan White bill.

In addition, the Health Care Agency will ask the board to approve an application for $500,000 in federal grants to help care for people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome and HIV.

The funding would come from the Department of Health and Human Services HIV-Early Intervention Services.

The grant would cover HIV testing, counseling, referrals and medical care and could also be applied to outreach and case management, Seyl said.

“The time is right for this type of program,” Seyl said. “Right now there are people falling through the cracks because of lack of funding.”

To date, 359 people in Ventura County have been diagnosed with AIDS, Seyl said. Of those, she said, 230 have died. At the same time last year there were 235 people in the county with AIDS.