Today, Dudley has a home, stable health, and the energy to do the activities that let him feel like himself. Two years ago he was in hospice care, and was not expected to live.

Dudley first arrived in San Francisco from Los Angeles in 1992, and found himself in the Tenderloin without a support network or stable footing. “My family’s all scattered,” he says.

It wasn’t long before he found his way to St. Anthony Dining Room for a meal, and later enrolled in what was then the Employment Program. But he had been dealt some crushing blows. Dudley had long struggled with alcoholism; he took his first drink at the age of 5. When he was also diagnosed as HIV positive, he became a regular client at the St. Anthony Social Work Center.

Dudley’s health continued to decline, until he was one day hospitalized with HIV/AIDS-related pneumonia. “The hardest part was my willingness to take meds,” Dudley says. “I wanted to check out. I believe that my mental state was so bad it affected me physically.” (more…)

On October 29-31st over 3,000 representatives from all angles of the HIV/AIDS pandemic will convene for the United States Conference on AIDS 2009. Held here in San Francisco at the Hilton Hotel, this national conference will provide an abundance of important and useful information as well as the latest updates on HIV/AIDS research, impact, and health campaigns. People living with AIDS, healthcare workers, researchers, advocates, and supporters alike will participate in a variety of workshops and discussions designed to promote a more united effort against HIV/AIDS related issues through education and information exchange.

Discussions spread out over the course of this three-day event include highlights such as: “Lessons Learned from a Decade of HIV Services for Homeless Youth in San Francisco” (Friday 30th) and “Latino HIV Prevention: Where do we go from here?” (Saturday 31st).

Conference attendees are also invited to participate in variety of workshops intended to provide resources useful not only to medical providers and policy makers but for those effected by HIV/AIDS and service providers looking to improve their networks. Highlights include: “A Comprehensive Approach to HIV Care and Treatment in an Urban Setting” (Friday 30th) “Negotiating HIV and Social Security: A Mock Trial” (Saturday 31st) and “A ‘Medical Home’ for Traditionally Marginalized Populations: An Integrated Care and Cost-Effective Approach” (Saturday 31st).

Those interested in attending this historical event can register at http://www.nmac.org/index/2009-usca .

As the budget results roll in, the future of California’s healthcare and public services finds itself consistently downtrodden and weary. Though this is a subject many others have written about, I think it’s something none of us can advocate enough. These trends are unacceptable and altogether unsettling.

Having worked with mental health organizations and HIV/AIDS advocacy foundations alike, the budget cuts struck home when my inbox was flooded with updates and newsletters detailing the effects the budget will have on these individual organizations. If I receive 10-15 emails in a week from 10-15 different foundations who are now struggling more than ever to serve populations in need, I cannot begin grasp the number of people who employ these services who are hurting as providers are forced to cut back and shut down.

The budget cuts extensive preventative care programs, which seems contradictory to the concept of basic healthcare. It should be our goal to help people before they are hurting, not offering healthcare as a last ditch resort. By providing those in need with a solid foundation of health care services and programs our state could potentially decrease emergency room visits and frequency of urgent care needed by the public. As far as a budget goes, prevention is the most inexpensive and takes less of a toll on resources—saving both money and lives.

Though it may take time to truly understand the full effects these cuts, the Clinic here at St. Anthony Foundation is sure to feel some pressure in the upcoming months. Our services here may be needed now more than ever as more and more people in California are liable to fall trough the cracks of California’s public healthcare plan.

The Governor may have said his machete wielding twitter video was just a joke, but the budget he signed today makes very real, very deep cuts into services for those most in need.  Schwarzenegger signed an already brutal budget and added $656 million more in cuts.

“Schwarzenegger’s vetoes include $80 million from child welfare programs; $61 million in county funding to administer Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicare; $52 million from AIDS prevention; $50 million to Healthy Families, the low-cost health insurance program for poor children; and $6.2 million more from state parks,” Reported the Associated Press.

In the days, and months ahead we will see just how devastating these cuts are.  It is already estimated that the cuts to Social Security Income will cause nearly 50,000 San Franciscans who are already living in poverty to survive on even less.  Our low-income seniors and people with disabilities will have to figure out how to live on even less, and will have to choose between rent, food, medicine and other essentials.  Our community will see an even greater number of SSI recipients in our already overtaxed food line, free clothing distribution lines, food pantry lines and emergency shelter lines. With the additional cuts to Medi-Cal community clinics, including St. Anthony Foundation’s Free Medical Clinic, will certainly see an increased need for our services

Perhaps when the Governor sees the fall out of this budet, he will put the knife away, stop playing with his camcorder and make a little more time to focus on the citizens of California.

