Tucson HIV/AIDS groups face major cuts amid Trump admin reductions

Multiple Tucson organizations, including El Rio and SAAF, will lose funds and end programs after the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV/AIDS services.

On May 13, staff at the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation were notified via email that they would lose $1.5 million effective immediately from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that distributes grants to state agencies to fund clinical and support services for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Friday — two days before the start of Pride Month, and the same day the Trump administration cut a $258 million HIV vaccine research program — SAAF staff said they received another email from the Arizona Department of Health Services saying nearly $619,000 in funds for HIV testing and prevention had been frozen.

SAAF provides clinical services, as well as housing, mental and behavioral health support, to adults and youth living with HIV and AIDS. In an email to the Tucson Sentinel, SAAF Chief Development Officer Lee Bucyk said without the federal funds, the organization anticipated the loss of its housing and rental assistance programs, potentially affecting more than 100 clients, and cuts to its food assistance program and to dental benefits for clients living with HIV statewide. The organization said it would have to eliminate multiple staff positions without the funding. Bucyk said the emails attributed the defunding to changes in federal policy and federal stop-work orders.

In a statement, interim SAAF CEO Beth Morrison called the cuts “deeply unsettling” for both staff and the communities they serve.

“While these funding cuts are a serious setback, our commitment to providing life-affirming care and advocacy for those living with HIV, LGBTQ+ individuals, and communities marginalized by society remains unwavering,” Morrison said.

Staff at El Rio Community Health Center — the largest provider of HIV/AIDS treatment in Southern Arizona — said the clinic received notice from ADHS that reductions to their Ryan White funding were underway, which may result in changes to its sliding scale HIV/AIDS treatment programs.

In a staff email shared with the Sentinel, El Rio management said they were unaware of the extent of the funding cuts but were working on a contingency plan. El Rio spokesperson Nathan Holaway confirmed the clinic had lost some of its Ryan White funding from ADHS, as well as additional HIV/AIDS funding from HHS and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

“With this reduction in resources and support, El Rio Health is still committed to providing the same high level of care to our patients and community, to the best of our ability, as we continue to navigate through these challenging times,” Holaway said in a statement.

Arizona received $25.8 million in federal HIV/AIDS funding from the Ryan White program, named for an Indiana teenager who contracted HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion and died at age 18. The program, established in 1990, serves over half of the people diagnosed with HIV in the United States, and reported a viral suppression rate of 90.6 percent among patients in 2023, more than 25 percentage points higher than the national average.

Among the Ryan White grantees in Tucson are the University of Arizona, which operates the Petersen HIV Clinics at both Banner-UMC hospitals, and the Pima County Health Department. A spokesperson for the county health department said its programming using Ryan White funding had not been affected by the cuts. A UA spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry regarding the status of the Petersen Clinics’ funding.

The proposed HHS budget for fiscal year 2026 allots $2.498 billion for the Ryan White program, an $83 million reduction from the year prior, and eliminates the arm of the program funding dental care for people living with HIV and AIDS, as well as the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund, which supports people of color who have, or are at risk for HIV and AIDS. According to government data, three out of every four new HIV diagnoses are among racial and ethnic minorities.

Federal officials said in the budget report that many of the country’s health programs were “redundant,” citing 27 separate programs that address HIV/AIDS in fiscal year 2024, totaling $7.5 billion in spending, as an example. The agency said it had no plans to eliminate HIV/AIDS funding completely, only to “streamline” the many “complex and duplicative” health programs at HHS.

Scott Blades, executive director of the Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network, or TIHAN, said in an email he was concerned by the effect the cuts could have on TIHAN’s clients, many of whom are low-income seniors who rely on government programs for medical care.

“The reality is that new cases of HIV continue to happen (an estimated 31,000 per year in this country), and those numbers are likely to increase if the government cuts back on funding for prevention and testing,” Blades said. “We’ve made so much progress over the years, and this seems to be a big step backwards, putting our community at greater risk.”