Clinton Plan for Homeless Could Be L.A. Windfall : Funding: Administration is seeking to double funding to $1.7 billion and allocate it in proportion to the number of needy.

The Clinton Administration’s plan of attack on homelessness, unveiled earlier this week, holds the promise of vastly increased federal funding to fight the problem in Southern California.

The projected windfall for Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties would come because the Administration is seeking to double overall funds to combat homelessness to $1.7 billion, as well as to change the way such funds are distributed.

The Administration says it wants to assign money to areas in proportion to how many poor and unemployed people live there, rather than award them to the providers of services for the homeless who write the most persuasive grant proposals--regardless of their area’s needs.

“It’s a whole different theory,” said Phillip Johnson, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to figures released this week by the White House, local governments here could expect to receive $88 million next year to fight homelessness. Although that represents a substantial increase over current funding, the size of the increase could not be determined.

Administration officials released figures showing current levels of spending in the Southland to be $11 million a year, but admitted that the total did not include all funds. They said they were unable to provide a better estimate.

Despite the uncertainty, local officials and homeless advocates say they are pleased and optimistic about the Administration’s approach.

“It appears to mean at least a doubling--if not more--of the money that is directly targeted for homelessness by HUD to (L.A.) city and county,” said Gene Boutillier, director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a new government agency that will coordinate city and county homeless services.

Local governments in Los Angeles County would receive more than three-fourths of the funds targeted for the Southland, then hand them out to service providers in what federal officials hope will be a discerning, strategic manner.

“Our great strength (in Los Angeles) has been having lots of diverse organizations to address the problem,” Boutillier said. “The natural weakness that goes with that has been chaos.”

On any given night, advocates say, there are 43,000 to 77,000 homeless people in the county, said Ruth Schwartz, director of the nonprofit Shelter Partnership.

Considering the size of its homeless population, she said, “This region has really been shortchanged for years.”

The new funds would be in addition to $20 million to $25 million that HUD has committed to Los Angeles over the next three years for a pilot project aimed at achieving Secretary Henry Cisneros’ stated goal of reducing visible homelessness by one-third.

Plans for the pilot program are still being drafted by advocates and officials, and the proposal is not expected to be complete until mid-summer.

But some of those engaged in the work said this week that they hope to create a 60-square-mile target area, extending from the Eastside to Downtown and south to Willowbrook.

Key components of the developing plan are:

* More counseling of homeless people in encampments and on the street.

* Referral centers Downtown, along with satellite facilities in Pacoima, Glendale and the Westside, to steer the homeless to the most suitable services.

* Expansion of the current few dozen shelter beds for substance abusers who want to kick their habits.

* “Prevention funding” in the form of cash for families struggling to avoid evictions.

* Expansion of programs that offer a “continuum of care” from Downtown to the Eastside and South-Central Los Angeles.

One program that is viewed as a model worth replicating by many homeless advocates is the Los Angeles Men’s Place, which helps mentally ill homeless with a low-key, no-pressure, drop-in center, and short- and long-term housing.