This story was updated to include comment from the Virginia Department of Health.
Two Hampton Roads HIV/AIDS service organizations say cuts to grants supporting prevention and treatment are having an immediate impact on their work.
The LGBT Life Center CEO, Stacie Walls, said it will mean longer wait times for uninsured people who test positive for HIV to start treatment.
“The reality is after the 25 years we’ve been building these programs, they’ve now been dismantled in just months,” Walls said.
The Life Center and Minority AIDS Support Services, with offices in Norfolk and Newport News, heard from the Virginia Department of Health about the cuts to Ryan White Part B grants in early May.
The grants stem from a 1990 federal law named for 13-year-old Ryan White from Indiana, who was diagnosed with AIDS after a blood transfusion in the 1980s. The grants have given millions to help uninsured people with HIV get treatment and other support services.
Walls said the Life Center lost $200,000, adding to the $400,000 in prevention funding cuts in 2024. MASS Director of Operations Gwendolyn Ellis-Wilson said the cuts total more than $550,000 for her organization.
The nonprofits had to reassign staff to programs that haven’t been hit with cuts or furlough them. Walls said the cuts hit the Life Center’s clinic services, which launched last October, particularly hard.
“We lost our entire medical grant, which means if we do test you and you are reactive for HIV, we now don’t have an immediate way to treat you on site,” Walls said. “I’ve got people who we brought into care and 19 of them have to be transferred to somebody else.”
Ellis-Wilson said the cuts mean fewer people to run its prevention services and testing, and work helping people with HIV who are leaving incarceration get health insurance and care.
“There’s no way to really work the programs without people,” she said. “It’s going to be a huge impact on our comprehensive prevention services.”
Walls and Ellis-Wilson don’t have answers for why the state pushed the cuts as Gov. Glenn Youngkin touts Virginia’s budget surplus. Walls said there’s “no indication” that the federal funding decisions led to the cuts.
VDH responded to emailed questions that the program is facing funding uncertainty after voluntary rebates from pharmaceutical companies came in under expectations. The department has also not yet received its full grant award and is uncertain when it will get the full balance.
"VDH understands that these funding reductions are challenging and have impacts to people with HIV and the service providers that provide care and support services," wrote Cheryle Rodriguez, public information officer.
"VDH is working with our partners to ensure a smooth transition for clients."
Walls and Ellis-Wilson are calling for the state to reverse the decision or for the General Assembly to amend the budget to backfill the funding, but Ellis-Wilson is not optimistic.
“I just have no faith in them anymore,” she said.
Walls said VDH officials told her the cuts stem from plans to reallocate funds to regions in the state with fewer resources, notably those that do not receive Ryan White Part A grants. Part A covers the same services as Part B, but for regions with populations of at least 50,000 that have reported at least 1,000 AIDS cases in the past five years. Just Norfolk and Northern Virginia qualify.
Walls and Ellis-Wilson fear the impact on public health. The highest rates of new HIV diagnoses are found in the South particularly among young, Black LGBT men. Virginia’s eastern region, including Hampton Roads, has the highest rates of people living with HIV in Virginia. The Life Center and MASS identified eight new HIV cases in May.
Health research shows that early detection and treatment lead to better long-term health outcomes for people living with HIV.
Without federal or state relief, Walls and Ellis-Wilson are looking to local government for help. Norfolk is the Part A administrator for the region, and Walls said the city has several hundred thousand dollars from the grant that could help keep MASS and the Life Center’s programs afloat.
Norfolk health officials did not reply to emailed questions about the city’s capacity to help with the funding.
