May 09, 2008  |  By: JOEY DiGUGLIELMO  | COMMENTS     

A Washington clinic that provides free health services for the Latino community has spent only a fraction of the funds it received through two unprecedented 2006 Centers for Disease Control & Prevention grants, raising concerns among some local trans activists that the money is being mismanaged.

La Clinica Del Pueblo, located on 15th Street N.W., was one of 23 organizations around the country that received a grant to establish behavioral interventions for high-risk young men of color who have sex with men.

Amounts varied among the organizations awarded grants but funds for each will be doled out in equal amounts annually for five years. La Clinica was allotted $198,939 the first year, one-fifth of the $994,695 that will be available to the organization by the time the five-year period ends in 2011 (years run September to September; grantees were announced in September, 2006).

La Clinica received another CDC grant that, over the course of the same five-year period, will be worth $991,605. This grant was awarded to implement behavioral interventions for high-risk young transgender women of color. La Clinica was one of only five organizations that successfully applied in that grant category.

But the delay in opening a transgender youth outreach center has given some in the Washington Latina trans community the impression that La Clinica staff is either wasting a rare opportunity or misusing the funds.

Long-time Latino activist Ruby Corado, who’s transgender and claims to have urged La Clinica to apply for the funds, is the most vocal.

“I really don’t think there’s any corruption, but I mean, come on — this is only a five-year program,” Corado said. “We’re two years into it and nothing. Can’t they at least hand out some condoms or something? What are they doing with this money?”

Corado alleges that several e-mails and meetings she’s had with involved parties — including CDC Project Officer Janice Norwood — have not resulted in action and she’s alarmed.

Of a December meeting Corado had with Norwood, Corado said the CDC officer “didn’t seem too interested in hearing a lot of it.”

Norwood directed Blade calls seeking comment to the CDC’s media relations department. Several messages left with the CDC were not returned.

Catalina Sol, HIV/AIDS department director for La Clinica, said she understands the frustration some in the local trans community feel about the project’s status but said several factors have led to delays beyond her organization’s control.

“We were ecstatic to be awarded these funds,” Sol said. “But there’ve been a number of factors for the delays. It’s no secret to us or to the participants that this has been much slower than we’d hoped and that some people are frustrated. But we’re working hard to be transparent and we’re always looking for opportunities to get the word out.”

Sol, who’s straight, cited challenges with the facility, age restrictions on the grant and staffing as the main obstacles to getting the trans program running.

La Clinica signed a lease agreement for a site on Mt. Pleasant Road to house the youth trans program but said renovations there have been more extensive than anticipated.

“It’s just a different level of renovation than we realized,” Sol said. “We expect to be in the site, with God’s blessing, by June.”

La Clinica forged ahead with that location because it’s “the most suitable site” and “prime space,” Sol said.

“We thought it was worth the effort,” she said.

Some of the grant money can be used for site renovations.

There’s also been some confusion within the trans community about the age stipulations included in the CDC grant, which limit the resources to benefiting those between ages 13 and 24. La Clinica is targeting young people between ages 18 and 24 for both the trans grant and the one for young men who have sex with men.

Most trans La Clinica regulars are active in a support group called Mariposas (butterflies in Spanish). One trans woman from New York, who was hired to coordinate the program, said she, like the support group members, misunderstood the terms of the grant.