Homeless grant restoration recommended in Broward

By LISA J. HURIASH, Staff Writer      
June 11, 1999

A week after plans to slash funding for some homeless services became public, Broward County's Human Services director announced on Thursday he will recommend that the county restore a grant to the Cooperative Feeding Program -- one of the agencies initially denied funding.
   The agency, which offers homeless and low-income people such services as feeding, housing, furniture, job training and medical referrals, would receive $40,000 to spend on social workers.
   County officials said they were cutting funding to agencies that duplicate services already provided by the Homeless Assistance Center, which opened in Fort Lauderdale earlier this year. They said financing feeding programs makes it too easy for people to stay homeless instead of using government services aimed at making them self-sufficient.
   But reinstating the Cooperative Feeding Program's grant would not represent a change in philosophy because the money would pay for social workers to help the homeless find housing, said Angelo Castillo, the county Human Services Department director.
    The program's initial grant application asked for money for its emergency food program. However, the new grant cannot be used for food.
    The recommendation would not reinstate money for other programs, such as a Legal Aid lawyer who scours the streets for homeless people, or the Daily Bread Food Bank, which got less money than in past years.
   The Broward County Commission still needs to approve Castillo's recommendations. Lois Feinberg, a member of the Cooperative Feeding Program's board of directors, said she's disappointed the county will not bend on giving the program money for feeding homeless people.
   "Feeding is the key," she said. "Why can't we feed hungry people? Where is the compassion?"
   But Castillo said the public input he got was in support of clamping down on programs that do not provide strong programs to get people off the streets.
   "There is an enormous anti-feeding program agenda out there," he said. "I'm not one of them. But Broward citizens, they do not support feeding programs (that are) a life support system for street life."

Copyright 1999, Sun-Sentinel Co. and South Florida Interactive, Inc.
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