Chicago LGBT Health Clinic Must Pay Back Misspent Federal Grant Money

Chicago's venerable Howard Brown Center, which provides invaluable health services to the city's LGBT population, must repay over $700K in federal grant money that was meant to be used for an HIV study.

The deal comes two years after the health clinic network announced the federal Department of Health and Human Services was investigating Howard Brown officers' use of federal money from a grant for an HIV/AIDS study to pay for the agency's operating costs. "This is all behind us now," said [Jamal] Edwards, who took the helm of the health clinic network in 2010, after allegations of misspending became public. The Uptown-based health clinic was founded in 1974 and provides health care and research primarily focused on the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community.

Shortly after Edwards took over in 2010, Howard Brown teetered on the verge of closure after the financial mismanagement of its former officers was revealed. The Center notes that the feds could have demanded as much as $3 million in fines. Close call.