Budget Cuts Imperil 15,000 Summer Jobs

Federal budget cuts are threatening to eliminate 15,000 summer jobs for low-income youths in Los Angeles, putting an end to many recreation, community cleanup and day-care programs and making for a long summer for thousands of idle teenagers.

The $870-million summer youth employment program--a national effort to hire low-income teenagers to work for nonprofit community groups--was scuttled by Congress during last year’s budget battles.

Although some lawmakers are fighting to restore a portion of the funding, Los Angeles officials have assumed the worst: This month they notified community groups to expect no money for the program this summer.

From the San Fernando Valley to Wilmington, youth program directors and city officials fear that the end of the decades-old program will leave thousands of youngsters unsupervised and tempted to cause mischief.

“This is going to put more idle, restless kids on the streets in the summer,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who heads the council’s Public Safety Committee.

Paul Jones, a manager at the Community Youth Gang Service office in Wilmington, which employed 25 youngsters last summer in community cleanup efforts, put it more bluntly: “I think we can look forward to a season of destruction.”

Mayor Richard Riordan traveled to Washington last month, joining forces with New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to urge federal lawmakers to restore the program.

“Young people need to have hope for a better future, and one way to have that hope is to have a job,” said Riordan’s spokeswoman, Noelia Rodriguez.

Riordan and Giuliani persuaded Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to introduce legislation to restore 75% of the funding for the program, about $650 million. But the program’s fate is up in the air.

The White House has clashed for months with Republican congressional leaders over how to balance the budget by 2002. There have been two partial government shutdowns as a result.

Although the 1996 fiscal year ends Sept. 30, funding for some federal agencies--including the Labor Department, which provides the summer job money--has yet to be approved. A House-Senate conference, in consultation with the White House, is working on a deal.

But even if the money is restored, Diana Nave, chief youth advocate for the city’s Community Development Department, said it may be too late to revive the program in time for summer.

“It’s really disruptive to not know at this time,” she said.

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Last year, the city received $23.5 million in federal funding, which was used to hire 15,000 youths between the ages of 14 and 21 for about 180 agencies. The job program pays $5 an hour for six weeks.

Because it takes several months to coordinate the massive city jobs program, Nave has notified nonprofit and community groups that probably they will not get any money for the young workers.

City and community officials say the effect of the cuts is compounded because the teenagers are hired to help with summer swim programs, day-care centers and art classes for thousands of younger children. Without federal funding, those programs will be canceled.

Arthur Broadous, program coordinator at the Pacoima Community Youth Culture Center, said there is not much he can do now to replace the money except “pray a lot.”

Through the federally funded program, his center usually hires a dozen low-income youngsters to run a summer day camp and supervise field trips. The teenagers also help young children with homework and science projects.

“These are programs that we have had going for a while,” Broadous said.

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The impact also will be felt at the Mid Valley Youth Center in Van Nuys, a residential psychiatric treatment facility for youths. Last summer, the program paid the salaries of 36 teenagers who painted murals, worked in the kitchen, produced a film about the center and did landscape work.

Center directors say the jobs give youngsters important training and work experience. Because some of the teenagers have no family, the money they earn helps them establish their independence after the program ends, they said.

Pointing out a mural that a youngster painted during last summer’s work program, Peggy Wilson-Jordan, director of the center, said the work also provides valuable therapy.

“There is no way to describe how that helps a kid’s self-esteem,” she said.

Teenagers who have participated in the program say they are worried that they might not be able to find work at private companies this summer.

Under the program, Josue Perez, 17, worked as a production assistant at the Hollywood Bowl last summer. When the six-week program ended, his employer liked him so much that he hired Perez for two additional weeks of work as an usher.

“Everybody wants someone with experience, but no one is willing to give it,” Perez said. “This program gave me a little bit better knowledge of the workplace out there.”

Times staff writers Marc Lacey and Julie Tamaki and researcher Stephanie Stassel contributed to this story.