Officials Say Reagan Cuts Imperil Valley Social Services

They are such a small part of President Reagan’s budget-cutting plan that they have attracted little attention.

But proposed cuts in federal funding for human services would cause crippling curtailments of a number of San Fernando Valley programs, ranging from a shelter for runaway girls to a “boozer cruiser” for picking up drunks on the street, Los Angeles officials say.

Reagan’s proposed budget for fiscal year 1986, if approved by Congress, would cut the $11.6 million allocated this fiscal year to community agencies throughout Los Angeles by 44%, city officials say. The funds are provided under two federal programs, the Community Services Block Grant and the Housing and Community Development Block Grant.

In the Valley, about two dozen agencies received slightly more than $2 million of that amount to provide services to low-income, unemployed, elderly or disabled residents.

How individual programs would be affected by federal cuts depends in part on how the City Council, or, in a few cases, the county Board of Supervisors, decides to divvy up the funds remaining after Congress puts its touches on the Reagan budget.

Another factor is to what extent an agency depends on federal dollars to carry out its programs.

Tough Test in House

Reagan’s proposed budget, aimed at reducing the federal deficit, is expected to face its toughest test this week in the Democrat-controlled House.

The Senate’s Republican majority has approved one of Reagan’s proposals, a 10% cut in Housing and Community Development Block Grant funds, which account for $7.6 million of the $11.6 million Los Angeles agencies received this year.

A second proposal by Reagan to eliminate the community services grant would take away the other $4 million. The Senate approved only a 36% cut in this grant. (Nationwide, these two cuts account for about $750 million that Reagan proposes to lop off a federal budget deficit expected to exceed $230 billion next year.)

The Housing and Community Development Block Grant was established in 1974 by President Gerald R. Ford, and the Community Services Block Grant was established in 1981 by Reagan. They replaced programs such as the urban renewal program, under which the federal government provided aid to cities and counties for specific purposes. Under block grants, cities can set their own priorities for spending within broad federal guidelines.

Question of Survival

Officials of the tax-supported programs who have become accustomed to depending on federal funding are understandably concerned.

“I don’t know how we can survive if there’s a cut,” said Avanelle Smith, director of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, which receives $122,870 in federal funds to provide outreach services and transportation to the elderly poor. The outreach service involves sending staff members to tend to the needs of the ill or disabled who are unable to go to senior-citizen centers.

Connie Friend, director of the Women’s Employment Action League in Tarzana, said that, without its $20,000 federal grant, the organization would have to cancel a job-training program for women.

“We’re not talking about a frivolous thing here,” Friend said.

“These are women who have never worked,” she said. “They’ve been housewives (who) because of divorce, widowhood or their husbands (who must earn less than $4,980 a year under the program) don’t make enough money, have to find jobs.

“We assess their skills. We do assertiveness training. We teach them how to interview for a job, how to write a resume. Once they feel good about themselves, we help them find a job,” Friend said.

Positive Results Seen

Friend contended that the program saves taxpayers more money than it costs.

“We’re taking people off welfare and putting them to work,” she said. “If they’re working, they’ll be paying taxes.”

Joe Fish, research analyst for ADEPT (Assisting the Disabled with Employment Placement and Training), said that, without its $53,655, the agency would have to cancel its weekly radio show about the disabled and cut back on a program under which information about community services is provided to the handicapped.

Fish said the radio show, which is heard Sunday nights on radio station KMPC-AM (710), is designed to provide information to the public about the disabled. “There is still a tremendous amount of prejudice against disabled people,” he said. “The purpose of the radio show is to try to break down some of these barriers that are keeping the disabled from entering the mainstream.

“It’s to the benefit of taxpayers to assist them into getting into the mainstream” rather than keeping them on public assistance, Fish said.

Boozer Cruiser

Another Valley program dependent on its $44,482 federal grant is the boozer cruiser, which picks up people who are drunk in public and takes them to a detoxification center.

Carol Nottley, who runs the program, formally known as the Valley Civilian Assistance Patrol, said she doubted the year-old program would survive if federal funds were cut.

However, mid-Valley Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who has made the boozer cruiser a pet project, said he would find city funds to continue its operation.

