County Hopes to Modify Aid for Homeless

After a stormy session characterized by finger-pointing and name-calling, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to try to tighten up regulations that allow the homeless to obtain temporary county-financed shelter without identification.

The board, voicing alarm at a published report that emergency housing vouchers were being illegally peddled on the streets, voted 3 to 1 to instruct its lawyers to seek a modification of a year-old court order. That order voided a county requirement that the homeless present identification to qualify for temporary housing.

Legal Aid Foundation attorney Gary Blasi, whose organization helped win the court order, said he would oppose any attempt to modify it. He called the board action “an irrational attempt to deal with a simple problem.”

Hotels Cited

In an interview, Blasi said the problem of wrongful use of these emergency housing vouchers is not widespread. But he said it does go on because some hotels that provide accommodations do not comply with county rules to avoid fraud.

Casting the only “no” vote at the meeting, board Chairman Ed Edelman also said that a modification of the court order would not solve the problem.

Edelman reminded his colleagues that as recently as last Friday--before reports of the alleged fraud appeared in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner--welfare officials had warned supervisors that cutbacks in welfare caseload workers could lead to more errors and fraud.

“While fraud is to be deplored,” Edelman told his colleagues, “it should be kept in mind that we have refused to provide the necessary personnel to keep up with (the rising welfare) caseloads.”

Since 1981, when conservatives assumed control of the five-member board, more than 1,600 employees have been cut from the Department of Public Social Services, which administers the welfare programs. Both Edelman and Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who was absent Tuesday, have consistently opposed those reductions.

Last week, the welfare system became the center of controversy when Eddy Tanaka, director of the department, reported that an unexpected increase in the homeless required an additional $21.7 million for the department’s budget. But the board majority, faced with a fiscal crunch, would agree only to place the money in a reserve account, from which Tanaka presumably will have to seek budget augmentations throughout the year.

Tanaka also was unable last week to win support for 130 additional employees to handle the rising caseload. He reported that of about 9,000 general relief applicants per month, more than half are considered homeless.

Denied Responsibility

Conservatives Pete Schabarum and Michael Antonovich were unwilling Tuesday to assume responsibility for the problems and laid the blame instead primarily at the doorsteps of the American Civil Liberties Union, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Leon Savitch and the social services department administration.

Savitch issued a temporary injunction last year in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the homeless by several welfare rights organizations and the ACLU. In that court order, the county was barred from requiring identification from applicants for homeless relief although county officials are permitted to try to verify the identities of applicants.

Tanaka alerted the board last month that the social services department and the district attorney’s office were investigating an apparent fraud.

“I really haven’t discovered that many cases,” Tanaka told the board Tuesday. “I don’t know if there are 10 of these cases, 3 of the cases or 100.”