At a community meeting Feb. 1, Alternative Health Partners Board President Rick Horowitz had little good news for clients and practitioners looking for answers about the 15-year-old agency's closing and where those affected would go from here.
He confirmed that the agency owes its creditors $207,000, and that Uptown National Bank has seized its accounts and evicted it from its 11th-floor space.
To the practitioners present, Horowitz said, "As of right now, you will not be paid."
"The agency has no money, we owe a considerable amount of money."
Not only will AHP not be able to make good on practitioners' checks that have bounced, it will not be able to pay any salaries for work after Jan. 15.
"I signed those checks in good faith," Horowitz said, noting that the agency's funds were frozen by Uptown National Bank shortly after the first checks were issued.
AHP's last day was Jan. 31, and the board hopes to be out of its space at the Uptown National Bank Building, 4753 N. Broadway, by Feb. 14. The bank, he said, must be paid about $120,000 it is owed by Feb. 9 or it will sue the agency.
About 15 people, including two practitioners from AIDSCare, attended the gathering, far fewer than were expected and with many key players missing. Only one other board member attended, and there were few full-time staff members. Also absent was former Executive Director Mike Brickman, who left the agency for health reasons in December after 10 years.
"I understand that this agency means a lot to all of you who are here tonight. I suspect that there's more people out there," Horowitz said. Some clients contacted after the meeting said they'd been told that it was cancelled along with a scheduled potluck dinner the night before.
Horowitz apologized for the potluck's cancellation. The person who planned the dinner didn't notify anyone on the board, he said, and "we were concerned for the safety of the space." Clients and staff said Horowitz called the agency after hearing about the dinner and said that anyone who tried to attend would be arrested.
Horowitz then moved on to discussion of the agency's bleak finances and some of the reasons it had ended up in its current predicament. Many of those problems stem from several events in December, he said.
According to Horowitz, around Dec. 21, the board discovered the agency was in dire straits and issued letters to four or five funders asking for $100,000 apiece.
One funder promised $90,000, which would have sustained the agency for a few months until other funding sources came through in the spring, namely federal Ryan White CARE Act funds. One week later, however, the funder backed out after hearing rumors about the nature of the agency's problems. Another funder later promised $20,000 and also backed out, and the agency lost $54,000 in a partnership with Advocate and $40,000 budgeted from the embattled AIDS Walk.
"My point is that things changed almost daily; the situation kept changing and changing," Horowitz said. "At the last board meeting ( on Jan.23 ) , we came to the realization that every road has really closed to us."
He noted that staff still applied for Ryan White funding, $400,000 that wouldn't arrive until the spring. "We don't have the luxury of waiting for that money," he said. "All of this happened to us pretty quickly."
But clients and practitioners have said they've known for months that things with AHP and its partner, AIDS Alternative Health Project, were headed south.
"The writing has been on the wall for awhile. It's an absolute shame that an organization like this would fall," said volunteer Warren Worsek.
Signs included an unscheduled weeklong closure last July that staff said happened because the agency couldn't afford to pay practitioners, and an extra week of vacation that the agency took after Christmas.
One staffer noted that he was directed in early January not to make any appointments for February. When he asked why, he wasn't given a reason, he said.
Volunteer Robert Lord said he noticed a change in the volume of care at the agency.
"There was less and less service and more and more of them clamming up," he said.
Lord and others also pointed to what they considered to be obvious fiscal mismanagement and unnecessary expenses.
Lord cited the agency's habit of buying lunch for practitioners and clients, and he pointed to the October Hope and Support fundraiser at the Four Seasons Hotel.
While Horowitz acknowledged that the agency actually lost money on last year's gala, he would not confirm Lord's claim that 31 tickets for the benefit were given away for free, at a cost of $100 apiece.
Horowitz said the board's focus right now is on finding a keeper of the medical records, a key area of concern for both practitioners and clients.
Legally, he said, the records must be held for seven years, and he has gotten confirmation from AHP satellite offices at the CORE Center and Sisters of Sobriety that they will keep their files. He is awaiting word from Bethany and Provident hospitals.
He confirmed that AHP began talks with Heartland Alliance several weeks ago to take over the records and continue services, but that the deal would have taken several weeks to work out—time the agency just didn't have.
At the urging of state Rep. Larry McKeon, Horowitz said, AHP is also in talks with Howard Brown Health Center to take the records, but the agency's strongest option right now is the National College of Chiropractic's Chicago clinic.
Worst case scenario, the records would have to be stored offsite for seven years, he said.
Anyone taking the records would not take the clients, however, and many are left scrambling to maintain their care.
AIDSCare's Wellness Center, which offers many of the same services as AHP and AAHP, has made itself available, and many clients have already made arrangements to move.
After being unable to find an attorney willing to handle its eviction proceedings pro bono, Horowitz said the board thinks it has found someone to handle the agency's bankruptcy.
Attorneys contacted apparently told him the agency's problems were too complex or that "it wasn't sexy enough of any issue," Horowitz said.
Despite the finger-pointing and flurry of accusations, the meeting ended on a positive note.
"We all left on pretty good feelings," Lord, a volunteer, said. ""In spite of all of this they did still do some good. I have to acknowledge this."
One thing that has set AHP and AAHP apart, observers said, was the commitment of its staff, volunteers and practitioners, and up until the end people looking to help came by the agency to help box up records and clean the offices.
"How do we bury this agency with any kind of grace and dignity?" said staffer Jay Jackson. Practitioners have implored anyone looking to help the agency to donate what they can so that they can be paid. For more information on contributing to a practitioner salary fund, call ( 773 ) 561-2800, ext. 12, where board members should be retrieving messages.
Horowitz said a phone line with information will eventually be set up for clients and practitioners.
To contact AIDSCare, call ( 773 ) 935-4663.
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