Growing Need Taxes Dwindling Resources

Bundled in a purple jacket, a plaid scarf secured around her neck, 36-year-old Lynne stands on a corner across from the Northridge Fashion Center, holding a plea scripted neatly on cardboard: “Family in Need, Please Help.”

By 6 p.m. she has received snide comments and a bag of Doritos. What she wants is money--money she claims she will use to keep the Department of Water and Power from shutting off her service.

So on this cool Saturday night, she has come to the street, not a church or social service agency. “They make it seem like there’s a lot of [resources] out there,” she said. “But you get the runaround. ‘We can’t help you, go here. We can’t help you, go there.’ ”

Whether it is the kind of need borne of substance abuse or the kind that society more readily forgives, Valley social service providers and officials say a significant proportion of need in the Valley is not being met.

Skyrocketing poverty has taxed an already thin system of social service providers, and with each cut in federally funded assistance programs, local service providers wince and prepare for the onslaught.

“All that need is going to come pouring through our doors, and we don’t have that much to give,” said Patrick Kinek of Loaves and Fishes in Van Nuys. “There’s just not a lot out here.”

Those who suffer the greatest shock are the new poor, those who have been laid off from manufacturing and professional jobs, Kinek said.

“They say, ‘I’ve given to United Way all my life, the Catholic Church, all my life. Where is it when I need it?’ ” he said. “They were thinking there was some net that was going to help them until they get on their feet.”

Housing issues lie at the core of many people’s problems. Money does not stretch far enough to keep a roof over their heads, buy food and pay bills.

Each night there are an estimated 11,000 homeless people in the Valley. At shelters operated by the L.A. Family Housing Corp., there is a waiting list of six months, and every day 10 to 15 new people call seeking shelter.

These are “longtime residents of the Valley who are now in need of shelter to stay in the Valley,” said Jeff Farber, director of social services for the L.A. Family Housing Corp.

“This is where they grew up. . . . It’s not like they’re leaving other parts of Los Angeles to come to the Valley and be homeless. They’re here already.”

These days, social service providers all over the county have to provide for more people with fewer resources. For Valley agencies, the squeeze is aggravated by the persistent belief that there is little or no need in the Valley. This image would be just another Southern California myth, inaccurate but harmless, except people who make decisions sometimes believe it.

“Unfortunately, even people in our business, the foundation community, still perceive the Valley as a white, middle-class, bedroom community of Los Angeles,” said Ken Gregorio, of the California Community Foundation, which last year made grants of more than $16.2 million in Los Angeles.

Because of this image, “the social service infrastructure in the Valley had not been supported as much, from the nonprofit perspective, as it has been in other areas where poverty is more acute and obvious, or perceived to be more acute,” Gregorio said.

The Northridge earthquake “really opened people’s eyes more to the fact that there are a lot of very low-income families, immigrants and others living in the San Fernando Valley,” he said.

The image is a holdover from better days, when the Valley was far more homogeneous and better off, but it is also perpetuated by the nature of Valley poverty.

Unlike other areas of the city, poverty here is not densely concentrated and not nearly as visible, said Parker Anderson, general manager of the Community Development Department, which administers $29 million in funds to social service providers.

Of all the poor people in Los Angeles, about 20.3% live in the San Fernando Valley, Anderson said. But the Valley has a large population base and has proportionately fewer who are needy than South Los Angeles, where there are fewer people yet far more who live in poverty.

“It makes it more difficult for the agencies to make the case that there is a need there that needs to be met because the poverty is dispersed,” Anderson said.

In the case of Anderson’s department, the Valley receives about 20% of funds earmarked for agencies that service the poor--equal to its proportion of poor residents. But not all departments use this formula.

In 1994 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a $20-million grant to fund the Los Angeles Homeless Initiative, a three-year proposal designed to help alleviate homelessness through a variety of services, including emergency transitional housing and permanent housing placement.

Administered by the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority, a city-county agency, the initiative is targeted at the “urban core areas “ of East Los Angeles, greater downtown and South Los Angeles.

Under the original plan, the Valley had not been allocated any funds, said Jeff Horn, president of the San Fernando Valley Homeless Coalition.

“It was only through [City Councilman] Richard Alarcon’s efforts that the Valley got anything,” Horn said. “He fought to get money allocated for his council district.”

Of the $20 million, Valley agencies received about $950,000, even though the Valley accounts for 14% of all homeless people in the county.

In City Hall debates, Alarcon sometimes finds himself in the position of explaining his northeast Valley district to others.

“There are areas of Los Angeles that are in much greater need in terms of concentrated poverty than anywhere in the San Fernando Valley,” Alarcon said. “However, poverty is poverty, and our mandate is to address it wherever it may be.”

In 1995, the Homeless Service Authority was awarded another $71.2 million from HUD. Of that amount, the Valley received only about 7%, Horn said.

Such scenarios frustrate some providers.

