U.S. Allocates $2.7 Million in Aid for Area Homeless

A total of $2.7 million in federal aid will be distributed to 86 charities throughout Los Angeles County this week to augment emergency food and shelter programs, it was announced Wednesday.

The funds are part of $3.12 million allocated to Los Angeles County from a $70-million national grant approved by President Reagan in August. The difference of $420,000 has been reserved by United Way and the Los Angeles Emergency Food and Shelter Voluntary Board for the expansion of existing shelters.

The agencies awarded the Federal Emergency Management Agency aid were chosen from 105 local organizations whose funding requests totaled $6.8 million, Jim Pursley, coordinator of FEMA funds for United Way, said at a news conference at a Skid Row agency. The 86 nonprofit agencies were selected on the basis of their existing programs of food and shelter assistance and their record-keeping, he said.

The purpose of the aid is not to establish new programs but to strengthen current ones, Pursley said. The agencies have until July 31 to dispense their funds in the form of groceries, meals, shelter and one-time-only rent or mortgage assistance, he said.

The additional aid is expected to provide 5 million meals and 240,000 nights of shelter for 140,000 people in Los Angeles County, Pursley said. There is a need for more than 8 million meals and 340,000 nights of shelter for an estimated 247,000 people, United Way literature said.

Ted Kammer, vice chairman of the Los Angeles Emergency Food and Shelter Board, said at the conference that the aid is part of a “new federal consciousness, to meet a new set of reality needs.

“It is a Band-Aid,” Kammer said, “but the problem of the homeless is so serious in L.A. that we are grateful for Band-Aids.”

The amounts of aid awarded range from $4,000 for a Baldwin Park church to $140,000 for Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, which operates 16 centers throughout the county for refugees and the homeless.