$151 Million in Federal Funds Apportioned

In what one lawmaker called “this miserable choice” among competing needs, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a bitterly debated spending plan for $151 million in federal Housing and Urban Development Department funds.

The vote came after three weeks of contentious scrambling for funds was touched off when Mayor Richard Riordan proposed shifting $14 million for affordable housing to help pay for neighborhood improvement, child care, economic development and AIDS initiatives.

In the end, some of the housing funds were restored--although exactly how much will be available during the coming budget year remains to be seen. At least $2 million was restored, plus up to $5.6 million the city Housing Department believes it can get from newly identified sources; about half the $11 million the mayor planned for neighborhood improvement initiatives is expected to go for activities that will preserve or add to the city’s housing stock.

The mayor’s office got most of what it wanted, including council approval of a plan to spend $1 million in each of 11 sliding neighborhoods. A strong majority of the lawmakers also sided with Riordan in approving the $6 million he wanted to build child care centers, although many said they were torn by the difficult choices between helping working parents find safe places to leave their children and easing a housing crunch that has kept many needy families in converted garages and other unsafe homes.