“Resources out here for some reason are very sparse when it comes to homeless service providers,” said Cynthia Caughey, executive director of the Women’s Care Cottage in North Hollywood.

“We have consistently been left out of the funding aspect. It’s a major frustration point for me and the rest of those trying to provide services. It certainly isn’t based on statistics. We consistently show we have the fastest growing poverty rate.”

Marlene Singer, programs manager for LAHSA, said the money was allocated based on a number of factors, including poverty level, the demands of the funders and services that will be provided by various agencies. Ultimately, the money was placed in areas “where poverty is the most intense and homelessness is worse,” she said.

“It’s sad because I’m hearing this from all the communities, even the ones who got more than other areas,” Singer said.

Horn said part of the problem lies with Valley agencies themselves.

“It goes both ways,” Horn said. “I can say funding sources like LAHSA haven’t been as visible as they need to be in the Valley. They haven’t directed the funds here. On the other hand, Valley agencies need to be more vocal in letting them know that, yes, there is a problem here.”

At countywide meetings of homeless service providers, Valley agencies are noticeably absent, creating a void of information and cohesive advocacy, Horn said.

“I see a lot of people from downtown, from Westside, South-Central and those areas,” Horn said. “You don’t see the Valley people represented in those meetings. Very few people in the Valley ever venture out of the Valley to go to these meetings.”

The size and nature of Valley agencies can also be a problem when it comes to attracting resources. Many agencies in the Valley are smaller, newer and less skilled in writing grants and networking.

“You have a couple of agencies in the Valley big enough to get their voices out,” Horn said. “But there are a lot of other small agencies in the Valley who are unable to get grants on their own, and they need to work together. We’re slow in doing that.”

At a time when public and private funders are showing a preference for agencies that are a part of a “continuum of care,” networking is crucial, Horn said.

If misperceptions outside the community have contributed to the lack of resources, the Valley’s own attitudes toward those in need have also played a part.

In the 1980s when Beatriz Stotzer of New Economics for Women wanted to bring affordable housing to the Valley through a community development corporation, “we were basically told there was no interest having any type of affordable housing anywhere in the Valley,” Stotzer said. “Politically, we were prohibited from doing any projects.”

Barry Smedberg, executive director of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council, has seen a similar attitude.

People in the Valley “don’t want to embrace homeless because if they do, other homeless will come and then they’ll have a problem bigger than they can handle,” he said.

The result is that Valley residents experience poverty and, in some areas, alienation as well--a consequence of being poor in an area that is surrounded by people who are better off.

In communities where there are more poor people, the shared experience can sometimes lead to agreement on how to address their issues, Anderson said.

“You have . . . an ability to identify what the needs are and to go out and identify those resources,” Anderson said. “If the low-income families are dispersed, it’s more difficult for those needs to be a priority. You don’t become the invisible poor, but you become the less visible poor in that type of context.”

In spite of the lingering problems, there is a core group of providers throughout the Valley that make daily efforts to help the needy--and often succeed with little or no government assistance.

Many churches, like Calvary Baptist in Pacoima, have monthly food pantries. Others give out food every day but limit the number of times a family or individual can receive help. Often those in need make a circuit, visiting churches and social agencies until they have enough to make ends meet.

“Today they come here, tomorrow they go to St. Joseph’s, the next day St. David’s,” said Edgar Moran of Lutheran Social Services in Van Nuys. “They’re coming on the bus, or walking or in very old cars.”

Many of those who visit share one thing in common: They lack education or usable skills.

“It’s not a matter of race or being lazy, it’s a matter of opportunity,” he said.

After 77 years in the Valley, Verna Porter is not about to pack up and leave her North Hills neighborhood for quieter terrain. Rocking chairs, she says, do not suit her. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday she runs a soup kitchen at the Sepulveda Methodist Church, one of the few places that offer a hot meal.

“We do it without city, county or federal money,” Porter said. “I’ve been doing it 18 years and it gets harder and harder. We’re feeding so many new people now.”

The kitchen operates with volunteers, including a few that work diligently to convince private donors to give, Porter said.

Three mornings a week, the church is full of hungry people. They file around a kitchen counter where volunteers fill their plates. Inside the church gym they eat at long tables. Children bounce balls and play tag while mothers sort through tables full of free clothes and shoes. But after the food, the most prized gift of all is the church’s one shower.

“There’s always a long wait,” Porter said.

There are families that are homeless, single men, Vietnam veterans and those whose lives have been ravaged by drugs and alcohol. The reality of their lives overwhelmed one group of Boy Scouts who came to volunteer one morning.

“I found five of them out in the hallway here crying,” Porter said. “They had never seen anything like this. We don’t really appreciate how protected our children are sometimes.”

Times staff writer Lucille Renwick contributed to this story.

Inside

* RENEWAL: Grass-roots effort helps Pacoima Urban Village residents to help themselves. A19

* DEBATE: Community and political leaders and social service officials discuss local poverty. B1

* FINDING HELP: A compilation of Valley agencies that offer assistance to those in need. B2