Charity Agency Feels Pinch as Donations Drop : Philanthropy: ESA, which gives food and shelter to the needy, faces cutbacks in services. Official blames a 25% dip in contributions on a soft economy and public fears over the county bankruptcy.

SAN CLEMENTE —  Homeless and dreading the rainy day and night ahead, about 30 men stopped Friday morning at a storefront here for coffee, doughnuts and friendship.

They left with brown bags containing a couple of sandwiches and fruit to ease their hunger later on, blankets to take some of the chill out of sleeping on beaches and the cement floors of public restrooms, and vouchers to exchange for warm clothing at a nearby thrift shop.

Paul Trumpis, a 40-year-old electrician who lost his tools and truck to hard times, said that without the oasis operated by the charitable organization known simply as ESA, “I really don’t know what I’d do. It has helped me to survive.”

But despite growing demand for services for needy families, the homeless and the elderly, ESA officials said the organization will be forced to shut some of its offices or cut its operating hours in half to deal with a $30,000 shortfall and a 25% decline in overall donations.

ESA officials say they assist more than 70,000 people in Orange County. In 1994, the number of people seeking help increased 15% from the previous year.

In addition to the San Clemente office, ESA provides emergency help with food, clothing, housing, transportation and utilities at centers in Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana. It also runs three shelters in San Clemente and Orange, a thrift shop in San Clemente and a refugee reunification center in Westminster.

“We’re seen as a vital link to the health and welfare of the county,” said Dennis White, ESA’s executive director.

White said the organization’s cash and food donations declined sharply last year. He attributes the decline to a combination of factors, including a soft economy and competition from fund-raising activities that helped victims of a series of Southland disasters such as the firestorm in Laguna Beach.

The biggest dip in contributions occurred in December, which White said leads him to believe that public concern about the potential economic repercussions of the county government’s bankruptcy already are having a dampening effect on charitable giving.

“December always had been a wonderful month for us, and it was not,” he said. “It was obvious we had a problem.”

Most years, donations received at Christmastime can be relied on to carry ESA through the summer, which is a much leaner season for charities, White said.

But this year it appears that resources will not stretch far enough, he said, noting that canned goods are already in short supply in the storage room at the San Clemente center.

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Founded in 1978, ESA was originally known as the Episcopal Service Alliance, but it recently changed its name to ESA because it now receives financial support from about 150 churches representing about 18 denominations.

Although the organization operates on an annual budget of $950,000 in cash and $2 million in non-cash donations, White said he believes ESA’s current $30,000 cash shortfall is a warning that adjustments must be made before the gap widens.

He said he worries that the county bankruptcy will further cut into donations because of government layoffs and losses that will be incurred by government vendors.

Jeff Rocke, a vice president of United Way of Orange County, with which ESA is affiliated, agreed that the bankruptcy could harm charities. He said, for instance, that United Way will not be able to collect a portion of the $19 million in pledges it collected last year from county workers who have lost, or are about to lose, their jobs.

Moreover, Rocke said, “the whole bankruptcy casts a cloud over the county and affects consumer confidence and their perspective on the future, and both are tied closely to consumer giving.”

White cautioned: “We have to be a lot more conservative in every aspect. We have to be good stewards of the dollars that we have, and we know it means serving fewer people and possibly eliminating some services.”

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ESA already has taken several belt-tightening steps, White said. On March 27, the organization will close its Laguna Hills headquarters and move its corporate offices to the San Clemente service center, sharing space to save rent. Also, services have been reorganized in Laguna Beach, relying on donated space and volunteers to replace a center that closed there more than a year ago.

Hours at the remaining service centers will be cut to give staff time to do more community fund-raising, White said.

Adding to ESA’s financial headaches, he said, the county’s bankruptcy has delayed for months the disbursement of emergency shelter funds that the federal government had allocated to ESA through the county to reimburse it for expenses. But he said county officials have assured ESA that next week it will receive the remaining $28,000 in unpaid federal funds.

Also ESA, which is still affiliated with the Episcopal Church, this week asked the six-county Los Angeles Diocese to appeal to its churches for emergency assistance. A diocese spokesman said Bishop Frederick Borsch has not yet decided what action to take.

“I would be extremely upset if I had to cut my hours back,” said Ellen Gilchrist, manager of the San Clemente center. She said the people are referred to the center by welfare offices, churches and other social service agencies.

“It is a place for people to come and feel like they are coming home to a family,” she said.

Gilchrist said many of her clients are single women with children, and some travel more than two hours by bus, coming from as far as Laguna Niguel and Irvine, for services they can’t find anywhere else. She wouldn’t want them to find the center closed.

“When people are in need, they need help right now,” she said.