Safety Net Stretched to $341 a Month : Welfare: The county’s general relief payment is raised $29. But the homeless and their advocates say it’s not enough for basic needs.

While Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to approve a $29 increase in monthly general relief payments for the destitute and often homeless recipients, Carl Harris told what it is like to live on $312--or now, $341--a month.

“The rents are too high so it’s pretty hard to make it,” Harris said as he waited in line at a jampacked Department of Public Social Service assistance office on Beverly Boulevard.

Tall, pale, and gray-haired, Harris, 50, said that for three years he had been collecting general relief, a form of county assistance available to those who are not eligible for any state or federal aid. For the 58,000 who receive the payment, it is the safety net of last resort.

But like many other recipients reacting to the new increase, Harris said it fell short of covering basic needs.

“I stay at a hotel for $75 a week,” Harris said. “Usually I pay for a couple of weeks and then go live in a shelter, or on the streets, for the rest of the month. You eat at the missions, or sometimes find private people who feed beans and rice on a sidewalk.”

The rate increase was part of a settlement reached between the supervisors and the city of Los Angeles, along with advocates for the homeless.

The city sued the county in 1987, accusing the county of failing to meet its responsibilities to the poor and homeless. A number of legal aid groups later filed a separate suit against Los Angeles County, which was consolidated with the city suit.

The settlement was approved Tuesday in a closed session of the County Board of Supervisors. The vote was 3 to 1 with the board’s new liberal majority of Ed Edelman, Kenneth Hahn and Gloria Molina voting to approve the settlement and conservative Supervisor Mike Antonovich dissenting. Supervisor Deane Dana was absent.

“The city of Los Angeles has been notorious in destroying low-cost housing in the downtown area and building high-rise commercial buildings and very expensive condominiums,” Antonovich said.

Molina, whose election in March provided the decisive vote to settle the lawsuit, joined Mayor Tom Bradley, City Atty. James K. Hahn and Edelman at a press conference Tuesday.

“About three months ago, I went from plaintiff to defendant on this case,” said Molina, who was a City Council member when the lawsuit was filed. “I don’t know if it’s appropriate or disloyal for me to thank the lawyers who sued the county. But I think on behalf of the people of L.A. County, they deserve our commendation.”

The number of general relief recipients has been steadily increasing, said Carol Matsui, social service department spokeswoman, who attributed a rise from 48,000 in March, 1990, to 58,000 in March, 1991, to problems in the economy. As opposed to state-funded welfare programs, the county itself pays the costs of general relief, Matsui added, which amounted to nearly $200 million in 1990.

The settlement will require the county board to find $38 million in its $11.1-billion budget to pay for the increased welfare costs.

The general relief payment, which has not been raised since 1988, has long been criticized by social service providers as not enough to cover the costs of housing. A survey of five downtown-area and Skid Row hotels found monthly costs averaged $350--more than the new stipend, which goes into effect July 1.

“Until we start getting welfare support that has some basis in reality we’re not going to have people able to utilize it to move ahead, get out of this,” said Mike Neely, director of the Homeless Outreach Program on Skid Row. “They’re just surviving.”

“Is it enough? Obviously not,” said Gary Blasi of the increase. Blasi is an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, which joined the city and other advocates for the poor in the suit.

“This was the maximum of what was legally possible at this time. The alternative was two or three more years of litigation, and the grant amount staying at $312.” Another key provision of the settlement is the elimination of the so-called “60-day penalty,” under which about 6,000 people are cut off general relief each month for violations of county rules, and replacing it with a less punitive system.