COUNTYWIDE : Group Protests U.S. Gulf Policy

Two dozen demonstrators gathered Monday in front of the Federal Building in Santa Ana to protest American policy for the Persian Gulf and urge that money supporting the military buildup be diverted to domestic programs, especially housing.

The protesters, who displayed signs reading “Housing Now” and “No Blood for Oil,” said the demonstration marks the first of what are expected to be monthly lunchtime sessions outside the Federal Building.

“We’re not going to let the President go to war without opposition being heard in the U.S.,” said Tim Carpenter, an organizer of the HOUSING NOW! Coalition , which sponsored the protest. “Every dollar that we’re spending on the military is coming from the domestic side of the economy.”

Carpenter and other organizers said that at least 10,000 people are homeless in Orange County, a figure widely accepted by county officials as well as by advocates for the homeless. Avoiding a war in the Persian Gulf and withdrawing forces from that region would free millions of dollars for low-income housing, the protesters said. Such a move, they added, would benefit Americans more directly than a war against Iraq.

The demonstration attracted few bystanders, among them employees from the Federal Building going to and from their offices at lunchtime. Most brushed by the throng without stopping for long.

Among the bystanders, however, was one man with a double interest in the demonstration’s message. Abdel Hamid Hamdy, who stood on the periphery watching quietly, said he was born in Egypt, immigrated to the United States in 1982, and has been homeless periodically over the last several years.

“I agree with these people,” Hamdy said. “I like peace. If they use politics, even if it takes a long time, it’s better than war. . . . It is better for this country, and it is better for the Middle East.”

Carpenter said the demonstrators will be back at noon next Monday to resume their protest as the United Nations’ Jan. 15 deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait approaches. After that, he said, the advocates for the homeless plan to return to the site on the first Monday of every month to keep pressing their point.