Drug Treatment Programs Take Hit In San Francisco Budget Proposal
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Two drug treatment programs that merged last year to avoid budget cuts will lose a significant piece of their city funding under the budget proposal San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee submitted Wednesday.
Walden House and the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic may have to turn away as many as 182 outpatient clients because of a 10 percent cut in city funding, said CEO Vitka Eisen.
"It's rather ironic that the very year, the very time that we sign this rather historic agreement, we take the rather large proportional cut," she said.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
Eisen had expected $4.6 million before the cuts.
On the bright side, money to pay for residential care has been preserved, said Gregg Sass, chief financial funding to the Department of Public Health.
"The cuts that remain seem to be clustered around some of the larger organizations," he said, so that smaller programs more sensitive to fluctuations in funding could be spared.
Sass said the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Westside Community Services, the Family Service Agency of San Francisco and Conard House would all receive less money under the $31.7 million allocated for the health department.
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