TUCSON, AZ — The Southern Arizona Aids Foundation (SAAF) gathered AIDS prevention and treatment organizations across Tucson to warn about the impacts of federal funding cuts.
SAAF relies on a significant amount of federal and state funding to address ongoing challenges in HIV treatment, prevention, and research.
This is funding that Chief Clinical Officer Jamie Dromgoole-Hernandez says is under threat.
“Over the last several months, we’ve seen dunning loss,” Hernandez said. “ I’ve had funding taken and I have had to lay people off.”
Hernandez says those who rely heavily on these services often come from marginalized communities, who will be hurt the most.
“Anybody who gets medicaid funding are looking at huge losses,” Hernandez said. “We have a very large population…who are marginalized living and on the fringes of society.”
Programs SAAF says will be harmed directly include Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) HIV prevention surveillance.
SAAF says funds from the federal government are essential to ending the HIV epidemic.
While SAAF says the cuts are harming these organizations, they believe meetings like this are the key to moving forward.
“We are talking and seeing how we can help each other,” Hernandez said. “ If we see a spike again in HIV, the costs just become astronomical.”
