Nearly Half of Groups Seeking Huntington Beach Aid to Be Turned Away

The city can help only about half of the 30 charitable and nonprofit groups requesting money for community work this year, the City Council was told on Monday.

Like most cities in the nation, Huntington Beach annually gets a federal grant to help the community. The money is formally called a community development block grant.

Many charitable groups each year petition the city for a share of that federal money.

City officials said Monday, however, that there is simply not enough money to fund all the requests.

In a briefing to the council, city staff members said there are funding requests totaling $501,595 from 30 nonprofit and charitable groups this year.

The city, however, has only $218,850 to allocate from the federal grant, the staff said. While that is roughly $8,000 more than the city received from the federal government last year, local organizations are generally seeking more funding this year because of the recession.

An advisory group, the Human Resources Board, has recommended that the city give funds to only 16 of the 30 requesting agencies.

“Unfortunately, there are not sufficient funds for all of the groups that deserve funding,” the advisory board said in a written report.

No vote was taken on the issue Monday. The City Council, which generally follows the recommendations of its Human Resources Board, will decide the funding question at its May 18 meeting.

The Human Resources Board recommendations for funding are as follows:

Huntington Beach Community Clinic, $34,000; Legal Aid Society, $34,000; Episcopal Service Alliance (for caring for homeless), $9,000; Feedback Foundation, $12,250; Girls and Boys Club, $11,000; Interval House, $20,000, and Orange County Consolidated Transportation Service Agency (for transporting elderly and ill people), $17,500.

In addition, funding was recommended for: Community Services Program, $7,500; Shelter for the Homeless, $15,000; Boys and Girls Club of Huntington Valley, $7,600; Hotline of Southern California, $5,000; Orange Coast Interfaith (for temporary shelter for families), $5,000; Salvation Army, $7,500; Huntington Valley Adult Day Care, $5,000; Project Self-Sufficiency, $25,000, and Casa Youth Shelter (for homeless youth), $3,500.

Another advisory panel told the City Council it generally agrees with the recommendations. But that group, the Citizens Advisory Board, said it believes the Legal Aid Society should only get $24,000 instead of $34,000. The $10,000 cut from Legal Aid should be divided equally between the Shelter for the Homeless and Interval House, a shelter for battered women, the Citizens’ Advisory Board said.