Ailing Economy Afflicts Clinic
Provider of HIV-AIDS Programs Cuts Its Staff, Sells Buildings to Survive
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
Moving day had arrived last month for the Whitman-Walker Clinic at 1407 S St. NW. For more than 20 years, the location had been an enclave for clients, volunteers and staff members in the effort to fight the spread of HIV-AIDS in the District.
Times had been rough recently, prompting the building's sale and a move to consolidated quarters around the corner, at 14th and R streets, to get out from under a mountain of debt.
But just when staff members thought they had reached bottom, the situation got worse.
The day after the move, the clinic announced that it would be forced to outsource some programs, close a clinic in Arlington County and lay off up to 45 of its 178 employees by the end of March.
"Clearly, this is a difficult situation for us," Donald Blanchon, Whitman-Walker chief executive officer, said in a statement. "The current state of the economy has forced us to make tough decisions."
The decisions have included abruptly laying off 15 veteran staff members without severance Dec. 19, four days after the S Street location was closed.
Whitman-Walker, which began life as a health center for gay men and grew into a nationally recognized provider of programs for people with HIV-AIDS, has been struggling with declining revenue and increased expenses because of an increase in patient care for most of a decade. But the faltering economy has made the clinic scale back even further.
"The clinic is not immune to anything that is going on," Blanchon said in an interview. "The days of Whitman-Walker Clinic being all things to all people is probably not practical now."
This recent round of layoffs will reduce staffing at the clinic by 25 percent. In 2005, the clinic had about 260 employees. By March, that number will have been reduced by almost half, Blanchon said.
Until she was let go, Patricia Hawkins was an associate executive director at the clinic.
On the Friday before Christmas, Hawkins said, a procession of employees entered Blanchon's office one at a time to learn their fates. Mary Bahr, a former director of administration and grant writer, was let go first. The last, Barbara Chinn, a former director of the Max Robinson Clinic in Southeast, would follow hours later.
"I had to keep back a tear or two as some of the clients said goodbye," said Chinn, who began working at the clinic in 1987. "I felt like I had walked out on a portion of my life. It was a little unnerving."
