Funds for Group Feeding Homeless Cut

The Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, the group that for two years has fed scores of homeless people in Plummer Park, received another setback this week when the City Council voted to accept a task force recommendation to transfer funds from the coalition to a food voucher program.

The council’s decision, which came after midnight at Tuesday’s meeting, means that the coalition will no longer receive an annual payment of $30,000 from the city. It is one of several setbacks the group has experienced recently.

Earlier this month, the city ordered the coalition to leave Plummer Park by March 6 after neighborhood complaints that the nightly feeding program was attracting crime and creating sanitation problems.

And last week, a major food source of the coalition’s dried up when Drexel Burnham Lambert closed its doors for good. The leftovers from Drexel’s lunchtime meals for its employees made up the bulk of the food that the coalition fed to about 150 homeless people each night at Plummer Park.

“This is not a good time,” said Mike Dean, the coalition’s president. “But we are not going to let this get us down; we are going to continue to do the best we can to feed the homeless.”

The City Council’s 5-0 decision sets up a voucher system that will provide meals in fast-food restaurants, as suggested by a 17-member task force made up of residents around Plummer Park, advocates for the homeless and members of the food coalition.

Under the program, the Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center will receive a six-month allotment of $15,000, enough money to give roughly 23 people a day a $3.50 meal at a local fast-food restaurant. Vouchers will be issued only to people who are already taking part in another social service program.

“We can’t feed every homeless person in the county,” City Councilman Paul Koretz said. “The (coalition’s) program hasn’t worked for the city of West Hollywood. There were too many hustlers and drug addicts who were maintaining their habits on free meals. They were not being encouraged to change their situations.”

Besides, Koretz added, the city does more than most communities in combating homelessness. Every night, the West Hollywood Park Auditorium becomes a shelter for about two dozen homeless people.