Dallas County Commissioners Court approved distribution of Ryan White funding Tuesday, April 7. The amount included no funding for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which is suing the county because its grant application was denied.
Patients and staff of AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Dallas with Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, center
AIDS Arms Director of Development Tori Hobbs, who attended the Commissioners Court meeting, said what was approved was Part A, which includes about 80 percent of Ryan White money for the year. The rest is distributed later in the budget cycle.
Most Ryan White funds are distributed once an agency bills the county for services provided.
The fiscal year for Ryan White grants began March 1 so the delay in approval along with the county’s normal six-to-eight-week turnaround in processing payments means AIDS service organizations will wait up to three months to be paid for services provided.
Some service providers warned last week that if funds were delayed by the county much longer it could affect their ability to continue operations or take on any new clients.
Several AHF employees and patients attended the County Commissioners meeting this morning. Several have spoken at previous meetings, but none addressed the court today since the public comment period took place after the funding was approved.
After the meeting, AHF Texas Regional Director Bret Camp said, “I’m glad funding will get out.”
Camp said he was also worried about other agencies’ ability to continue some services without the money. But he said AHF’s lawsuit will proceed. In Tarrant County, AHF was initially denied funding as well, but after the agency filed a lawsuit there, county commissioners voted to include AHF in the funding distribution.
Parkland received the largest grant with $3.8 million.
Of the AIDS service organizations, Resource Center received the largest allocation at $1.8 million, with more than $1 million going toward its insurance assistance program. AIDS Arms received $1.6 million, with $732,000 going toward outpatient medical care. Health Services of North Texas received about $1 million to be divided among a variety of programs.
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Fundraising by litigation is AHF’s M.O. and I have that directly from a former administrative employee there. If they don’t get what they want by asking, they go after whoever dared say no.