Most Cities Spend Little on Homeless : Services: A USC study ranks the region last in providing assistance. Most municipalities either refuse to recognize the seriousness of the problem or expect county government to deal with it, the study says.

San Gabriel Valley has the second-largest homeless population among the seven regions of Los Angeles County, but ranks next to last in spending for the homeless, according to a new USC study.

“The San Gabriel Valley seemed to have the least level of engagement with the issue of homelessness,” wrote the report’s authors, Jennifer R. Wolch and Robin M. Law of the Los Angeles Homelessness Project, a USC-based research group. The 65-page report, released last month, examines the homelessness policies, population and spending of 85 Los Angeles County cities, based on 1990 U.S. Census figures and 1992 surveys.

According to the report, only nine of the 34 cities in the San Gabriel Valley area spend money on programs specifically for the homeless: Covina, El Monte, La Verne, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Pomona, Santa Fe Springs, West Covina and Whittier. The amount spent in 1991 ranged from 12 cents per capita to $3.22 per capita.

By comparison, the report notes, the per-capita spending on programs for the homeless in Santa Monica was $11, and in West Hollywood, the amount was $15--about 13 times more than the city of Los Angeles spends.

The authors criticize “the paucity of municipal efforts on behalf of the homeless.” But it singles out Pasadena as the one city in the valley that responds to needs of homeless people.

Municipal spending on the homeless has no apparent relation to a city’s size, the report says. For instance, West Hollywood, with a population of 36,000 and 156 homeless people, spent about $400,000 on programs for the homeless in 1991; Pomona, which has 132,000 residents and 217 homeless people, spent $27,000.

City leaders have found fault with the study’s findings, saying no matter what the cities’ overall populations might be, they have small or nonexistent homeless populations. And although they might not have programs aimed solely at the homeless, they said, they do fund programs that help that group.

The cities point to 1990 Census figures showing few or no homeless people in their areas, figures that are cited in the report. But the study’s authors say they used the figures to point out how inaccurate they are, and that studies in Monrovia and Pasadena showed that those cities had homeless populations far greater than the Census found.

According to the USC study, more than half the cities in Los Angeles County spend no money on the homeless, and about a third have ordinances forbidding loitering and panhandling, laws that the study says can be used “to harass and expel” the homeless. Monrovia--one of the cities that spends no money specifically on the homeless--has an ordinance against disrobing, bathing or shaving in public, the report noted.

But an assistant planner in Monrovia said it is unfair to evaluate the city’s response to the homeless based only on those criteria. The planner, Vance Pomeroy, said the city’s General Plan development guide, approved in February, includes a policy to work with local social service groups on programs for the homeless and amend zoning ordinances to allow transitional and emergency housing.

Pomeroy also said a nonprofit social service group, the Monrovia Unity Center, and local churches help the homeless in the city.

Most cities consider the homeless a problem for county government or refuse to recognize the seriousness of the problem, co-author Wolch said in an interview.

“There is a very serious maldistribution of effort in terms of what cities in the region are providing services,” Wolch said. “We hope the report will stimulate discussion about fair share.”

In the San Gabriel Valley, city officials tend to pass the buck, said Joe Colletti, area director of Lutheran Social Services, a nonprofit group based in Pasadena that helps the homeless throughout the valley.

“I think the other cities just see cities such as Pasadena and El Monte as servicing the homeless population, so they don’t get involved,” Colletti said. “I think there are some cities that outwardly deny that there are any homeless in the community. . . . Others know there are homeless in the community and don’t want to do anything, period, out of fear that all of a sudden they’ll become a magnet for the homeless.”

Pasadena has 10 shelters and has spent about $6.2 million on programs for the homeless since 1983. El Monte helps homeless people through the El Monte-South El Monte Emergency Resources Assn. and spends about $47,000 on emergency programs.

According to the report, four of the San Gabriel Valley’s 10 largest cities, with populations exceeding 50,000, spend nothing on the homeless: Alhambra, Baldwin Park, Monterey Park and Rosemead.

But in interviews, officials in Alhambra, Baldwin Park and Monterey Park said their cities are among those with few or no homeless people. They also said their cities do fund programs that help the homeless; counseling and job-skills programs, for example, are open to the homeless as well as to other city residents, they pointed out.

“To say we don’t spend anything sounds pretty cold,” said Monterey Park City Manager Chris Jeffers. “We have a number of other programs that support (the homeless).” For example, he said, the city gives money to the Chinatown Service Center, which provides walk-in counseling services and housing assistance programs that are available to the homeless.

In Rosemead, Assistant City Manager Donald Wagner said the city has other priorities. Rosemead’s current $15-million budget includes $130,000 for a substance-abuse education program, $25,000 for the Rosemead Boys and Girls Club and $30,000 for a Fourth of July parade.

“We’re spending money on kids and families,” Wagner said. He said no groups for the homeless have requested money from the City Council.

But LaQuetta Bush-Simmons, a shelter director in Pomona, pointed out that children and families are among the homeless. Bush-Simmons, director of the Pomona-Inland Valley Council of Churches shelter, remembers a day last year, just before Christmas, when she heard a woman at the shelter door asking for toys for her children.

The voice sounded familiar; the woman turned out to be a high school acquaintance.

“I did everything in my power not to make her feel uncomfortable,” said Bush-Simmons, 27, who grew up in Pomona. “But it’s devastating, because you always have this dream that everyone’s going to grow up and do well.”

Most homeless people who end up at the Pomona church group shelter are people who used to have homes in San Gabriel Valley, said Pat Irish, executive director of the Pomona-Inland Valley Council of Churches.

“I think a lot of cities think if they do anything for the homeless, they’re going to attract the homeless, but in fact, most cities have homeless (people),” Irish said. “They are a part of their people, and they have been residents.”

Homeless in the San Gabriel Valley

Only nine of 34 San Gabriel Valley cities spend money on the homeless, according to a new report by the Los Angeles Homelessness Project, a USC-based research group. The study singled the San Gabriel Valley out as a place that overall spends little on its homeless population. Homelessness population and spending by region

% of county’s Spending Homeless homeless in 1991 population population San Gabriel Valley $388,000 1,386 12% San Fernando Valley $387,000 147 1% Central $453,000 730 6% South Bay $407,000 658 6% Westside $1,300,000 723 6% North County $507,000 49 0% City of Los Angeles $3,200,000 7,706 68%

Homelessness population by city and per-capita spending on the homeless

Spending Population per capita Alhambra 54 0 Arcadia 2 0 Azusa 0 0 Baldwin Park 3 0 Bradbury 0 0 Claremont 0 0 Commerce 190 0 Covina 54 32 cents Duarte 0 0 El Monte 415 28 cents Glendora 0 0 Industry 6 0 Irwindale 0 0 La Habra Heights 0 0 La Puente 1 0 La Mirada 0 0 La Verne 0 13 cents Monrovia 0 0 Monterey Park 0 0 Pasadena 250 $1.06 Pico Rivera 23 $1.05 Pomona 217 20 cents Rosemead 3 0 San Dimas 0 0 San Gabriel 0 0 San Marino 0 0 Santa Fe Springs 1 $3.22 Sierra Madre 0 0 South El Monte 106 0 South Pasadena 0 0 Temple City 0 0 Walnut 0 0 West Covina 0 12 cents Whittier 61 64 cents

Source: Los Angeles Homelessness Project, USC Note: Population figures are for 1990, spending figures are for 1991. The USC report includes as San Gabriel Valley cities some cities not traditionally considered part of the valley.