Cashing out
Is AIDS Financial Services in jeopardy?

By Cassi Feldman

AIDS Financial Services has a relatively simple mission: to help people living with HIV manage their money and pay their bills on time.

Created by Lutheran Social Services in 1993, AFS has grown from serving 50 San Francisco clients to serving more than 600 with an annual budget of $522,000. But some clients and former staffers say the once-popular program is deteriorating.

"There's no care and understanding anymore," long-time client Ricci Santorella said. "They haven't even paid my rent yet. I don't know what's going on."

AFS acts as a "representative payee" for 171 clients who receive government benefits but are not entitled to cash them directly because of addiction or mental illness. The other 438 clients use AFS by choice as a way to streamline their finances.

For years the program has performed well, consistently earning high marks from the city's Department of Public Health. Former program manager Kevin Fauteux attributes AFS's success to the fact that case workers encourage good spending but don't set rigid rules. Their first and foremost concern, he explained, is keeping each client safely housed and fed.

That requires far more than money management. "We deal with their landlords," former case worker Brian Quinn said. "We help them hook up with legal help. Whatever they need in their lives to give them stability."

Yet the program itself has recently grown far less stable, according to Fauteux. Positions have been lost to budget cuts, and caseloads have increased dramatically.

Client Jesse Lewis told us he was watching TV when all of a sudden his satellite cable shut off because of nonpayment. "I've been on the program for five years, and I've never had an outstanding bill," he said. And that's just a minor incident, Fauteux said, adding that some clients even received eviction notices.

Fauteux told us he made these problems known to Richard Stahlke, president of Lutheran Social Services, but nothing changed. On May 20 Fauteux was let go. Quinn and two other staff members (three-quarters of the case-management staff) resigned in protest two weeks later.

While Stahlke would not comment on personnel issues, he assured us that "the positions have all been filled" and that "there has been at no time any interruption of service to clients."

Some clients disagree. More than 100 signed a June 3 petition asking the city to investigate AFS management.

After nine years with AFS, Santorella is now considering withdrawing his money. "They can't even find my bills," he said. "They can't find them, and I need them paid."

E-mail Cassi Feldman at cassi@sfbg.com.