Salvation Army Center Feeling Pinch : Economy: Donations have fallen off sharply, official says. State’s lingering troubles are blamed.

A local center for the Salvation Army, one of the nation’s oldest institutions for needy and troubled people, has fallen on hard times itself.

Donations of such staple items as clothing and furniture--which are restored by staff members and sold, have fallen off sharply, said Lt. Glen Doss, who heads the Canoga Park center.

The decline is being felt at many of the organization’s 17 rehabilitation centers across California, reflecting the state’s continuing economic slide, Salvation Army officers said.

The center’s staff members, with the help of residents, operate a wood repair, upholstery and paint shop, where donated goods are restored for sale at retail stores in Agoura Hills, Simi Valley and Canoga Park.

The Canoga Park store also sells collectible items, bric-a-brac and antique furniture, collected from Bell Canyon to Calabasas.

April store sales fell 20% compared to a year ago, Doss said. Calls to pick up donated goods fell from 482 in the first two weeks of May last year to 408 this year, a 15% drop. In recent months, clothes sorters at the center have been sent home early for a lack of donations.

Profits from the stores are used to provide shelter and counseling for 54 homeless men in various stages of alcohol or drug recovery, and support the 77-person staff that repairs and restores items for sale.

“A number of businesses in the area have been cutting back their employees, and I think that cuts back the amount of things that people discard,” Doss said.

In Van Nuys and Santa Monica, rehabilitation centers also are feeling the pinch caused by the state’s lingering economic troubles, said Maj. Don Mowery, second in command of the statewide operations for the rehabilitation centers. Outlets that serve such agricultural areas as Bakersfield and Fresno also are suffering, he said.

Past recessions have increased crowds at the 159 retail outlets across the state in search of a deal, but the lingering economic bad times are having the opposite effect this time, Mowery said.

“People aren’t buying at the Salvation Army--they’re not buying anywhere. And since they’re not buying, they’re not giving,” Mowery said.

To bolster donations, the center here has launched a “bagging and tagging” campaign, leaving flyers at neighborhood homes where they make scheduled pickups, Doss said.

In addition to leafletting, telephone solicitors now work eight hours a day contacting past and prospective donors.

“We were doing very well 24 months ago, not so well 12 months ago, but it picked up in the fall and winter,” said Doss, mapping the decline.