Lack of Funds Forces Center to Trim Hours : Mental health: A federal grant was not renewed. The day facility, which provides counseling, job training and showers, is now closed on the weekends.

I will be lost in a crazy world. Step Up gives me security and safety to deal with life on the streets. Please help us homeless and mentally ill to keep Step Up open seven days a week.

--Message on wall of center

Pleas like this have been streaming in since Step Up On Second Street in Santa Monica was forced to close its doors on weekends beginning this month.

The day center, which provides counseling, vocational training and showers for recovering mentally ill people, was forced to cut back on its services when a $328,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor was not renewed for a third year. The loss of the grant, caused by a shortage of funds, also forced the layoff of half the center’s 12-member staff.

The lost money made up more than half the center’s annual budget of $598,000 for its day programs. The facility served about 250 visitors on a typical weekend, center officials said.

Susan Dempsay, the center’s executive director, said the community will feel the impact of the weekend closings of the center.

“If we did nothing but provide a shower and a shave and a sack lunch, we were taking some of the pressure off the community,” Dempsay said. “Panhandling will go up on weekends.”

Dempsay said she has applied for grants from other government and private sources to try to make up for the loss of the federal funds, but said that because of budget cutbacks everywhere, fund raising is difficult.

City officials have agreed to allow the center to shift $48,000 it provides for the weekend program to the weekday program, but said no additional funds could be provided now.

Dempsay said the center, which opened in 1985, faces further cuts if additional money cannot be found. She said the smaller staff is left drained at the end of each day and the reduced size poses potential problems in providing adequate services.

“You must have a stable staff for the sake of safety,” she said. “I would rather close the place if we end up just providing a place for people to hang out and not provide services.”

The center’s vocational training program helps homeless mentally ill people find permanent housing and jobs. The center has placed people with jobs at the city’s Farmers Market, the American Youth Hostel and the center’s thrift shop, and it operates a vending cart called “Fit To Be Tied,” from which used and new ties, scarves and related accessories are sold. The center hopes to operate a food cart soon.

Step Up also hopes to renovate and expand its facility to include a full commercial kitchen that would allow for the eventual opening of a restaurant to provide training for the center’s members as well as an additional source of funds. The plan also call for two floors of permanent housing for 20 to 30 people.

Step Up On Second is also involved in a three-year, $3.6-million joint project with the RAND Corp. and the River Community of Azusa, a residential treatment center, to study intervention programs for the mentally ill who also have alcohol or drug problems. The program, which operates evenings, is funded separately.

Meanwhile, the center’s “members” continue to go to the facility, wondering how long they will have a place to go. They vent their frustration by writing on sheets of paper that hang on the wall in the center’s lounge.

“I feel very disappointed in the system,” wrote one person. “When there are some of us mentally ill people who are trying to do better, cutting the days would only hurt us more.”

“Where are the priorities?” wrote another person. “The program works.”

Although the center does not provide overnight accommodations, many people sleep at the center during the day because they say it is dangerous to sleep at night in the streets.

“Where am I going to go now on weekends to sleep and shower?,” asked one man resting in the center’s lounge recently. “I guess I’m going to have to find a doorway and go to sleep there.”