The AIDS Foundation of Chicago is grateful to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose recent budget proposal did not cut vital city funding for HIV prevention programs, services, and agencies, in spite of the bleak, slow-to-recover economy.

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) recently received from the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) a full list of how the city spends its HIV prevention dollars.

The document reveals that 88% of CDPH city HIV prevention funding goes directly to community-based organizations that provide direct HIV prevention services.  The remaining funds are used for HIV prevention supplies, including condoms, HIV test kits, and HIV education and awareness events.

Please click here for access to a listing of agencies funded to provide HIV prevention services through CDPH Corporate Grants (Lines 18 and 29).  Note that this document shows how CDPH spends city HIV prevention funding only, not federal or state funding.

Please click here for a list of HIV prevention funds recieved from all sources, including city, state, and federal from 2009-2011.

“Mayor Emanuel provided hopeful signs for an aggressive reform agenda on HIV and related concerns.”

By Keith R. Green, AFC Federal Affairs Director

On May 16, 2011, I had the privilege of attending the City of Chicago’s inauguration ceremony where 50 City Council members, citywide officials, and the Honorable Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s newest Mayor, took the oath of office.

In his remarks, Mayor Emanuel assured the public of his keen understanding of this great city’s enduring assets and pressing challenges.  For me and tens of thousands of other HIV-affected Chicagoans, how the new Mayor confronts HIV and other public health concerns will be an important measure of his Administration’s leadership.

Throughout the campaign and transition process, Mr. Emanuel provided hopeful signs for an aggressive reform agenda.  His response to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s (AFC) mayoral candidate questionnaire affirms a commitment to expand HIV prevention among Black gay and bisexual men, and other populations hard hit by the epidemic.  Equally inspiring were his remarks and written reply to questions posed by a coalition of LGBT organizations that polled mayoral candidates on LGBT community priorities (for full disclosure, I participated in the coalition as both an officer of the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus and as AFC’s new Director of Federal Affairs).

CHICAGO (October 14, 2010)-- HIV advocates breathed a sigh of relief on October 13 when Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley released a 2011 city budget plan that preserves HIV funding and largely maintains city support for the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH).

The 2011 budget is the last one that Mayor Daley will present.  He announced on October 13, 2010, that he would step down after running the city for 21 years.

Mayor Daley recommended that HIV funding remain level at $4.3 million.  Last year, HIV funding was cut by $175,000.  City funding is largely used for HIV prevention programs and supplies, housing services, and awareness activities.  

Overall proposed city funding for CDPH was reduced by just 0.2%, from $33.87 million in 2010 to $33.80 million in 2011, and five positions will be eliminated.

Mayor Daley proposed to close the city’s $654 million budget deficit by tapping reserve funds.  The proposed budget avoids massive job and service cuts that would have otherwise resulted.

The Chicago City Council will hold hearings on each agency’s budget over the next several weeks. The CDPH hearing is scheduled for Thursday, October 21.  City Council is expected to approve on the 2011 budget in November.

AFC will lobby City Council members to appropriate the highest funding amounts possible for public health programs, including HIV services.  

Read Mayor Daley’s budget press release.

CHICAGO (October 21, 2009)—Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley proposed today a 12 percent reduction in city-funded public health services in Chicago’s 2010 budget. While HIV programs were largely spared, the Mayor’s plan recommends a 4 percent funding reduction for HIV services.

“Communities under siege because of the recession need public health services now more than ever," said David Ernesto Munar, vice president of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). “Without a sustained HIV and public health investment, more low-income Chicagoans will acquire preventable conditions that will only escalate their housing, support service, and medical needs.”