Now with two weeks left in the 1999 legislative session, Broward's director of human services is accused of harming the gas tax's chances by saying the county's homeless program is mismanaged.

   Angelo Castillo issued a blistering report this week on the way the Homeless Assistance Center is being operated, just before a key state House committee is scheduled to take up the tax.

   "This bill has struggled all session. Any public criticism of the homeless program at this point is not helpful," said state Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston.

   The report accuses the Broward Partnership for the Homeless of overspending and poor management.

   The group, which has a contract with the county to operate the center, is a nonprofit agency whose officers and board members are political heavy-hitters.

   The county owns the 200-bed homeless center at 600 Sunrise Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.

    The gas tax would yield about $6 million a year now and increase in the future. The county is temporarily earmarking 1cent of the gasoline tax for the homeless but needs the Legislature's permission to make the revenue source permanent.

   Castillo said the partnership is trying to run a homeless program "that is simply beyond what we can afford." He said the county could find another private agency to operate the center at half the $3.7 million current annual budget.

   But Lynn Summers, executive director of the Miami-Dade County homeless program since 1995, said she had reviewed Broward's budget and that "Castillo is being less than truthful with the County Commission and the county administrator.

   "The budget looks just like our budget. It is designed to operate a program at the least possible cost," Summers said. "It saddens me to see one rotten apple up there try to destroy a program so many people in the county have worked for."

     Partnership members accuse Castillo of wanting to cut the cost by offering only temporary housing, a charge he denies.