AIDS Legal Referral Panel Celebrates 21 Years

by Reid Dennis for the San Francisco Spectrum

The AIDS Legal Referral Panel [ALRP] had some good news and bad news at their 21st annual reception held in the War Memorial Veterans Building Green Room on October 6th. Bill Hirsh, ALRP Executive Director, lamented that, like so many other AIDS service organizations over the past year, funds were drastically cut when they lost the Ryan White Care Act grant. That amounted to losing almost 50% of their budget when this occurred. But the good news was that several people and foundations pitched in, and ALRP is in the recovery stage now. “Now is not the time to sit on the sidelines. We need to make sure people with AIDS have the healthcare, housing, and services—especially legal services—that they need,” said Hirsh. “Tonight we are here to recognize people who have been at the forefront of the AIDS struggle since the very beginning and at the same time to welcome new folks who have just stepped up to meet the challenge of serving the legal needs of people living with HIV/AIDS.”

Ross Woodall, who has been volunteer coordinator for ALRP and served on the board of directors of the SF AIDS Foundation, presented to Pat Christen the highest award ALRP can give, the Clint Hockenberry Award, named in honor of the first executive director of ALRP, which is bestowed in recognition of a long career of service advancing the rights of people with HIV/AIDS.
“For 18 years Pat has been on the very forefront of the battle against AIDS,” said Woodall, citing some of Christen’s biography. She graduated from Stanford University having studied for pre-med (She was going to be a doctor) and also political science. She joined the Peace Corps and began service in Kenya, where she helped set up clinics and taught biology. This set her on her career path for the next two decades. In 1985 Pat joined the staff of the AIDS Foundation serving as the media relations officer, director of the AIDS hotline, and eventually director of public policy. In 1989 at the height of the AIDS pandemic she was named executive director of the AIDS Foundation.

Woodall said Christen has never pulled back from any major challenge. In 1989 she saw the government was not responding to AIDS as it should, so she put together a group of people who formed the legislation that ended up being the Ryan White Care Act, passed in 1990. Since then it has provided more than $20 billion in direct services and medication for people with AIDS. Soon after, Christen realized the injection drug community, which was seen as expendable by the government, was being devastated by HIV. So she formed the HIV Prevention Project, better known as the needle exchange program. The result was that the incidences of mother-to-child transmission basically disappeared. In 2001 Christen realized AIDS was not just a local issue but also a worldwide one, so she helped start the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, which convinced the government in South Africa that AIDS existed and needed services, treatment, and education. In the coming weeks the foundation will be opening a state of the art health facility in Rwanda. Pangaea also operates programs in China and Uganda.

“Pat truly cares about every person living with HIV, who might become HIV-positive, and their caregivers,” Woodall said. “As a person with AIDS as I am, many of us owe our lives to her and the programs and policies she has instituted.”

Christen told an anecdote when she first came to SF AIDS Foundation, she was a hotline volunteer and for six weeks kept getting calls from a gay man in Mississippi whose partner was dying of AIDS and couldn’t get access to his lover in the hospital, so she got him in touch with ALRP to successfully help him through the legal process. She told a second anecdote concerning later when she was responsible for training hotline volunteers, she asked Hockenberry to assist with volunteers learning to deal with pressing legal issues for people with HIV. “His clarity, passion, and great calm was a tremendous comfort to the volunteers who were extremely anxious about taking their first call,” she said.

Jill DiGiovanni presented Attorneys of the Year awards to Yosef Peretz and Cary Kletter. “This team has worked with nearly 3,000 claims for ALRP, helping clients from marginalized socio-economic backgrounds who are facing employment discrimination or struggling against eviction or fighting real estate fraud,” said DiGiovanni. Peretz said they their practice is mostly based on public interest law. A typical client can be found in someone they helped a few days ago. The client has had AIDS for 15 years, just lost his job he has been working at for six years, and is facing homelessness now. “We look forward to many more years working with ALRP. My message to everyone here is to not be afraid to take public interest cases,” he said.

Peter Borkon, ALRP board co-chair gave out the Firm of the Year award to Buchalter Nemer Fields & Younger. The firm is 150 attorneys throughout the state. It has generously given a $25,000 grant, allowing ALRP to enter the highly competitive world of locating law firms. “We can now pay them to help us with our organization and our clients. The money will be used to directly serve our community,” said Borkon.

Wells Fargo Foundation received the Community Partner Award, presented by board member and fundraising development co-chair Jenna Whitman. She said Wells has come to their rescue this year and for many years in the past. For over 150 years Wells has contributed to various causes. They prioritize their giving to benefit communities with people of low income, which works well with ALRP, whose clientele amounts to over 80 percent whose income is less than $20,000 a year. “Wells has always been there for ALRP and our clients,” Whitman said. Lisa Stevens of the Wells Foundation accepted the award. “As the regional president for the Bay Area, I want to thank ALRP on behalf of myself as well as the other 7,000 members in the Bay Area,” she said. “I would like to congratulate all the honorees this evening. You’re the reason that we have such an amazing community. It’s the efforts of the individuals that create the greatness of the community.” She shared some startling figures. According to the Center for Disease Control, African American women represent a grossly disproportionate percentage of new HIV infections among women. In 2002, African American women made up 64 percent of reported new HIV infections. According to CDC, young women account for 58 percent of all new HIV cases among young people. “I’m so proud that the Wells Foundation over the last three years has given over $5 million in our footprint for AIDS and HIV organizations. But we must continue to give and volunteer so organizations like ALRP can continue to help people in times of need.”

Representative Nancy Pelosi sent certificates of special Congressional recognition to all the awardees and a special message to ALRP: “Congratulations to ALRP as you celebrate 21 years of service and to tonight’s honorees for your tireless efforts on behalf of persons living with HIV/AIDS. For more than twenty years ALRP’s volunteers and staff attorneys have provided free and low-cost legal assistance for those most devastated by the AIDS epidemic. I am grateful for your dedication and service. Earlier this year I wrote to the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson expressing my strong concern about the $4 million reduction in SF’s Ryan White allocation in seeking an explanation. This cut has had a devastating impact on HIV/AIDS services in the Bay Area, including the vital legal services provided by ALRP. I am proud to have secured language in an appropriation bill passed by the House of Representatives that would protect San Francisco and other major metropolitan areas from drastic cuts in the Ryan White funding in the future by directing HHS to revise its scoring process. This language will allow members of Congress to hold HHS accountable for future reductions in Ryan White funding in San Francisco and other metropolitan areas and will prevent disruption to essential ongoing services such as those ALRP provides.”

She concluded, “Congratulations to all. Working together we will defeat this epidemic and its devastating effect on our community.”

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