A nonprofit agency that has provided critical services for 15years to Prince William County residents living with HIV and AIDS isstruggling financially, threatening benefits for those who cannotafford or get access to care.
The agency's difficulties are similar to those of other nonprofitsin the Washington area that receive federal money every year toprovide transportation, food, dental care and other services tothousands of HIV-AIDS patients. The federal dollars are there tospend, but the small nonprofits do not have enough time or staff toadminister the program.
Prince William Interfaith Caregivers receives about $500,000 ayear in what are called Ryan White funds, named after the lateIndiana teenager who championed AIDS education while fighting thedisease. Federal rules prohibit the agency from spending more than 10percent of the money on program administration, which is not enoughto cover the cost of delivering the services.
Robert Moon, Interfaith's executive director, said he is unsurewhether the agency would even be able to apply for the federal moneylater this year, the first time that has happened. Of the 600 PrinceWilliam residents with HIV-AIDS, about 150, mostly poor, are servedby Interfaith.
Other small nonprofits said they share Interfaith's problem: nothaving enough money to administer the program that is supposed to bea safety net for the neediest HIV-AIDS patients.
'We're starting to see this pattern with all of our vendors,' saidMichelle Simmons, director of human services for the NorthernVirginia Regional Commission, the group that distributes some RyanWhite funds to local agencies.
Interfaith, which had a $94,000 deficit last year, recently askedfor $73,000 from Manassas and Prince William County to use foradministration and fundraising, but both rejected the request. Thecounty questioned Interfaith's fiscal stability and why it hasn'tdone more to tap private donors, said Sean T. Connaughton (R),chairman of the Board of County Supervisors.
Stacie Balderston, the HIV-AIDS grant manager for the regionalcommission, said of Connaughton's comments: 'We hear that a lot. Itgets depressing, because finding other contributions is extremelydifficult.'
Small nonprofits do not have the employees to do everyday tasks,including raising money. 'There is a painfully long list ofadministrative burdens to maintain Ryan White dollars,' Balderstonsaid. 'It forces organizations to do crazy things like have nursesfill out grant applications.'
Nonprofits understand the rationale of using as much of theirmoney as possible on helping HIV and AIDS patients, but it'sdifficult, said Mary Bahr, director of business development for theWhitman-Walker Clinic, the largest provider of HIV-AIDS services inthe region with about 10,000 clients from the District, Virginia andMaryland. 'In smaller agencies, I don't understand how they canhandle all of it,' she said.
Philippe Chiliade, Whitman-Walker's medical director, said: 'Maybefor very large recipients, like a hospital, it can work, but a cap of10 percent is just unrealistic. The only way we've been able tomanage it is through fundraising.'
Whitman-Walker, which has a $25 million budget and receives $2.5million a year in Ryan White funds, has also faced adversity. It hadto close its clinic in Takoma Park because of financial troubles lastyear.
Whitman-Walker was able to keep its Arlington clinic open becauseFairfax and Arlington counties, Alexandria and the VirginiaDepartment of Health agreed to provide $590,000 to help the clinicthrough the end of this year.
Moon, of Interfaith, said he hoped that local governments inPrince William and Manassas would come to the rescue, but the groupis now looking elsewhere for contributions. The group's board ofdirectors met yesterday to discuss the issue, he said. 'We are doingeverything we can to stay viable,' he said.
Connaughton said the county wants to hand over taxpayer dollars togroups that are fiscally sound. The county has given Interfaith morethan $51,000 in the past five years for youth and senior programsunrelated to HIV and AIDS, said Liz Bahrns, a Prince Williamspokeswoman.
All of the programs -- youth and family mentoring and elderlytransportation -- were later terminated by Interfaith, she said.
Moon said the amount of money received for elderly transportationcould not cover the program's expenses. The mentoring programs endedbecause the partners did not provide enough volunteers to continuethe services.
Connaughton said he would like to see how another group couldhandle the Ryan White dollars. The Manassas City Council wondered thesame thing, said City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes. 'I think theybelieved these services can be done by other groups,' he said.
There may be no such group in Prince William, Northern VirginiaRegional Commission officials said.
'If Interfaith were to fail, I'm racking my brain for who is thenext logical choice to provide the services in that region,' Simmonssaid.
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