Food Project’s Funding to Go for Vouchers : Homeless: On the heels of being ousted from Plummer Park, the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition has now lost its city financing.

The Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, the group that for two years has fed scores of homeless people in Plummer Park, received another setback this week when the City Council voted to accept a task force recommendation to transfer funds from the coalition to a food voucher program.

The council’s decision, which came after midnight at Tuesday’s meeting, means that the coalition will no longer receive an annual payment of $30,000 from the city. It is one of several setbacks the group has experienced recently.

Earlier this month the city ordered the coalition to leave Plummer Park by March 6 after neighborhood complaints that the nightly feeding program was attracting crime and creating sanitation problems.

And last week, a major food source of the coalition’s dried up when Drexel Burnham Lambert closed its doors for good. The leftovers from Drexel’s lunchtime meals for its employees made up the bulk of the food that the coalition fed the up to 150 homeless people each night at Plummer Park.

“This is not a good time,” said Mike Dean, the coalition’s president. “But we are not going to let this get us down; we are going to continue to do the best we can to feed the homeless.”

The City Council’s 5-0 decision sets up a voucher system that will provide meals in fast-food restaurants, as suggested by a 17-member task force composed of residents around Plummer Park, advocates for the homeless and members of the food coalition.

Under the program, the Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center will receive a six-month allotment of $15,000, enough money to give roughly 23 people a day a $3.50 meal at a local fast-food restaurant. Vouchers will be issued only to people who are already taking part in another social service program.

“We can’t feed every homeless person in the county,” City Councilman Paul Koretz said. “The (coalition’s) program hasn’t worked for the city of West Hollywood. There were too many hustlers and drug addicts who were maintaining their habits on free meals. They were not being encouraged to change their situations.”

Besides, Koretz added, the city does more than most communities in combatting homelessness. Every night, the West Hollywood Park Auditorium becomes a shelter for about two dozen homeless people.

Despite the council’s vote in favor of the voucher system, several council members expressed concern that the program may leave many people hungry. Another question expressed was about the willingness of restaurants to participate in the program.

Councilman John Heilman said he wondered whether giving the contract to the gay and lesbian center would give the wrong impression that only gays and lesbians were being served. The council agreed to reevaluate the program after six months.

The city’s action against the coalition’s feeding program came after residents complained that they were afraid to use the park because it had become a hangout for criminals. The program was shut down briefly last fall, but the coalition mounted a successful campaign, led by celebrities and advocates for the homeless, to keep it open.

“The program has generated more support from stars and junk bond kings than it has from the community,” said Tad Bright, co-chairman of the Eastend Community Action Committee. “The park should be for everybody, but people are afraid to go there. Needles have been found in the sandbox. Seniors lock their doors at night and are afraid to come out.”

Community residents and city officials had asked the coalition to screen those who are served in its food lines, but the group refused.

“There is no way to screen people. Our philosophy has always been to feed all those in the line,” said Ted Landreth, a spokesman for the coalition.

Landreth said the group plans to temporarily relocate its feeding operation to a closed restaurant owned by hotelier Severyn Ashkenazy after the March 6 evacuation deadline. Residents in the neighborhoods surrounding the London Club restaurant at Beverly Place and La Cienega Boulevard have vowed to fight that move.

Eventually, Landreth said, the group plans to raise $111,000 to operate a mobile food van that would distribute food to the poor at several locations throughout the city.

“The problem is that everyone want to help the homeless, but no one wants them near their house,” Landreth said.