As St. Anthony Foundation’s Advocacy Coordinator, the California state budget has been weighing heavy on my mind. The budget proposals released at the end of May were frightening, and signaled the possibility of the absolute devastation of California’s publicly-funded safety net. I’ve been talking about the budget almost nonstop since the proposals became public. I’ve also been helping our St. Anthony Foundation family get up to speed with all the news and start speaking out in order to help prevent the cuts.

Last Thursday’s (June 11, 2009) news that the California Budget Conference Committee had rejected some of the proposals that would hurt low-income Californians was hopeful. It is important to take a moment to be grateful that the elimination of the CalWORKs and Healthy Families programs are off the table (for now), but it’s also important to make sure that this small victory does not lull us into complacency. I am encouraging our St. Anthony Foundation advocates to use last Thursday’s news as an opportunity to enjoy feelings of hope and inspiration and to get recharged for the next stretch of difficult advocacy work that lies before us.

St. Anthony Foundation will be participating in California Church Impact’s Most Urgent Witness Rally in Sacramento next Tuesday, June 16. This rally will be an opportunity for advocates from around California to converge at the state Capitol and urge our legislators and Governor not to make budget decisions that will hurt the very people who need the most help right now: uninsured kids, low-income seniors and disabled people, working moms receiving CalWORKs, Medi-cal recipients, families experiencing domestic violence, frail elderly who need in-home care, and people living with AIDS who need assistance with life-saving medication. If you can’t join us in Sacramento, please consider calling or emailing your legislator and the Governor and telling them about your budget priorities.

By combining affordable housing with services, supportive housing allows low-income and formerly homeless people to live stable, dignified lives. Supportive housing is especially beneficial for people with serious health issues that may contribute to chronic homelessness: issues like substance abuse, mental illness, or HIV.

It is very important to remember, especially in difficult budget times, is that the support service component in supportive housing is just as important as the housing component. Unfortunately, one of the budget balancing strategies that San Francisco is considering this year is to remove some of the supportive services from supportive housing programs. On April 22,  St. Anthony Foundation joined together with agencies who provide supportive housing to speak to the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee about the importance of supportive services in supportive housing.

St. Anthony’s was glad to support our friends in the supportive housing community as they pointed out that supportive housing saves money by helping formerly homeless people avoid evictions, shelters and expensive emergency services. The employment, money management, counseling, and health services provided in supportive housing help keep people housed while promoting dignity and respect and preventing unnecessary spending on emergency services.

A cost-saving program that helps promote dignity and respect while allowing some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents a safe secure place to live and receive services? That should be something that everyone should agree is a good investment!

San Francisco has a lot of non profits. We’re a progressive city, one that pushes forward for needs, rights and liberties. Some, like St. Anthony’s, have been around for decades and have weathered troubled economic times not unlike the present. Others may have only recently sprung up and serve a need not as old as poverty, but just as critical (like HIV care or education).

Some suggest that perhaps there are too many non-profits in San Francisco. They may not be seeing the need that we do, here in the Tenderloin. There is no way we could do it by ourselves. That’s why St. Anthony’s partners with The San Francisco Food Bank, Project Open Hand and Glide Memorial to purchase bulk foods. That’s why we partner with Network Ministries to offer broader programming at the Tenderloin Tech Lab.

Some people walk around and see too many non profits. We see the tremendous need that can not possibly be served by one organization like St. Anthony’s.

Somebody said once that there are only two groups of people in the world: the saints, who think they are sinners, and the sinners, who think they are saints.

I don’t think Hank Wilson would EVER have thought of himself as a saint, so, according to the grouping above he probably WAS one. And there is a lot more evidence.

(more…)

Tenderloin Health, a resource center for homeless people living with HIV, will be losing part of their funding from The City this month. St. Anthony’s neighbors at 183 Golden Gate Avenue are not shutting their doors permanently; they are starting services later to adjust to their decreased budget.

“We’re not going to be able to operate in the morning,” Jeannie Little, Director of Community Services at Tenderloin Health, told CBS 5 yesterday.

Dariush Kayhan, the homeless policy director for the mayor’s office, said yesterday that the city is working to keep Tenderloin Health’s programs open and is “renegotiating their contract based on available funding.”

We hope the best for our friends at Tenderloin Health, and more importantly for the people they serve.