U.S. Grants $3 Million for Family Aid in Riot Areas

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan on Thursday presented county school officials with a $3-million grant to provide family support services in two riot-ravaged areas that have become test sites for a controversial federal urban aid program.

Ironically, the first grant to be presented under President Bush’s Weed and Seed program is one that many critics of the program might otherwise applaud. Opponents of Weed and Seed contend that it is skewed toward law enforcement tactics that abuse civil liberties and say it will increase tensions in the mostly minority communities where it will be tested.

Proponents counter that the Los Angeles program will focus primarily on human service needs. As an illustration, they point to the $3-million grant designed to assist Head Start programs in Weed and Seed target areas to combat adult substance abuse, illiteracy and unemployment.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education will establish and operate three family service centers to provide services to about 1,500 families of Head Start students in the Pico-Union district and South-Central Los Angeles.

The three-year demonstration program is intended to hit at issues that many local and federal officials and social experts believe lie at the heart of the spring civil disturbances that shook the city and nation.

“After the trauma of the riots, we know we have a greater need for services of this nature,” said Sullivan at a press conference at the 18th Street Head Start center.

“We must direct our efforts to break down barriers to the American dream. The federal government has made promises to Los Angeles and we have kept those promises,” he added.

Sullivan also announced a $1-million gang prevention grant that will be shared by four community groups, and a $50,000 grant to provide respite care for infants of families coping with emotional stress brought about by the riots.

School officials say about 13,000 children who live in the Weed and Seed areas are eligible for Head Start, a federal program that provides disadvantaged children with preschool classes, medical and dental services and meals and nutrition counseling, and offers parenting classes and literacy programs for their parents.

“This is one of the few attempts to focus attention on the entire family,” said Gilbert Anzaldua, assistant superintendent of the county Office of Education, in reference to the Family Service Centers. “One of the main reasons for our recent trouble was that people didn’t have jobs and out of that arose a lot of frustration.”

Anzaldua said several businesses have signed on for the new program to ensure that parents will receive training and placement in jobs.

Despite the enthusiasm of school officials, many social services advocates oppose acceptance of the Weed and Seed grants, arguing that the program places funding under the authority of federal law enforcement officials.

Federal officials describe Weed and Seed as a two-pronged approach designed to first “weed out” gangs and drug dealers from crime-plagued communities and then “seed” the areas with jobs and social programs, all under the coordination of a task force of federal and local officials and community-based groups, headed by the Department of Justice.

The program has been tested on a limited basis in a few cities, including Kansas City, Mo., Philadelphia and Santa Ana. After the riots, Bush announced that Los Angeles would receive $19 million to test the program in riot areas, and it has emerged as a key piece of his urban policy.

The test sites are a nine-square-mile section of South-Central Los Angeles, bordered by Vernon, Manchester, Western and Central avenues, and 4.5 square miles in the Pico-Union and Koreatown neighborhoods, bordered by 6th Street, Washington Boulevard, Western Avenue and the Harbor Freeway.

Addressing criticism of “Weed and Seed,” Sullivan said: “The money we are giving today is for social support and not a dime of it has anything to do with police activities. . . . But there is nothing to apologize for in this program. We want safe communities and also ones that nurture our citizens.”

Other social services advocates, while expressing qualms about the Weed and Seed concept, say that Los Angeles’ strapped social service network can hardly afford to refuse help, wherever it comes from.

“There really is no clean money; every source comes with problems,” said Gene Boutillier, administrator of the local board of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program. “But Head Start has an excellent track record of providing supportive services to the entire family. It’s a valid, grass-roots way to spend money.”