L.A. Homeless Agencies Warn of Cutbacks

The directors of some of the largest homeless agencies in Los Angeles said Tuesday that they face potentially crippling cutbacks because a bureaucratic oversight has resulted in the delay of millions of dollars in federal aid.

The potential disruption of services comes as benefit checks for thousands of the county’s poorest residents were scheduled to be eliminated today, an event that many social welfare advocates have predicted could increase homelessness and place huge new demands on nonprofit service providers.

The charitable agencies say Los Angeles city officials mistakenly failed to include them in an application for a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development--this after Mayor Richard Riordan personally lobbied for and won approval in principle from HUD for the agencies to be included on the list for funding.

The seven agencies affected, which provide shelter beds, drug treatment and mental health services for thousands of indigent people, have not been paid since April and have had to borrow money and use reserve funds to continue operating. The groups would have received about $6.5 million in federal funds.

The SRO Housing Corp. is owed $390,000 and says it will be forced to close 360 shelter beds if funding doesn’t come through this month.

“By Aug. 1, we will be $420,000 in arrears, and I don’t know of any nonprofit agency that can continue operating under those circumstances,” Executive Director Bud Hayes said.

The Weingart Center, which provides 363 beds each night for homeless men and women on skid row, has had to use $500,000 in reserves and is beginning to encounter cash flow problems, said its president, John King.

“We are the lucky ones in that we have been able to keep running, but we have at most 30 to 60 days in front of us,” King said.

City officials concede that they have encountered myriad problems stemming from the complex negotiations needed to change the funding source for the homeless groups from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint city-county agency.

Harreld Adams, executive director of the Homeless Services Authority, said the city was six weeks beyond its deadline for submitting the application for HUD funds. Adams further stated that because of a “bureaucratic oversight on the part of the [city’s] Community Development Department,” the homeless agencies were omitted from the application.

As a result, HUD has been delayed in reviewing and approving release of the funds, Adams said. The city will now have to amend the application to include the homeless groups and take it before the City Council for approval sometime in July.

“It’s a very serious problem and it has created a lot of unnecessary stress and financial hardship for our agencies,” Adams said.

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However, the director of the Community Development Department, Parker Anderson, refuted assertions that his agency was to blame. Anderson said the homeless agencies were not included in the original application because HUD had not approved the new funding arrangement.

He also contended that the question of why the agencies were left out of the application is moot because HUD has yet to approve the city’s proposal and the release of funds.

“The funds for those providers, as well as $150 million in other city service programs, have been tied up,” Anderson said. “HUD has taken twice as long to review the application than it normally would, and it has been both frustrating and outrageous. The bottom line is the agencies haven’t received their money and they haven’t done anything themselves to deserve not getting it.”

Riordan apparently agreed. The mayor’s press deputy, Noelia Rodriguez, issued a statement that Riordan wants the logjam broken immediately.

“A bureaucratic snafu should not be a reason to delay payment to these agencies,” she said. “The mayor is issuing a directive to the head of the CDD to do whatever it takes to make sure these funds get transferred quickly.”

Meanwhile, about 6,500 residents were dropped from the county’s General Relief program, and several thousand more are expected to be cut in coming months. The cuts stem from a decision by the county Board of Supervisors last year to limit assistance to five out of 12 months a year for General Relief recipients considered employable.

And despite some heartfelt pleas from advocates for the poor, the supervisors Tuesday refused to reconsider their decision.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke had wanted her colleagues to support her efforts to delay the implementation of the five-month time limit while legislators in Sacramento discuss ways to provide more benefits to those welfare recipients who are working hard to find a job.

Burke said she brought up the issue during a long closed-session meeting of the five county supervisors, but that she couldn’t even get a second vote of support. As such, she never introduced her motion during a long public hearing on the General Relief issue, she said.

“I would have liked to have worked out something, to put it over until the Legislature acts,” Burke said afterward. “But a deal was a deal, and [the supervisors] felt that we entered into an agreement. There was no desire to work out some moratorium.”

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The county’s General Relief caseload includes about 80,000 single adults, but many suffer debilitating illnesses or mental health or substance abuse problems that keep them from working. About 48,000 of them are subject to the new time limitations and may lose their $221 monthly benefits.

County officials discounted dire predictions that thousands will be thrown onto the streets. The General Relief recipients will continue to receive monthly food stamps and will have access to some medical services, they noted.

“I happen to believe that people are more resourceful than we give them credit for,” said Pat Knauss, the county’s coordinator of General Relief programs.

However, many General Relief recipients were fearful of losing their only cash support. Tammy Guss, a 34-year-old resident of the Hayward Hotel downtown, said she would probably have to sell her food stamps to pay her $66 monthly rent and other expenses.

Guss said she has had several county-sponsored jobs, mostly cleaning and janitorial work, but has been unable to find consistent work.

“I just haven’t figured it out yet,” she said.

Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) is proposing legislation in which the state would share costs of administering general relief and would establish statewide criteria and grant levels for recipients.