AIDS Group Denied Federal Funding

A troubled AIDS advocacy group was shut out Thursday when the Ventura County HIV Consortium delivered $300,000 in federal grants to eight local agencies.

After three straight years of federal support, AIDS Care received no money from a program Congress set up specifically to address the needs of HIV-positive people.

“We’re disappointed at the results, and we’re going to appeal,” said Doug Green, who began working Thursday as the agency’s new executive director.

But critics say the grant decision is not surprising, given the turmoil AIDS Care has undergone in the past year.

Green, a Santa Barbara banker and advocate for AIDS sufferers, is the agency’s third executive director in six months. In addition, the group has failed to raise enough money to support the programs it offers, one former employee said.

“Hopefully this is a wake-up call from the consortium to AIDS Care that they say they have a lot of services but they haven’t followed through on them,” said Cam Keep, who resigned in protest from the agency.

Charles Padilla, an administrator with the HIV Consortium, said the group based its decisions on the grant proposal submitted, rather than any personal knowledge of AIDS Care’s programs. In the three past years, AIDS Care received grants totaling $53,500.

The consortium, drawn from community-based organizations, distributes federal money that comes with the Ryan White AIDS Emergency Act and the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS Act.

More than half of the funding went to Ventura County Public Health Services for a case management and housing assistance program costing $159,000. Christopher House, a home for AIDS sufferers that opened last month, received $37,900.

In addition, the consortium provided:

* $26,800 to Clinicas del Camino Real.

* $25,400 to the Ventura County Medical Center Immunology Clinic.

* $16,100 to Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Assn.

* $10,000 to the Ventura County Alcohol and Drug Programs.

* $6,800 to the county hospital’s nutrition department.

* $3,100 to the Metropolitan Community Church of Ventura.