The federal Human Resources Services Administration has proposed cuts to Atlanta’s Minority AIDS Initiative budget of the Ryan White Program, which could mean a loss of nearly $1.7 million for 2008 and 2009 budgets. With 38,000 Georgia residents living with HIV/AIDS, roughly 26,600 of them live in the Atlanta area.

An estimated 430 positive people may lose full access to mental health services as a result of these cuts while about 450 of them may lose access to social services for dental care.

Voting on budget appropriations is scheduled to begin this month.