Funding loss imperils campus HIV testing

Free, anonymous HIV testing on a half-dozen Long Island college campuses won't be available when classes resume this fall unless a Lindenhurst-based nonprofit receives an infusion of cash.

The Long Island Minority AIDS Coalition, which has sponsored the testing in conjunction with the New York State Department of Health, lost its Nassau County funding in April during a wave of cutbacks. The nonprofit organizes the local testing and provides a mobile van for the procedures. Health care practitioners from the state's Anonymous Counseling and Testing program conduct the tests.

Losing the $110,000 annual county allocation -- a quarter of the coalition's budget -- has put a range of services the nonprofit sponsors in jeopardy.

Operating out of a one-story building on Route 109, the coalition has served as an advocacy, policy and health services organization since the 1980s. With competition for funding from nongovernment sources becoming stiffer and community needs growing, the group is seeking money from private sources.

"We're hoping something turns up soon," said coalition executive director Rabia Aziz, noting that Nassau had provided funding annually since 1992.

Brian Nevin, spokesman for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, said eliminating allocations is painful but necessary "to rein in spending and prevent a property tax hike."

Dozens of other social service organizations that address the medical needs of Long Islanders, Nevin said, have also lost funding.

The anonymous HIV testing project has been conducted for nearly two decades on college campuses, including Hofstra, Adelphi, SUNY Old Westbury, C.W. Post, Farmingdale State College and Nassau Community College.

Dr. Debra Kaplan, a psychology professor at SUNY Old Westbury, has worked closely with the coalition and says its work is vital to all of Long Island.

"It would be a complete travesty and disservice not only to the college community but the community at large if they could not continue their important mission," she said.

Anonymous HIV testing for students of any ethnicity is only one of the coalition's roles. It has been providing HIV-prevention education in minority communities in both Nassau and Suffolk for more than two decades. Aziz and her colleagues also counsel homeless people and sponsor a syringe-access program for drug users.

All could be lost if funding isn't replaced soon. Aziz is applying to private foundations for grants in hopes of plugging the gap.

"I had to lay off our health educator because of the cutback," said Aziz, whose staff consists of herself, one other full-time employee and a part-timer.

The coalition's financial troubles have arrived, she said, as the HIV epidemic on Long Island has begun to gray with the aging of the population.

The local epidemic is additionally complicated, Aziz said, by the recent explosion of intravenous heroin use.

"We have the largest population of HIV-positive people in suburban America and actually more people than some states," added Aziz, citing state health department figures, which put Long Island's HIV population at 5,800.