Chicago's LGBT Health Center Facing Closure Over Financial Mismanagement

Chicago's Howard Brown Center, which provides health services to the city's LGBT community, is facing closure over alleged financial mismanagement by the organization's top officers. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Jamal Edwards — who was appointed president and CEO of Howard Brown in June after two top executives were dismissed — said the Lakeview-based center needs to raise $500,000 before the end of the year or it may cease operations. Edwards said more than $3 million in grant funds — part of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, or MACS, which has tracked thousands of men infected with HIV since the mid-1980s — were mishandled between 2006 and March of this year. An internal review conducted by the center found that some of the grant money was used to cover general operating expenses at Howard Brown, Edwards said. The National Institutes of Health launched an investigation into the financial problems and has referred the matter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' office of inspector general.

The Center provides primary health services to over 6000 LGBT Chicagoans, many of whom with HIV and AIDS.