Head of South-Central Gang-Fighting Agency Assails Lack of Money : Inner city: He says most of the funding goes to areas where problem is less severe. His own youth organization may have to close down.

The operator of an anti-gang agency alleged Thursday that his and other South-Central Los Angeles organizations get only a small fraction of government money allocated to fight gangs, even though South-Central has what authorities say is the county’s worst gang problem.

Chilton Alphonse, director of the Community Youth Sports and Arts Foundation, said at a news conference that many small South-Central-based groups that fight gangs must struggle to make ends meet. At the same time, agencies based in areas where gang problems are not as severe--such as East Los Angeles and the South Bay--are operating on multimillion-dollar budgets.

Alphonse said his agency is on the brink of closing for lack of money--a fate, he said, that is shared by several other youth- oriented agencies in South-Central.

Directors of some of those agencies contacted Thursday agreed with Alphonse’s assessment.

Only one grass-roots, anti-gang agency in South-Central Los Angeles gets money from Gov. George Deukmejian’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning, those directors said. They added that the lion’s share of city and county anti-gang funds is allocated to the East Los Angeles-based Community Youth Gang Services.

“The money goes to outlying areas. It’s as if we don’t exist here,” said Leon Watkins, who operates a South-Central telephone hot line that, among other things, aids youths who want to get out of gangs.

“We exist when they need somebody to help people,” he said, “but not when it comes to getting money.”

Money for agencies such as Alphonse’s and Watkins’ generally is allocated by the county Board of Supervisors, the City Council and the state criminal justice office.

G. Albert Howenstein Jr., executive director of the criminal justice office, said the problem at the state level is not unfair distribution of money, but not enough money to go around.

“There is a limited amount of money available from the state, therefore we must allocate it on a competitive basis,” Howenstein said in a statement read by an aide. “We can only evaluate and award the dollars based on the criteria . . . established by the Legislature.”

Howenstein’s office allocated about $5 million for anti-gang programs statewide last year, the aide said. About half of that money went to Los Angeles County, she said, but a detailed breakdown was not available.

Steve Valdivia, director of Community Youth Gang Services, agreed that the problem is one of insufficient money all around. He said he is not to blame for the funding problems at other agencies, adding that they compete for available money just as he does.

Valdivia also noted that two-thirds of his field workers are employed in and around South-Central Los Angeles.

County officials could not be reached to respond to Alphonse’s contentions.

City Councilman Nate Holden said most small agencies lack the expertise to write proposals that could get them a larger share of the pie.

Alphonse said his agency needs about $400,000 annually to operate, but so far this year expects to receive only about $102,000 from the city to run the agency’s alternative school, its recreation and enrichment programs and twice-weekly classes for parents of youths at risk of becoming involved in gangs.

His agency is already $50,000 in debt, Alphonse said, and will have to close its doors unless it receives at least that amount in the next few weeks.

Alphonse noted that, in contrast to his organization’s funding, Community Youth Gang Services receives more than $2 million annually through contracts with city and county government. And a South Bay-based anti-gang program, he said, has been allocated $1.9 million from the state.

Watkins said he has received no direct government money to run his telephone hot line in the four years it has existed, even though he said he has applied for every grant he was aware of. However, his $1,600-a-month salary is paid under a subcontract with Community Youth Gang Services.

V. G. Guinses said his 20-year-old Save Every Youngster Youth Enterprise Society, receives more government money--$400,000 annually from the state--than any other grass-roots agency in South-Central.

Even so, he said, he often feels he has been given “a water pistol to put out a forest fire.”