CITY WATCH : Keep Faith With Hope

The Los Angeles City Council will have some tough decisions to make next week when it takes up Mayor Richard Riordan’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, but at least one vote should be easy: fully funding Riordan’s $5-million request for the Hope in Youth anti-gang program.

That money will help maintain the momentum that began to build two years ago when Hope in Youth was first launched by a broad coalition of neighborhood groups and local churches. They aim to divert impressionable young people away from gangs before they are drawn so deeply into gang life that there’s just no getting out. They assign specially trained teams of teachers and social workers to interact not just with young people but with their families, so that the cycle of failure (in school and at home) that pushes kids toward gangs is attacked from all sides.

Starting out with church grants, Hope in Youth has since been able to get support from the city, county and state. Some federal funding is even included in President Clinton’s crime bill, but assuming that money is approved by Congress--no sure thing--it would not begin to flow until 1995.

In the meantime, Hope in Youth must reach out to all parts of the city and demonstrate to skeptics that this program is for everyone in need. That can be done only if the city expands its support from the current $2.5 million to $5 million, as Riordan has requested.

Hope in Youth is a sound investment in reclaiming neighborhoods all over town from the gangs. It deserves wholehearted support.