United Way Votes to Strip Cleland House of Funding

The United Way board voted unanimously Wednesday to halt funding of Cleland House on Dozier Street and to use the Latino social agency’s remaining money for this year to establish a summer youth program for area residents.

The East Los Angeles agency, which has been engulfed in controversy with United Way’s Metropolitan Regional Board over allegations of fiscal mismanagement and poorly run programs, had filed an appeal for the huge charity to continue allocating $163,000 to Cleland House, an amount that is almost the agency’s entire annual operating budget.

Instead the board, which has not allocated money to the agency since February, opted to spend the remaining $60,000 earmarked for Cleland House on a three-month summer youth program, which is scheduled to begin July 1, said Carlos Solis, chairman of the board’s allocation committee.

The board has not decided how it will allocate the $163,000, which would have gone to Cleland House, when the new funding cycle begins in July.

“The summer program will be structured and will hopefully be housed at the Cleland House,” Solis said, adding that the program will be run by an outside agency. “We are going to act as quickly as possible.”

Solis said he hoped Cleland House officials would be receptive to the idea.

“As long as the program is running is all that matters to me,” Cleland House Executive Director David Perez said when he heard of the board’s decision. “This gives us more time to figure out funding. We’re going to keep fighting.”

Before the United Way announcement, Richard Martinez, chairman of the board of Cleland House, said he and agency officials were reviewing options to keep Cleland House alive at least until the end of the summer.

“It is a good possibility that a third agency might be able to step in and maintain our programs for the summer,” Martinez said. “This would give our board a chance to look closely at the options, instead of offering a knee-jerk reaction.”

Perez, who heads the 68-year-old community agency that in the past has been called “the heart of the community,” said the Cleland House staff is going to great lengths to stay open.

“I am not giving up. We are moving forward,” he said, prior to the United Way decision. “We’ve submitted funding proposals to five places and the board is looking at several options. We will keep fighting. We will keep pushing.”

United Way’s removal of funding from Cleland House is another unhappy chapter in the social agency’s struggle to survive. In 1987, the agency’s Board of Directors discovered that the center was $485,000 in debt and dismissed then-Executive Director Carlos Venegas. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien on the center for unpaid payroll taxes.

The agency also has undergone personnel changes. At least eight executive directors have been hired, fired or have resigned during the past five years.

United Way officials said when the agency’s fiscal problems are resolved, Cleland House will be eligible to reapply for funding.