Sponsors Leave Besieged Food, Jobs Programs

ANAHEIM —  Sponsors of food-distribution and job-training programs at a city annex have pulled out of one of Anaheim’s poorest neighborhoods in the wake of allegations that the city-run programs are mismanaged, leaving community organizations scrambling to help more than 50 families dependent on the services.

An investigation by an outside consultant hired at the city’s request found no basis to allegations that food was hoarded and computers misappropriated by staffers at the Jeffrey-Lynne Neighborhood Center. However, Catholic Charities of Orange County and Templo Calvario, a Santa Ana church, have suspended their participation in the year-old food program at the center simply because an investigation was needed.

And last week, the Santa Ana-based Center for Employment Training suspended plans to donate computers, typewriters, calculators and trained staff to a job skills class at the center.

“I know the need is there and I just hate to pull out, but we just do not have . . . confidence in the place right now,” said Lupe Savastano, Catholic Charities’ emergency services coordinator.

The decision by the nonprofits is the latest blow to programs at the 5-year-old center since United Neighborhoods, a small activist group, leveled a series of accusations of widespread misconduct there in July.

A two-week probe by former Placentia and Orange Police Chief Norm Traub, the consultant hired by the city, found no basis to the allegations of criminal mismanagement at the center.

But, as complaints about the center persist, community confidence is slipping in the institution, which occupies the bottom floor of a two-story building at the end of one of Anaheim’s poorest streets. Officials at the center say attendance at family planning classes, after-school study groups and tenant meetings is off significantly.

Meanwhile, United Neighborhoods has teamed up with discontented neighbors of the center to offer their own makeshift food pantry out of a church annex about a block away.

On Thursday, while the community center sat empty except for a few volunteers sitting in front of a creaking fan, the new pantry was in full swing, distributing food that members of United Neighborhoods said was donated by residents and local markets. Officials at Catholic Charities and Templo Calvario said they are considering transferring their future food donations to the United Neighbors’ food pantry.

“My sister-in-law told me about this new place. I think it will be better,” said Amalya Villa, 32, a mother of two leaving the new pantry with a small bag of fruits, vegetables and grains.

“There were long lines [at the community center]. And I think they gave us the worst they had, not the best.”

Social workers and city officials involved with the community center say they feel helpless to reverse the bad feelings surrounding the institution they worked so hard to build.

“We try to be as much as we can to as many as we can. Obviously, there are people who feel the center should be operated in a different way,” said Terry Lowe, recreation and human services supervisor at the Anaheim Department of Community Services.

“We have felt until now that the community at large approves of what we are doing. Now, with the kind of strife that has built up around the center, it puts doubts in people’s minds and causes them to lose confidence, even if there is no reason for them to. It’s very discouraging.”

Since its founding, the community center has been key to city efforts to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood named for the two streets at its center, Jeffrey Drive and Lynne Avenue.

The center is run by the city with about $110,000 in city and federal funds and staffed by city employees and volunteers. Decisions on its activities and finances are made by a board of community members elected at large.

The city has installed high-intensity street lights in the area’s alleys to discourage gangs and has prosecuted slumlords. With the help of neighborhood groups organized by center staff, the city has created a cul-de-sac and a small park at the end of a neighborhood street.

Using federal block grant funds, the city offers citizenship, family- planning and English as a Second Language classes at the center. County agencies regularly provide prenatal care and check residents for blood pressure and diabetes at the site.

Such programs have made the center, one of just four in Anaheim, a showcase for a city government often accused of ignoring its most disadvantaged.

But not all residents have been pleased with the center. And, despite the center’s being cleared in the investigation, city officials acknowledge that some of its programs and procedures need improvement.

Changes in the works include better staff training and supervision of volunteers, more community outreach and restrictions on what organizations can use the center.

Despite the changes, the people whom the center is designed to help are increasingly staying away.

“This is just frustrating as heck because we have spent so much time, we have worked so hard in that neighborhood to help the people,” Anaheim City Manager James D. Ruth said.