A Fresh Approach to Homeless Aid : Washington provides major funding under a system that emphasizes local cooperation

The Clinton Administration is spending nearly $1 billion to help the homeless make a permanent transition from the streets and shelters to decent places to live. Advocates for the homeless are praising the newly announced funding especially because it comes in an era of fiscal difficulty and big national deficits.

The Housing and Urban Development Department, guided on this issue by Assistant Secretary Andrew Cuomo, former chief of New York City’s homeless program, required local governments and nonprofit service providers to develop a coordinated approach. Instead of competing, duplicating services or providing an isolated effort, they joined forces. In Los Angeles, the cooperation paid off with an award of $71 million.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority--a partnership created in 1993 after the city sued in the 1980s to force the county to provide increased general relief for homeless adults--took the lead in this ambitious effort. More than 50 nonprofit organizations, aided by volunteers, assembled a massive 1,200-page application. That hard work will pay off in more housing, treatment, job training and other services for 9,000 homeless families and individuals.

Mentally ill homeless people will get more places to live. Parents with substance abuse problems will get family housing. Homeless people who are released from hospitals will find temporary shelter. Homeless youngsters will get shelter, job training, counseling and other services.

Orange County, which has a growing homeless population, also will benefit. Aragon Affordable Housing Inc. was awarded $2.1 million, which will be used in conjunction with the Building Industry Assn. to construct permanent and affordable housing for battered women in Santa Ana. The YWCA will provide counseling and other supportive services. In La Habra, the Community Housing Assistance Program received $4.248 million to provide rental assistance to 60 homeless individuals, who will also receive job training and employment counseling.

California as a whole did well in the new funding. The state reaped $166 million. Homeless programs, and HUD, may not fare as well in the next budget. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) wants to shift more obligations to local governments in the form of block grants. That approach, if properly handled and adequately funded, will enable local governments greater discretion to make decisions, rather than having to accept federal imposition of methods that work in some places but may be unsuitable elsewhere.

Money alone won’t solve homelessness, but a targeted approach involving a variety of aid and incentives can help to break the time-weary cycle.