Group Warns of Cuts in Social Programs

A coalition of community groups serving senior citizens, the poor and the disabled warned Monday that Orange County will lose millions of dollars in federal funds for housing and medical assistance if President Reagan’s proposed budget is approved.

Members of the newly formed group, the Coalition for Liberty, Health and Housing for All, spoke at a press conference in Santa Ana Civic Center and announced that a rally will be held Saturday at Birch Park in Santa Ana to pressure Congress to preserve financing for key social programs.

The impact of Reagan’s proposed budget on the approximately 200,000 disabled people in the county would be “like pulling the rug out from under the wheelchair,” said Paula Margeson, program director of the Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled in Garden Grove.

Shirley Cohen, executive director of the Feedback Foundation, which provides meals, transportation and housing help to senior citizens at several offices in Orange County, said the budget cuts would leave her clients “in dire straits.”

“We really don’t understand what the President was thinking of when he came up with this budget,” added Cohen. She criticized what she said was excessive spending on defense at the expense of social programs.

“We elected legislators to represent us and we’re hoping they’ll get the message . . . and not go along with the President’s plan,” Cohen said.

Maya K. Dunne of the Fair Housing Council of Orange County said that at least 300 people, including 100 senior citizens, were expected to attend the Saturday noon rally. Scheduled speakers include Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset; Joyce Owens Smith, president of the Urban League of Orange County; Morris Spatz of the Orange County Housing Authority Advisory Commission, and Amin David of Los Amigos of Orange County.

Dunne said Orange County congressmen and local legislators have been invited to the rally. However, a spokesman for Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) said the congressman would not be able to attend due to a previously scheduled event. The spokesman said it’s also doubtful whether Dornan will send a representative, since he supports Reagan’s budget.

Demonstrations Planned

The Saturday rally is one in a series of planned nationwide demonstrations to protest the Reagan Administration’s proposed cuts in housing and health programs, coalition members said.

Dunne said Orange County stands to lose more than $15 million in community development block grants, which provide funds to cities and the county for health clinics, housing rehabilitation and shelters for the homeless.

The budget for the federal fiscal year beginning next Oct. 1, which still must be considered by Congress, would also cancel a federal program that helps build housing for the elderly and disabled, said Talmadge Wright of the Fair Housing Council of Orange County.

Coalition members also said there would be cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, which provide health assistance for seniors and poor people. The dollar impact of these cuts on Orange County is not yet known, they added.

Severity Predicted

However, Margeson predicted that the cutbacks in housing assistance would be severe. She said many disabled people in the county receive fixed incomes of less than $600 a month, making it difficult for her group to meet its goal of having the disabled live independently as much as possible, rather than in institutions.

“When we face cuts such as these then we feel we are going back to square one,” she said.

Rabbi Henri Front, chairman of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, noted that the “huge, serious” cuts in housing programs envisioned by Reagan’s budget could be exacerbated by additional cuts forced on federal agencies by the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing bill.

Front, contending that the President’s budget would most hurt those who can afford it least, the very young and the very old, added: “The problem as we see it is the philosophy and approach of the government to the needs of people.”