Santa Ana : Relocation Aid Program Will Request More Funds

The City Council will be asked at its next meeting to provide an extra $25,000 to cover administrative costs of the relocation assistance program for tenants forced from slum dwellings by the city’s crackdown on substandard housing, officials said Thursday.

The money, if approved on Feb. 4, would be added to the $100,000 set aside for the program for fiscal 1984-85.

Five of seven council votes are necessary for budget changes, and it is uncertain whether supporters can muster enough votes.

A majority of the council voted against relocation assistance programs on three occasions before finally approving a plan last month.

Since the code enforcement program was dramatically expanded almost 10 months ago, the issue has spurred one of the hottest political debates in years in Santa Ana.

Phil Freeland, the city’s housing director, said Thursday that the money would come from federal funds allocated for salaries of positions that have not yet been filled.

A dispute regarding the program surfaced earlier this week when the city chose Feedback Foundation, a nonprofit organization best known for Meals on Wheels and other programs for Orange County’s elderly, to administer the relocation assistance program.

A proposal Feedback submitted called for its administrative costs to be taken from the $100,000 already earmarked for displaced tenants.

The David Coalition for Housing, a tenants’ group, opposed having the administrative costs paid from that fund, and more than 100 demonstrators urged the council to provide the extra money from the city budget.

The council approved Feedback’s proposal, but members also directed the city staff to analyze the federal grants budget to see whether other money might be available.

Officials estimate that 600 people so far have been forced to vacate their homes because of the crackdown.