Bernardi, who has a reputation for frugality where taxpayers’ funds are concerned, said he not only supports Reagan’s proposed cuts, but doesn’t believe they go far enough.

“I can’t think of anything more urgent than reducing the federal budget deficit,” he said. “Everybody has to make a sacrifice.”

Meanwhile, another federally funded Valley program, Activities for Retarded Children, operated for more than 10 years without taxpayer support, according to its director, Dixie Henrikson.

The group provides recreational activities to about 150 retarded children and, despite its name, to adults as well.

Not Just Recreation

“Some people think of recreation as fun only,” said Henrikson, one of two mothers of retarded children who founded the organization in 1970. She said that recreation helps teach the retarded to become independent through “social interaction,” an effort, which, if successful, will save taxpayers the cost of caring for the retarded in institutions.

The $50,948 federal grant accounts for about a third of the group’s budget. The rest comes from private contributions.

Federal funds primarily are used to pay for the salaries of two full-time workers, each earning less than $15,000 a year, and to rent a small house that doubles as an office and game room. For 10 years before they received federal funds, Henrikson said, she and her co-worker, Mary Schallert, ran the program full time out of their homes without pay.

Henrikson said that, if federal funds are cut, “Mary and I would have to go back to a volunteer staff. We shouldn’t be asked to do that any longer.”

Less certain about the effect of the proposed cuts is the director of the Avila Respite Shelter, a haven for runaway girls from the ages of 12 to 18.

Location a Secret

The six-bed facility, which its director says is the only one of its kind in the Valley, opened in April. Its location is kept secret to protect the girls, some of whom left home because they had been assaulted by a parent, said Carlyn Lampert, the shelter’s director.

“We’ve been full ever since we opened our doors,” Lampert said. She said the shelter provides counseling to girls and their parents in the hope of reuniting them. Where there can be no reconciliations, as with girls who have been abused by their parents, the shelter serves as home until a permanent foster home is found.

Federal funds pay about half of the shelter’s $100,000 expenses, Lampert said, adding, “I don’t know how we could go on (without it).”

Without a facility such as hers, Lampert said, girls would be left to wander the street, where “they will become subject to all kinds of exploitation.”

PROGRAMS THAT MAY LOSE FUNDING

Program Federal Funds Activities for Retarded Children (North Hollywood) $50,948 Ahead with Horses (Sun Valley) $82,188 ADEPT (Assisting the Disabled with Employment Placement and Training, Van Nuys) $53,655 Avila Respite Shelter (location kept secret) $49,999 Better Valley Services (Van Nuys) $71,066 Bet Tzedek (Tarzana) $90,688 Boys Club of the San Fernando Valley (Pacoima) $56,270 Calvary Baptist Day Care Center (San Fernando) $77,874 Child Care Resource Center of the San Fernando Valley (Van Nuys) $43,236 Community Food Resources (Los Angeles) $84,042 Darrell McDaniel Independent Living Center (Van Nuys) $86,000 El Centro de Amistad Inc. (Canoga Park) $80,500 El Proyecto del Barrio Inc. (Pacoima) $79,034 Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley (Van Nuys) $15,000 General Interdenomination Assembly Church of the First Born (San Fernando) $160,190 Haven Hills (Canoga Park) $146,396 Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (Los Angeles) $26,644 Juvenile Justice Connection Project (Van Nuys) $69,754 Nova Opportunity Center (Burbank) $10,000 Pacoima Community Youth Cultural Center (Pacoima) $35,000 Pacoima Senior Citizens Service Center (Pacoima) $78,740 Project HEAVY (Human Efforts at Vitalizing Youth, North Hollywood) $90,000 San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic (Van Nuys) $107,650 San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council (Van Nuys) $122,870 San Fernando Valley Japanese-American Cultural Center (Pacoima) $80,634 San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services (Pacoima) $128,842 Valley Civilian Assistance Patrol (Van Nuys) $44,482 VBS Counseling Center (Reseda) $50,974 Visually Handicapped Adults of the Valley (North Hollywood) $98,121 Women’s Employment Action League (Tarzana) $20,000 TOTAL $2,190,797

Community shows sponsor’s center of operations. In cases where the sponsor is based in Los Angeles, only the share of money spent in the Valley is listed. Sources: Cities of Burbank and Los Angeles, Los Angeles County